До свидания дуолинго, auf wiedersehen my happy owl
I have just made all the skills in the russian crowns tree gold. During the summer I accomplished the same in the german crowns tree. After 879 days of uninterrupted streak I can finally set my self free. It was a nice and interesting journey, that started as a hobby but became a part of my daily routine. I will continue in other paths improving and perfecting my German, first of all, and my Russian. I also have to note that my native language is Greek and not English. Before I started the courses I had known some German and no Russian at all. Some comments: 1. Using Duolingo you can reach a specific level. You can read a simple text, recognise some words and expressions. You cannot start a conversation! So the fluency factor rightfully was removed. 2. In the Russian tree difficulty increases unproportionally and without any serious help in Grammar. More tables and hints are needed. 3. Stories are wonderful and helpful.
With these thoughts in mind once again I salute you!
18 Comments
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I disagree about not being able to start a conversation learning with only Duolingo. I've been learning German only with Duolingo for several months now and I can not only start a conversation, but also follow it through in a fairly acceptable way according to my level. I don't know if that's just because I have a skill for languages or if it is because Duolingo is actually enough to get to the conversation level... PD: My mother tongue is not English either, it's Spanish. Greetings from Argentina!
I agree with you, but may be Russian is much more difficult than German. I don't know. Possibly. Russian must be a "big piece".
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Maybe (I started with Russian less than a month ago so I couldn't say yet). But he said he also did the German course and still stated that you couldn't reach a conversational level only with Duolingo... that's why I don't agree with his comment.
Thank you all people for your kind words and your advices. I will keep all of them in mind, especially DimitrijeD4's about the value of everyday media. Dear Noelia from the other side of the world, I do not want to underestimate Duolingo. But I insist that if you use only it, you cannot go very far. From my experience, I do can follow a descent conversation in German, but I also used other resources than Duolingo. I even take lessons in order to acquire a B2 Certificate. Nevertheless, German wasn't completely unknown to me. Russian was something completely different. I didn't know a word before Duolingo. And after all this time when I hear russian-speaking people in the subway, in the road etc., etc I can only get some words. Maybe it's just me.
Once again, I salute you.
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Congratulations! You did a great job here.
As to your further learning, go straight to movies/newspapers/music. Skip boring grammar and rules books as they will provide little benefit for you at this level. Immersion is the key in learning a foreign language and... no one ever got immersed in a grammar book :)
I'm actually enjoying "Welsh Grammar You Really Need to Know" that I got for Christmas last year... I'm doing other things too, but I'm just pointing out that it is possible to enjoy that style of learning as well. (Although I will admit that it is probably not very common!)
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Did you try the reverse trees? It can help to improve your skills a little bit.
Dskordos, thank you for sharing your experience. You may find useful to make reverse trees in Duo. As for me, I like them. Good luck in studying languages.
