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- Italian is now out of Beta! :)
35 Comments
I'm not tech savvy, but I think "Beta" indicates that the program is still in developing stages. In other words, it is overall a fine product to use, but there are still some kinks that could be worked out.
Yes, you are correct. Beta essentially means that the product is in being tested for its performance in the real world - to catch and resolve any bugs.
Congratulations, everyone! But, I still have one more question: Why is Portuguese STILL not out of Beta?
Thank you skylarskylar for bringing this up. Duolingo, can you let us know approximately how much longer until Brazilian Portuguese is out of Beta? Muito Obrigado!!!
What's up with the real world translations? I haven't seen any new ones in ages.
I think it should still be considered in Beta, judging from the number of "Oops sorry"s I get for no good reason.
Yes, I totally agree. There are still so many errors in the upper lessons that the system is nearly unusable.
I find your comments very comforting to know that I am not alone. I was beginning to feel my own heart broken by so many lost hearts. It's really confusing in the upper levels but this will only improve in time one hopes. I'm not sure how Duolingo defines "Beta" but my own feeling is that this potentially excellent product has a long way to go in its development.
I agree. Duolingo is great but I would not consider Italian to be out of "beta" just yet.
Wow! I must oblige my mother to study English then! :) (Joking, we live in different countries, it would be a bit difficult!)
Great! Thanks a lot. Congratulations to the team behind all of this. The woman's voice is now way better. Until now it sounded like it passed through blender. Chop chop chop. I won't be pressing repeat button so often any more :)
That voice is hard to listen to. I appreciate the program but I really don't like the voice.. I wonder why they couldn't have started with a more pleasant one considering all the work it takes to develop the program. Duolingo did such a good job choosing the Spanish voice. sorry for the negative remark!
Thank you Luis! Can you let us Portuguese people know when Port will be out of Beta? Thank you very much.
Muchas felicitaciones y que bueno, saludos desde la Antigua Guatemala!!!!
2844
Hey, I'm studying Spanish and fantasizing about learning another or multiple romance languages once I gain proficiency with it and I heard Italian may be the easiest to learn after Spanish. Is that true? I thought it would more likely be Portuguese. I've also heard that French is the least like other romance languages. Does that mean it would be harder to learn?
Say I wanted to learn them all (sure I couldn't, but just speculating for fun) which would serve as the best jumping off point for the rest? Should I study Latin before moving on to another living Romance language?
I took a semester of French almost 20 years ago and still remember enough to carry on a rough conversation. I took it my last semester of college getting a BA in Spanish and found it VERY easy since it is similar grammatically and has several cognates. The pronunciation is way different, but like Spanish, follows rules (unlike English). I am studying Italian now and picking it up pretty quickly despite the fact that this ol' brain learns a little slower now :P I read once that Italian is closer to Spanish than Portuguese and would have to concur, at least from having heard both spoken here and there in movies and real life, I barely understand any of the Portuguese and pick up a lot of Italian (this before studying it now). I have a good friend who is not only native Italian, but is a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale and her assessment is that Spanish and Italian are very close, but that Italian grammar is more complex. She notes that native Italians learn Spanish much more easily than native Spanish-speakers learn Italian. I would say with my very cursory studies of Italian that she is correct. I hope this helps!
Hi, all Romance languages are rather similar to each other. Italian and Portuguese are closest to Spanish. This can be a good thing if your main goal is to aquire reading and listening comprehension skills (as it is for me). Learning new vocab and understanding grammar is pretty cheap. But it's a disadvantage if you mainly aim at actively (and correctly) expressing yourself in these languages. Grammar rules are similar but distinct. If you study them simultaneously, this can easily become very confusing if you're not already very proficient in Spanish.
- 2844
Thanks for the response. I'd definitely like to be fluent in Spanish before I move on to another language, I'm just pondering which next.
Hi, Why don't get any speaking excersises? I checked th box of speaker and microphone in the settings? and another thing I just have to say that it very often that I REALLY don't understand the sentence she is saying
