Is this a good way to learn languages?

>>8503696

Yeah, if you combine it with other things.
Usually you'll want a grammar book, some immersion stuff and at least one other way of picking up vocab.

It's a good start but it won't get you far.

Duolingo
Memrise/Anki
Grammar book
Music/TV/Films
Pen pal

>>8503696
Different person here: is it a good way to brush up on my conversation skills? I can read French well, but I haven't had a conversation in the language in three years.

>>8503696
It's awful shit.
It will not teach you a new language, but simply a second way of speaking English with words you don't understand through substitution and bad translation.
Skip it entirely and get workbooks (the same shit that schoolkids use is fine) and watch / listen / read / speak as much as you can

>>8503696
it's way too easy to advance in

also strange order of learning things

>>8503696
Use it for a bit then translate a novel or something.

>>8503847
Basically, Duolingo is a vocabulary builder.

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>>8503696
I use it to set pace.

You cannot use Duolingo by itself to fully learn a language. At best, it'll teach you very basic phrases and sentence structuring. However, it's fantastic for vocabulary.

It's recommended that you use other resources on top of Duolingo, things like: grammar books; light reading in the targeted language; listening to music, and reading along with translated lyrics; etc.

OP, I don't know what language you're trying to learn, but if it's either French or Russian, try lingvist.com as well.

Bonne chance.

The best way to learn a language is to move to the country it originates from. Your brain will naturally pick up the language

>>8504043
It does even better if you're under 25 because you still have neuroplasticity. You can still learn a language over 25, but it will be much harder to get to the point where you think in the language without translating it, and it's harder to get the accent down. Also you won't necessarily learn good grammar doing this.
t.Burger who learned French by living in Paris.
I can hold a conversation, but I frequently make stupid mistakes posting the French threads in /int/ because I pretty much only know how to speak.

well, I'm trying to learn Arabic, so idk. I use Memrise and Vice News War Bulletins.

Who learning Russian here?

ктo изyчaeт pyccкий здecь?

Where can I learn Lithuanian
Besides English I'm also fluent in Russian and German, if that helps at all

>>8503840
It is absolutely not a good way to brush up on conversation skills.

If you really can't form the words, try Pimsleur for practicing the mouth-feel of the language before you start the real practice of actually conversing.

anyone here tried learning Icelandic? what did you use then?

>>8503827
>Pen pal
Is there any site where I can find a penpal while staying anonymous ? Interpals seems to be a great place to meet people but I don't want to give my real name, or pictures. I just want someone to talk in my target language with.

Is it a good idea to try to learn 2 languages at once?

Also what are some good books in English literature to work on your vocabulary? I still feel like my English is not good enough.

>>8504119
You need yazik in there.

>>8504264

Cheers bud

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>>8504119
>tfw i'm Russian and can easily understand every Russian term written by poeple like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin because it's all trivial knowledge here

>>8504128
Come to Lithuania. I doubt you'll find sufficient resources online.

>>8504454
I remember in C&P the translator pointing how native russians instantly understand a phrase or term multiple times

To learn a language, you have to learn:
• the vocabulary;
• the grammar (its syntax, and its morphology);
• the style, customs and habits which are neither vocabulary nor grammar, yet are fundamental to feel “natural”.
Words are learnt by translating, first, then by reading foreign authors. It also helps to group them as families, with consideration of the root/lexical field. To acquire grammar, it is interesting to translate relevant examples, but reading still is the pivot part. A good dictionary and a carefully chosen textbook are all you need.

There's no shortcut to learn a language.

>>8504755
Well I can't go live there right this moment
I do have a Lithuanian gf though...

Are there any other sites that teach Irish/Gaelic?

>>8504189
I can form the words, I just need to practice thinking quickly in the language/work on my accent some.

is it possible to have success with this program from your phone? I had it for a few days but then it fell into missuse.

I didnt think i'd like the tiers but how else am i going to learn 300000 characters and become proficient.

>>8504033
+1 for lingvist recommendation

>>8504216
Just invent a new person, you're doing that everytime you go out anyway.

Any help with Norwegian?

>>8503793
>immersion stuff

What did he mean by this?

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>>8503696
Should I take Arabic or French as a college/uni class?

Arabic:
>harder
>longer
>little to no immersion opportunities
>few non-Arabs know it (+)

French:
>easier (I already know spanish)
>quicker (see above)
>more widely spoken
>can actually do abroad classes

I plan on learning both in my lifetime. However, the issue of neuroplasticity worries me. I could learn French quite quickly in college, however that would probably cause me to miss a window of opportunity that would make learning Arabic relatively more rewarding.

>>8504259
>Is it a good idea to try to learn 2 languages at once?
I wouldn't recommend it. Learning a language requires to change basically most of your life into the language i.e. thinking in that language, translating every word you hear into that language, etc. Now imagine doing this with TWO languages. It would be a pain.

