Duolingo Plus

I MENTIONED, two issues back, that I was dropping gaming in favor of being more productive. Eventually, I intend to move to Norway and start a family there, so getting to grips with the language is of paramount importance. Naturally, as a tech enthusiast, I looked online to find a good place to start learning, and Duolingo caught my attention.

Duolingo is a website and a very wellregarded mobile app on iOS and Android, with which you can learn a multitude of languages, from French to Navajo. It sort of acts like a flash-card trainer. So, on desktop, you choose a subject from a progression tree—for example, Definite Plurals, Conversation, or Restaurant— then there’s a “tips” section that runs you through the grammar rules, the vocab that’ll come up, what you need to know, and how sentences come together.

Then hit “Start Lesson.” You’re given a series of questions, usually 20, each one a basic sentence, with varying forms of input. You might get a multiple choice one, or a wordbank question, or you might be asked to say the sentence into a microphone (you can turn that off), or type it in English or the language you’re learning, or fill in the blanks—there’s tons of options.

If you get stuck, hover the mouse over a word and it tells you its translation. And if you get the task wrong (or right), you can hit the “Discuss” button after submitting your answer, and it will take you to a forum page, where moderators, natives, and other Duo users are discussing that sentence, which can help a lot.

When you complete a lesson, you gain EXP, and it asks if you want to move on to the next one. Eventually, you’ll rank up that topic through levels 0–5 (anywhere from 5–25 lessons), and it will go gold. After that, you can practise the topic whenever you want, and move on to the next one.

I personally do my language training on desktop devices. I usually have a Google

Doc open on one side of the screen, where I write down notes and vocab, then do the practicing on the left.

Duolingo does have its flaws, though. It’s too easy to get caught up in how much EXP you do a day, especially as it has leaderboards. Any language expert will tell you that it’s not about how much you get done, it’s more important that you’re consistent and studying daily. Also, although it’s great for single sentences, and learning words and grammar rules, it doesn’t help with long paragraphs of text, or for quick conversational language. Plus, the mobile app lacks the tips section, and has limited “hearts” unless you go premium.

It’s not a bad product, though. For instance, my Norwegian Bokmål course has 172 subjects to cover, and each one takes me a day or two to learn. So, there’s a ton to pick up from that. Once it’s done, I’ll have to expand my learning further, by reading Norwegian literature, and watching Norwegian TV to pick up the conversational stuff. Another neat website I use is Forvo.com, a community-driven pronunciation dictionary. Enter a word, and there’s a number of entries teaching you how to pronounce it, submitted by the community. In the more tonal languages, it can be massively helpful for getting your head around similar-sounding words. –ZS $Free, www.duolingo.com