Learning a new Language

[A_B]

Being in the dominican republic really underscored the language divide, even though I was at an all-inclusive where a great many of the employees spoke decent english. ANyway, was thinking of doing one of the apps and learning a bit of spanish. Looks like Duolingo and Babbel are the highest rated ones. I feel like they've been mentioned here so anyone have a strong preference either way?

[L-Jam3]

Speaking for Duolingo, I like the way they make it a game to learn. The premium edition is $100 yearly for a family plan with up to 5 total people. I started relearning my high school French about a year ago for my February 2022 trip to La Cite de Lumiere, and I've kept up with it since. I go for about 15 minutes in the morning, and around a half hour or so in the evening. I've been able to follow along with French tv, specifically The Parisian Agency on Netflix, while only occasionally needing the subtitles.

Another easy fun freemium app is Drops, where they give a 5 minute lesson on vocab every 24 hours.

[brian]

I used Duolingo before moving to Mexico (and during) and found it very helpful and I definitely retained more than I during two apparently useless years of high school Spanish. I would echo getting the premium version as well. It's not terribly expensive and allows you to move at as quick a pace as you may want to.

[wlu_lax6]

Worked Duolingo on Italian in fits and spurts just because. I liked it. Louthegiant rat changed his chrome and google to Spanish recently as an added way to learn.

[L-Jam3]

Luis La Grande Raton?

[The Sybian]

Luis La Grande Raton?

I don't even need to study to understand Spanish. You pussies need to study a real language like Russian!

[L-Jam3]

Luis La Grande Raton?

I don't even need to study to understand Spanish. You pussies need to study a real language like Russian!

My son Leonid IV is doing Russian. He would probably agree with you.

[A_B]

Not ready to welcome our new overlords just yet.

[mister d]

We planned to use the time my wife was pregnant with our first to learn spanish but ended up not doing it. Hope this helps.

[Johnny Carwash]

Just a word of caution about DuoLingo from my experience a few years back is that it sometimes didn't cover important cultural/contextual factors about the language. I was studying German, and DuoLingo was simply using du as the generalized form of "you"--I learned later that du is only used for family or close friends and that using it for strangers is considered odd or outright rude (Sie should be used instead).

I know that's a specific example, but missing something like that made me wary of its suitability as a full substitute for conventional learning.

[P.D.X.]

Don't learn from Rammstein either.

[HaulCitgo]

I'd think a terrible accent and broken Duolingo German would explain the lack of tact and nuance in word choice. But then others likely get closer to fluency than I would.

[Rex]

Just a word of caution about DuoLingo from my experience a few years back is that it sometimes didn't cover important cultural/contextual factors about the language. I was studying German, and DuoLingo was simply using du as the generalized form of "you"--I learned later that du is only used for family or close friends and that using it for strangers is considered odd or outright rude (Sie should be used instead).

I know that's a specific example, but missing something like that made me wary of its suitability as a full substitute for conventional learning.

I like Duolingo, but this is a good caveat. Fortunately, I think YouTube is good at filling in those gaps. It just takes some work to find a good channel.

Also, definitely do the 1,000 words in your sleep thing. Not because it works, but just to be annoying.

[A_B]

I installed Duolingo last week. It’s pretty fun, but naturally some structure and the masculine/feminine thing still get me.

I appreciate the note about cultural differences. I figure I can still chalk it up to being an ugly American asshole. (Although if this really takes I anticipate I’d pay for something better able to help with those things since I’m just on the free app for now.

[billy]

I'm curious how this has gone for you AB, one year later!

I started learning Spanish in March and have been doing it pretty intensively, and more recently I've started teaching english classes for recent immigrants which is good Spanish practice because their English level is really basic, and just fun because the students are engaged and fun to be around.

This has been my approach just in case others are interested and want some guideposts or alternatives to Duolingo/Babbel, which I didn't find that compelling. I definitely think increasing the number of inputs in the target language is really helpful in reinforcing concepts, vs. just using a single method.

- Rocket Spanish (at least the entirety of L1 and at least a start on L2, with the exception of writing portions, I often skipped that because I didn't find it that useful relative to other things I was doing) - if you get this, don't pay full price, there are always 60+% off promos, which makes it quite affordable and one-time expense vs. subscription
- Some spaced repetition flashcard system (Ulangi is what I use, Memrise seems to be the most popular) to start to build a foundation of vocabulary
- Conversational lessons (I used Baselang + italki, but just italki would work too) at least once every 2 weeks, ideally once/week or more
- Conversation practice (I've used the app Tandem to meet people to talk with, but generally I just recommend having 3-5 people you can speak and write back and forth with regularly, and it's also super important to have someone who can consistently explain things you might be confused by, grammar concepts, etc.)
- Listen to music in Spanish, and for your favorite songs, translate the lyrics to start to understand the grammar and meaning
- Read books + listen to audiobooks at the same time (graded readers can be ok for beginners, but they're not that interesting). My fav so far is Cajas de Cartón)
- Watch movies / shows. Translated Disney movies are great, like Coco and Shrek. I've watched 3 series - Soy Luna (Disney+), Control Z (Netflix), and Club de Cuervos (Netflix). I definitely recommend the movie La casa de papel for español de españa.
- Listen to podcasts. The Duolingo Spanish podcast is awesome. So is the Babbel podcast, Un dia en español. There's a Spain Spanish podcast called Hoy Hablamos and a Mexican one called No Hay Tos, where they're actually speaking about things in Spanish.
- Switch your phone language to Spanish