I’ve been watching my husband using DuoLingo to learn German.

It’s that little ding when he gets something correct, that I now hear every night. 🤣

However, when he gets something wrong, he becomes frustrated because he loses points. He has to repeat something and then he can’t move on to the next level.

Welcome to learning, I think.

However, I have some misgivings about this app.

In my opinion, although this app allows people to learn elements of language somewhat, ultimately, it’s a game and you still need to vary your learning methods for it to stick.

It’s an addictive game that is meant to keep eyeballs and to make you subscribe.

It seems to me that many are learning a language through DuoLingo and that’s when my spidey senses activate. It’s only one way of learning and it seems that its predominant way is through aural – through listening to various voices with different accents say phrases. 🤣 (I wonder if the paid version includes more variety such as more writing and responding as well?)

To many people like my husband, it’s easier to play a game on an app rather than sit down and learn a language through reading, writing, revision and talking to someone because of the time investment. So for a start, using an app like DuoLingo may help in getting you started with a language.

I asked my husband last night, “Of all this time you’ve invested in that app if a German speaker was in front of you now, could you have a basic conversation to introduce yourself and talk about the weather or basic interests?”

You could guess the answer.

Even though it’s a good way to start a language, any new skill you learn needs to have the opportunity to apply and then ingrain it into our brains. For any learning to happen, you need to have PRACTICE, FEEDBACK, REVISION and APPLICATION.

So I thought about how I would learn a new language if the desire overcame me and came up with my own Language Learning Process list below. 👇

For now, I’m quite happy with my Greek and French languages. There is talk of us learning German in near future but I’ll leave that until we head to the country for an in-country full immersion language and cultural experience which would be for fun and limited time).

Part of me thinks that I could pick up Italian very easily after French but there’s also part of me that wants to learn Japanese. However, I don’t feel compelled strongly enough to learn these.

If motivation isn’t there, don’t learn the language because a language IS FOR LIFE.

If you can’t commit to it, nor to learning the history, culture, and traditions of that country and making it your own – you’re just wasting your time. Go and learn something that you’d love doing.

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Helen’s Process for Learning a Language

1. Learn the following verbs below (critical) in the Past, Present, Imperfect, Conditional and Future tenses (get a grammar book with lots of exercises and activities and you’ll need to WRITE and learn these – once you do, it’s a game changer in creating sentences):
   • To have
   • To be
   • To do/make/be able to
   • To become
   • To want
   • To see
   • To come
   • To go
2. Learn some additional useful verbs such as (to arrive, to leave, to enter, to go out, to return, to walk, to look, to listen, to watch, to give, to take, to talk, to work, to help, to walk, to ask – verbs we use every day)
3. Learn the words (this, that, these, those)
4. Learn the Questions: Who, what, where, how and why
5. Learn:
   • Phonetic alphabet (critical)
   • Greetings – a variety of different times formal and informal formal
   • Numbers
   • Colours
   • Telling the time
   • Talking about weather
6. Learn the basic and some varied vocabulary to explain:
   • Your Family
   • Your Interests and hobbies
   • Your Work
   • Your Holidays
7. Learn basic general adjectives that can be applied most widely (good, bad, big, small, wide, narrow, directions – north, south, east, west, slow, fast, fat, slim, hot, cold, dry, wet)
8. Learn these words (because, however, during, since, meanwhile, then, so)
9. Find a friend who you can speak to consistently in that language for practice and so they can provide you feedback to improve (or use iTalki or other Find a Language Partner app) – the critical thing is that they MUST provide you feedback then you MUST incorporate this feedback into your session or next conversation to ingrain it.
10. Listen to only Beginner Language 2-3 podcasts or YouTube channels (NO MORE) for aural skills in slow time (do not watch movies or local programs as they use slang, dialect, too quick and quite demoralising).
11. Find a group of people in local area to go to cultural events, exhibitions, restaurants etc to speak (this is the social learning part and it gets you out and about meeting people) and it’s far more interesting than listening to a ‘ding’ to level up on some game app. (Just saying).

So there you go, that’s how I would pick up any language in the future if I wanted to learn it quickly. It would give me a good start to start SPEAKING IMMEDIATELY with someone and then use as a launching pad for deeper studies.

Later….a couple of weeks after I wrote this post my husband finally deleted the app. He was getting wrong a sentence that was incorrect in the app and he got angry. This was an example that it’s only a game and should be treated as such especially if it encourages you to incorrectly answer a question in their way for point scoring.