>>8504947
>but how else am i going to learn 300000 characters and become proficient.
Classes. Conversing with native speakers.

>>8505397
I'd do French in college. The study abroad opportunities with the language are really worth it, even if you don't know much.I studied in Paris for a semester with only a year of college French, and it was easily the best semester I had, it's just a great city. The experience is a lot more worth it in my opinion, plus you still have three or four years of neuroplasticity post college to use to learn Arabic with. Plus, in the few years of neuroplasticity you have remaining after graduating you will probably not have the means (time or money) to immerse your in either language, so get the one immersion experience you can have in that window of time.
If you plan to do abroad, save your electives for that semester. I fucked up and took mine early, and ended up having to do an 18 credit hour final semester to graduate on time.

>>8504216
>>>/int/

>>8505397
>few non-Arabs know it
Well considering that the term Arab isn't usually used as a racially term no fucking shit. If you are Muslim you probably speak Arabic and you probably identify as an Arab.

>>8504849
A lot of people abroad do, anon. :^)

>>8505397
Neuroplasticity is not an issue.
If you decide to worry about that, you should have started before you hit puberty.

>>8505397
""French, easier because you know Spanish"

That makes absolutely no sense, why would French be easier?

>>8506690
They're both Romance languages. It's widely known that knowing one Romance language (or Latin) makes learning the others much easier.

>>8506608
Arabs=arabia.

u shud rly google stuff before being such a bombastic retard

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>>8506694
Well there are "some" grammatical similarities and they share the sameish background but they're pretty much totally different languages, the differences similarities you'll find don't let you build a knowledge base.

>>8506713
According to the linguist J. Cummins, becoming proficient in a romance language would contribute to a students learning of another romance language.

>>8506709
>Tells me to google it
>Clearly hasn't googled it himself
>Calls me a retard
Arabic is also a cultural affiliate. So either he meant no one who isn't ethnically Arabian speaks Arabic which is massively untrue or he meant that outside of cultural Arabs most people don't speak Arabic. He might as well have said outside of the people who speak Arabic no one does. And even here he would be wrong because of how many Arabic speakers there there are in places like Persia, Pakistan, India and south east Asia.

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>>8506733
Was just a personal remark, have Cummings learn it for you then, huehuehuehuehuehue

>>8506741
Arabs are a panethnicity of peoples whose native language is a variety of Arabic. They primarily inhabit Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa and East Africa.

>>8503696
No, it's a waste of time.

Only real way to learn a language is to learn a basic vocabulary, then get books/pdfs that teach you the grammar, then watch TV and read newspapers in that language while continuing to learn more and more vocabulary.

There is no shortcut in learning a language.

You can't learn Japanese.

>>8504454
I'm a finn with zero knowledge of russian. I found a russian copy of Tolstoys Smertja Ivana Iljitsha and have thought of reading it word by word with a dictionary
How bad will I fuck it up?

ps. I've already read Hesse's Kinderseele in german, but it was in latin alphabet and I understand a little german due to the compulsory swedish in school

Anyone know any good resources for learning Czech?

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What are some good grammar books for Korean?

>>8503696
It should be supplementary to classes and/or books.The best you'll get out of Duolingo is a broader vocabulary.

>>8506755
You're absolutely not wrong, but Duolingo is a good start and works even better if you combine it with your said suggestions. Goes for everything, really.

>>8508002
Not him but there's only so much time in the day. Your time is better spend using other methods than Duolingo.

>tfw starting a Russian evening short course soon

What sort of people go to evening classes? I've never been to one before. Is it going to be 99% old people?

>>8508063
I'm thinking diaspora and business people, mostly. And people with a general interest in Russian. Could be anyone.

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Been doing a few quizzes every day for the past two months. I'm getting pretty good. Duolingo actually works, too.

>2016.
>Not being bilingual.
>Reading translations.

>>8508187
Where are you doing quizzes?

>>8508187
Refais cette poste en français.

I picked up a some French vocab from duolingo and now I am doing a little bit of assimil. I tried reading through a grammar book but I stopped after 10 or so pages because it was incredibly boring and just a long list of rules, ifs, and buts, that seemed totally impractical to memorize just by reading them off a page. I have a feeling that it would be easier to learn grammar intuitively through lots of practice and exposure to the language but most people here recommend grammar books.

>>8508353
Force through a grammar book or you're wasting your time.

>>8508187
>barely a1/2
>"Pretty good"

>>8508216
ce*

>>8508353
French has over 20 tenses. You aren't going to learn French grammar by intuition.

>>8508039
You only need five minutes on duolingo a day. Since it's also a phone app you can do it to fill in any free time. I don't think anyone could call it a time sink.

>>8506713
Spanish is my native language and learning French, Italian and Protuguese was fairly easy I would say, compared to something like German or Russian. They are so similar in fact that one can read a basic sentence in one of those languages without knowing them, and still get the gist of it.
Now the accent, that's a whole different matter. French is particularly hard for spanish speakers.