Having posted about my 7 years of Postcrossing yesterday, it struck me that it's also time to celebrate 4 years of language learning via Duolingo.
I'm not sure if Duo too will be sending me a special reminder; but tomorrow my 'streak' on that app will be 1460 days = 4x365 = 4 years. Also confirmed by a blog post of mine from May 2016, On Learning Languages.
How time flies when you're having fun! (...and especially in the company of an encouraging little green owl to flatter your ego every time you manage to get something right...)
As followers may remember, I have been reporting my progress and statistics on this blog every now and then over the years. As the app and courses keep developing along the way, I realize that progress is hard to measure and compare in figures, though. Some courses are a lot more comprehensive than others, and so on. And my own ambitions with the languages I've tried also vary a lot.
The first language I started learning on Duo was Spanish (pretty much from scratch). That's still my priority, so I still always start with that and do at least one Spanish lesson per day to keep up my streak.
Besides that (when I feel like doing more) I'm still also working on some more languages. For one thing, I occasionally review a bit of German and French (which I did learn in school). 'New' languages other than Spanish that I've kept working on are Welsh, Turkish, Dutch and Russian. In Spanish I'm wrestling with keeping apart verb endings expressing past, future etc. And I still can't keep up with the spoken language (like on TV), they speak way too fast! With Dutch, I can understand the written language fairly well; but writing/speaking and listening is quite a different matter (and will probably remain so). With Welsh, Turkish and Russian - while I do feel I'm making progress, and slowly learning to recognize certain patterns (and words and phrases), each lesson is really still mostly "brain exercise" (like games or crosswords or puzzles). I'm satisfied with that, though - as I'm doing it for "fun", rather than aiming to reach a certain goal or level.
The main reason I decided to try Duolingo four years ago was really just to check if my brain could still cope with that kind of learning at all, at age 60+. Seen from that perspective, I think I have to be pleased even just with the fact that I've kept on trying!
I don't know how on earth you can keep the words straight between so many languages. Your brain must have a tremendous capacity for learning and comprehension!
ReplyDeleteGinny, you should not assume that I always can! ;) I mix up a lot of things. In Duolingo, however, there are more exercises with hints or alternatives given, than without - and a lot of repetition. Outside that context, in the languages most foreign to me, I fail more often than not to make sense of a complete sentence. The main reason I've kept trying is a general interest in languages and the learning process. Sorting out a sentence in Welsh by trial and error gives me a lot more satisfaction than for example playing Candycrush (or whatever)
Deleteand now your brain should be even healthier.. when you started, i tried it and lasted through the first lesson... i failed all the test every time
ReplyDeleteSandra, you're doing your brain exercises via photo editing apps instead!
DeleteIt IS impressive, Monica - hats off to you!
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I communicate via our smartphones a few times every day, and also with our Mum & Dad. Sometimes my sister uses a little green owl as an emoji - it looks very much like the Duolingo owl, so I guess she uses the app, too. I know she has been dabbling with Spanish on and off. Her English and French is fluent, whereas my French is rather rusty.
As for the mixing up: When I was still part of a Sicilian family, I sometimes remembered a word first in the "wrong" language - speaking English, I would remember an Italian term first, and the other way round. But it was usually a matter of milliseconds, with only a few times when I really got stuck and had to think hard to transfer to the language currently spoken.
PS: I sometimes wonder whether it is a help or a hindrance when I know that the person I am talking to also knows (at least some) German. It does happen that then I end up speaking a mixture of languages, knowing my conversation partner will "get it", no matter what I say. It makes me lazy, so I guess it is rather a hindrance!
DeleteMeike, I know what you mean. Nowadays used to reading and writing in English every day, as well as listening to it a lot (audio books and TV), it happens sometimes that an English word or expression pops to mind for me ahead of the Swedish one. As for switching between different foreign languages (even with all the practice I now get from Duolingo) it's one thing to do that in writing (with time to think) and quite another in a face-to-face conversation (where every hesitation and pause searching for words becomes immediately obvious).
DeleteI admire your ability and tenacity. I am so ashamed that I never persevered with a second language. I used to have reasonable tourist German, French and Italian but that is a very long way from understanding a language properly and much of it has gone now. I also had some Gaelic when I first came to Lewis and can still get by in a few words and phrases. When asked what I would wish for if I had three wishes the first wish was always to be fluent in a number of languages. Unfortunately I have always had an appalling memory which doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteThanks Graham. Having English as your first language I don't suppose you ever really needed more than "reasonable tourist" level in any other! Are there still a lot of people who have Gaelic as their first language on your island? And has there been a change in that since your early years? I had a little peek at Gaelic in the Duo app but quickly decided I'd better just stick with Welsh. (The languages I've chosen to learn via Duo are different enough from each other to at least give my brain a chance to keep them apart.)
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