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+---- Thread: Best software to learn a language? (/showthread.php?tid=3061)
Best software to learn a language? - Darth-Apple - June 18th, 2020
I'm in Spanish now. And it's not that it's terribly hard, but the software I'm using is awful. We're using VHL, and it takes hours to do something that should take 30 minutes to learn. I'd rather just learn it on my own, take the tests, and be done.
I've used Duolingo before and it was good, but it was also somewhat basic compared to the subject material I'm learning now. Rosetta stone is expensive but I hear good things.
What's good? Anything anyone would be able to recommend?
RE: Best software to learn a language? - Guardian - June 18th, 2020
I liked DuoLingo. I was using it for French, and it was easy but they weren't pronouncing the conjugations at all, so it was pretty significant. I quit.
I could never get anything from Rosetta Stone. It may be great, but to me... I just couldn't pick anything up.
What I have done, set your gaming system (PS, XBox) default language to a language you want to learn. Common languages like French and Spanish might play the game in that language (like Fallout works, FIFA works, Madden does not work). Especially for games you've beaten. I've picked up a lot of random object names from Fallout in French.
RE: Best software to learn a language? - Towncrafter - June 18th, 2020
I use duolingo and have for 6 years now. The pronunciations are awful on duolingo. What's especially bad is when you have a word and it's pronounced one way in one sentence and another way in another sentence.
And no, i cannot speak any language past just a little bit. I cannot read things in the languages i've been learning and i especially cannot understand them when spoken. And i've worked hard to learn them. That may just be because i'm a slow learner and not duolingo at all.
It's hard learning a language and then not use it. I keep forgetting what i learned.
I would recommend duolingo, but also would recommend using what you learned by reading and listening to materials in that language.
RE: Best software to learn a language? - Thomas - June 18th, 2020
(June 18th, 2020 at 2:42 PM)Towncrafter Wrote: I use duolingo and have for 6 years now. The pronunciations are awful on duolingo. What's especially bad is when you have a word and it's pronounced one way in one sentence and another way in another sentence.
And no, i cannot speak any language past just a little bit. I cannot read things in the languages i've been learning and i especially cannot understand them when spoken. And i've worked hard to learn them. That may just be because i'm a slow learner and not duolingo at all.
It's hard learning a language and then not use it. I keep forgetting what i learned.
I would recommend duolingo, but also would recommend using what you learned by reading and listening to materials in that language.
That's not a great testimonial for duolingo if you've been using it for six years and haven't learned any other languages lol
RE: Best software to learn a language? - campingrhino - June 19th, 2020
I really like the presentation of the Duolingo app but I was looking at German and I had a German friend with me and literally everything that came up she was like "Yeah, nobody would say that" so it put me off.
RE: Best software to learn a language? - Guardian - June 19th, 2020
(June 19th, 2020 at 6:31 PM)campingrhino Wrote: I really like the presentation of the Duolingo app but I was looking at German and I had a German friend with me and literally everything that came up she was like "Yeah, nobody would say that" so it put me off.
I used a few things at work, where I work with a few Haitians and someone that actually went to University in France. It gets the point across. but they were how I knew it wasn't conjugating things correctly. The basics are there. The complex stuff... not so much.
RE: Best software to learn a language? - Darth-Apple - June 20th, 2020
I'm glad you guys mention that. I've played around with Duolingo quite a bit, but it seems to be a bit oversimplified in terms of what I'd actually expect.
I'm learning Spanish for university and would like to learn a third on the side on my own in the next few years. Duolingo seems to be a good tool in conjunction with other resources, but not by itself.