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What resources did you use to learn your language?
Hello duolingers,
This could be an interesting discussion. Here is how it goes:
-Post a language you are learning/learned and specify your current knowledge level (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2)
-Post the resources you used and for each of these resources, specify the percentage level of how much you think it contributed to your current knowledge.
For an example, these are the resources that I used and how much they contributed to my current knowledge:
English (C2): high school classes (50%), TV, movies and videogames (30%), 3 months exchange student in the USA (20%).
Spanish (B2): Duolingo (50%), traveling (30%), cartoons & movies (15%), reading newspapers (5%).
Dutch (A1): Duolingo (100%).
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Italian: A2 speaking, B2 reading. I have probably over emphasized reading/translating text, as that’s what I’m good at (reading books, articles, doing translation exercises) and am now trying to work on listening comprehension to improve my ability to actually communicate.
There are too many resources to post here, and one of the best (Immersion) is gone, but a few that have been useful have been:
College Classes/Post-College Tutors: 25%; Reading novels and articles (and Duo Immersion) 20%; Duo non-Immersion 20%; traveling 15%; podcasts and TV shows 10%; all other (Coffee Break Italian; Rocket Languages; Independent Grammar study, etc) 10%.
Arabic IRL level 2–limited Working Proficiency 3 College Arabic classes—35% Sentence-base Flashcards—31% Arabic shows on Netflix—14% Occasionally talking with others in Arabic:6% 1 Month in Israel and the West Bank—6% Reading out loud in kids books—5% Arabic media on Facebook—3%
Spanish IRL level 4— Full professional proficiency (right now) Talking with other people (including in other countries)—40% (This is my favorite way of learning) Spanish Class—28% Reading—20% Movies—10% Music 2%
Portuguese IRL level 3—Professional working proficiency. Duolingo 62% (Muito Obrigado Duolingo) Talking with others in Portuguese 19% Netflix 8% 2 weeks of Portuguese class 5% Portuguese club 3% Reading in Portuguese 3%
(One thing that is not a practice but should be here, is prior knowledge of Spanish is huge. I mean, me knowing other language helps me learn the next one, but its not really a practice. Most of why I know Portuguese is because I know Spanish.)
French—IRL leve 1 Elementary Proficiency, or worse Duolingo 89% Little exchanges with French Speakers—4% Netflix—3% One French tutoring session 2% 2 Weeks of French Class—2%
French: A2 speaking, A2 reading. Mostly learned by using Duolingo, iTalki, Memrise, and by watching television in French. I've also purchased many audiobooks to help with French, but haven't used them at all.
Romanian: A1 speaking, A2 reading. I've been trying to focus more on learning Romanian along with French, which has been a hard task for me. I've mostly learned some Romanian by using Duolingo, Lang-8, and Memrise. I've also been reading the "Harry Potter" series in Romanian, which has proven to be a nearly impossible task for me.
German: B1 speaking, B2 writing/reading. Learned from Duolingo (60%), and classes in school (40%).
German: (B2): Duolingo 100 hours, lessons 100 hours, reading 20 hours, programs/films 30 hours, books 20 hours, music 30 hours, audiobooks 10 hours
Dutch- i don't really understand the knowledge level thing but a guess would be A2 speaking, B2 reading. Duolingo: 100%.
BTW: Great post! Have a few lingots!
Icelandic: A2 speaking, A2 reading. Mostly private classes with tutors over the internet. Some reading by myself (e.g. Syrpa / Donald Duck). I've watched Trapped on Netflix in Icelandic.
Swedish: A2 speaking, B1 reading. College classes and listening to Klartext (news show in easy swedish) as well as watching Swedish movies and series (Bron, etc.) on Netflix.
Turkish: Mostly Duolingo, Memrise and soon Assimil. This is my current project and I'm dedicating a lot of time to it (2-3h/day). I'll try to incorporate more listening and speaking practice here using italki and socialising with Turkish people around me. Current level is A1, with my goal being B2 in 6 months.
The resources that I used are the one listed in the example that I posted. I edited my original post in order to clarify it.
English: B1 - B2; 10% English classes in school, 30% online games, 60% Youtube & online blogs/socialmedia
Italian A1: 90% school, 10% Duolingo :3
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Esperanto (B2): Duolingo (40%), books/articles/stories (30%), Facebook/IRC (20%), conversations IRL and online (5%), YouTube/podcasts/music (5%), Kurso/Babadum/Clozemaster (5%)
French (A2): high school (55%), Duolingo (35%), Facebook (7%), articles/stories (3%)
Korean (A1): Duolingo (80%), 50 Languages app (15%), "Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes" webcomic by Ryan Estrada (5%)
Lithuanian (A1): 50 Languages app (85%), Wikipedia (10%), trying to say a few phrases to friends who speak Lithuanian (5%)
I notice that, the more I have done outside of formal learning, the more proficient I am. However, that is sort of a catch-22. I acknowledge that doing "real-world" things with a language is superior to study, but "real-world" things can be too difficult to perform before some study has happened.
In response to your last paragraph, I find doing both together work well for learning.
