Anyone here using Duolingo??

[fr_freak]

Duo-lingo doesn't seem to be structured quite that clearly, where you have this sort of stuff at level one and a different sort of stuff at level two. You have your pyramid of different categories, like "medical" "political" "plurals" "subjunctive", etc. and as you work your way through the pyramid, turning each category a gold color, you'll advance levels of fluency even before you finish the pyramid. Also, each category has multiple lessons, or you can test out of that category.

So, I recommend that you start with the first lesson of the first category, and if that's too easy, just test out and move to the next one. Do the same for each, all the way down the pyramid. Once you have turned the whole pyramid gold, then just use the "reinforce lessons" or whatever its called button on the right side of the screen to do your daily refresher lessons, and you'll slowly progress your levels just by doing that.

[Portcall24]

Have never seen that before. Interesting.

[Voption]

Brilliant! You get a Star for that one!

[moovova]

"Ha ha...he said beaver."

[ThanhPhero]

I used to have a large number of Vietnamese high school students regularly corresponding with me to get me to help with their English studies. After a few months of essentially proofing and editing their classwork I encountered Duolingo. I tried it with Vietnamese and thought it was very well constructed. It must be good. I sent the link to the students and don’t hear from any of them any more about English class work. I have my goddaughter using it and she reports that she has gone from being a pretty good English pupil to being way ahead of the class. My own granddaughters use it for French and Spanish. Amelie, now 12, who is doing the French has added the Vietnamese to her efforts because I have promised to take her with me to Viet Nam in two years.

[ThanhPhero]

I find it better to start at the beginning and work through all the lessons instead of “testing out.”

[ThanhPhero]

The point is not to finish the course but to learn to speak easily. I would not skip anything.

[ThanhPhero]

Yeah! If other languages do not look and sound just like English then to hell with them! Right? Most non Germanic languages that use the Roman alphabet have much more logical use of vowels than English does.

[ThanhPhero]

Toi thich Duolingo nhieu lam! Khi nao ban gap mot bi ho thi hi phai van lam toi am dung. Duolingo khong la mot chien dau.

[piasa]

Does it work for Welsh?

[finnsheep]

Yes - daily. Trying to learn Russian and watching “the Dog” on Amazon. It is a campy Russian language cop show with English subtitles. Love Duolinguo!

[Adder]

That is correct...I believe the original poster was saying some of it was too basic for him.

No, I was only able to leap once...thus proving I needed every lesson.

[Pravious]

Yeah! If other languages do not look and sound just like English then to hell with them! Right? Most non Germanic languages that use the Roman alphabet have much more logical use of vowels than English does.

—

... except it was Korean I was studying, and my point had nothing to do with the way vowels are pronounced in any other language.

[Hot Tabasco]

For the last month I've been using Duolingo to try and regain my Spanish fluency.

Oh, that's what it's for.......I was thinking something else.

[ThanhPhero]

When I started with it I tested out of lots of it then suddenly ran into the more advanced stuff and the break was disconcerting so I went back to Go and did it step by step, returning to all the relighted icons as they lit up. The practice was worth it. Given I started from a pretty good base of household and street speech but I have to actively work to retain it and all my Viet Kieu friends insist on talking English which makes it hard for me to keep up my end of a conversation in Tieng Viet. That is just the way language works on me.

[ThanhPhero]

The Korean system is, itself totally logical. You just have to use a whole new alphabet/syllable system. It is marginally harder than learning to pronounce printed Greek.

[DainBramage]

You are thinking f dualingus, an act between two consenting adults of different countries, preferably of opposite sex.

[DeFault User]

Pronouncing A, E. O. U

English has several different sounds for each of those vowels. (compare bAy and bAt). So you already know the hard way of doing it. Spanish is almost entirely phonetic.

Traveling in Mexico with a friend who asked me how to pronounce Spanish, I gave him a quick lesson with a few simple rules and the vowel sounds. He orders lunch using his new Spanish reading skill and is doing well until he orders soup (sopa). Spanish for potato is papa. He orders, “crema de papá”. Putting the stress on the last syllable changed potato to father. The waiter dropped to his knees he was laughing so hard. I had to explain to my buddy what he had just ordered. ;o)

[Pravious]

The Korean system is, itself totally logical. You just have to use a whole new alphabet/syllable system.

—

I agree - it is a very logical language (far more than English, for sure!).

My only point was that when I’m looking at a Korean letter on duolingo, say “|”, that’s pronounced EE, I could not buy into duolingo’s insistence that the pronunciation should correspond to the English letter “i” (NOT “e”), which I pronounce “eye.” I understand different letters can be pronounced different ways, and perhaps they’re using some phonetic system I’m not acquainted with - but, regardless, I didn’t care to relearn English just to learn how to speak Korean. Other people’s mileage might vary.

[cba123]

I’m sorry.

Can you possibly include the various accent marks, and sounds in what you typed?

My fiancé cannot translate that. :D