Duolingo

For me, this week was about re-downloading and exploring Duolingo. Except this time, I am learning Spanish and not trying to blast through the levels of the French version like it is candy crush. I downloaded the app this past weekend and completed two whole session and then never opened the app again for the rest of the week. My goal for next week is to make sure I do a bit everyday, mainly so I can get in some repetitive practice but also so I don’t keep seeing these tragic widgets on my home screen:

I also recently learned that Duolingo has a browser version because I had previously thought it was only an app. The browser is great because students could use it in class without bringing out their phones which has endless distractions. Here is a clip of what the browser version looks like:

Some positives takeaways from the two sessions I did was I am able to infer and understand a lot more Spanish than I was anticipating. I credit that all to my Italian. I am curious to see if the Italian will eventually become a nuisance, as in it might impede my memorization of vocabulary or which words are feminine or masculine. My biggest challenge (outside the realm of not practicing enough) is not pronouncing the words with an Italian accent. Hopefully this improves as I expose myself to other learning tools besides Duolingo. Next week, I plan on watching a show in Spanish and explore some Spanish music.

If you any of you have used Duolingo before, were your experiences positive or negative? I’ve never used it as a completely new learner with no prior knowledge of the language so I am interested to see how effective it is.

And lastly for your viewing pleasure, I leave you with a most likely horrific pronunciation of “hello, my name is” in Spanish which I have now learned how to say (and may I say sounds extremely phonetically close to Italian “Ciao, mi chiamo”):