Other Duolingo (free language learning app/web) plus other respurces

I've used Duolingo to bone up on my Welsh, but it has two major flaws for me: firstly, because Welsh isn't a voice language that Google or Apple recognise, there's no speech recognition aspect to the Welsh lessons; secondly, there's no explanation of grammar. In Welsh, there's something called "mutations" (called the soft, nasal and aspirate mutations - or, in Welsh, the treigladau meddal, trwynol a llaes). These soften the beginnings of words, depending on the preceding word - there are quite a few rules on when this happens, but Duolingo doesn't explain when they should be used, and just introduces them (sometimes) without explanation.

There's also a difference between spoken Welsh in North and South Wales, but Duolingo enforces both without really distinguishing between the two.

Still, it's a great way to learn vocabulary - at least I now know the Welsh for shooting

 

Beth wyt ti'n saethu, Flib - llyniau neu anifeiliaid?

 

Bizarrely, it was people (it was in the lessons about news, which seemed to involve lots of shootings, escapes and arrests )

 

Ah, fair enough, how bizarre. I haven't done the Welsh Duolingo course but I went to a Welsh medium (meaning everything was taught through the medium of Welsh) primary school.

Don't worry too much about the mutations, they take a while but eventually come naturally.

Unfortunately my Welsh has suffered over the years due to lack of use but I've been making more of an effort to speak it lately. It's surprising how quickly it comes back though.

 

I understand how the mutations work (my mind is stuffed full of mnemonics like "TCP, Bloody Good Disinfectant" and the little "am ar at gan" poem ), I just don't like the way that Duolingo introduces them (and penalises when you get them wrong) without any discussion or explanation. I'm a geek - I need logic, damn it!

I live in a part of Wales where Welsh is the natural first language, so I'm trying to use more Welsh in my day-to-day use (beyond just saying "diolch" to the cashier in Tesco!)

 

You're probably not far from me. I moved back a number of years ago, like a lost sheep returning to the fold.

Good on you for learning the language.

 

Welsh is an interesting one to pick,


Stayed back at work to push through french, dim the lights down a touch and re-did hour two flash cards.

Once i master foundation its advanced then vocab. I think at that point ill book a one hpur lession
On line.
A clever thing to do is, as you are walking around , try to Desribe what you see.
Funny "to have" is avoir, said like cockney saying good bye in french, au revoir
O, throat sound h? third silble, voir (warar)

Would be awesome to learn a langage through self study, big own efforts then go to the target country.


I asked a german what would be the best three langages to learn for work , opening doors, helping you stayed employed. He said.

Chinese
Arabic
Russian


Rusdian is crazy in google translate, try to copy sinple. I would like, term as translated, could not get it to recognized my copy efforts at all.(multipul efforts, french zero issue)

Russian pronunciation is heavy.

 

Has Welsh ended up like Irish in that its taught in schools yet most people seem unable to speak it apart from a few small villages / areas where its the primary spoken language? Or do most Welsh people speak it well?

Did she tell you your fortune?

 

It's big in the Welsh heartlands, not so much in the more anglicised areas. It is gaining popularity again though and there's a flourishin young Welsh language student scene, which is pretty cool. Only last month I was telling a bunch of Welsh speaking youngsters who were partying in the pub how nice it was to hear students speaking the language.

I don't know how widely spoken Irish is but I'd guess that Welsh is probably more widely spoken.

 

Yes, sounds like it is more widely spoken. That said, my finger is hardly on the pulse in terms of how well Irish is spoken, I've never been interested in learning it, in spite of my teachers' best efforts .

 

Hah yes, languages - they're all blah blah blah.

 

I tried Duolingo a few years ago. I liked it, but I had nearly zero motivation to learn a language, so got bored with it soon enough. I've no doubt it's working well for others that have a reason to do it though.

 

I tried Duolingo a couple of years back to brush up on some German and thought it was decent enough, although the speech recognition was a bit frustrating, as was the fact that I had to keep changing keyboards from English to German manually. I know it's not free and is a PC program, so perhaps not a fair comparison, but I found Rosetta Stone so much more helpful. The way it introduces you to vocab and grammar in a 'show not tell' style is so effective, or at least it was for me. It's as if it's teaching you in the same sort of way you learned your mother tongue, which is pretty cool.

That said, for anyone who's been using Duolingo for a while, has it improved much? Could be worth me revisiting it.

 

I'm now on an 8 day streak and apparently 5% fluent in Spanish, although I have repeated most modules at least once so probably not progressed as far as I could have in that time.

I now know quite a few foods which is handy - there are only so many apples a man can take.

 

Pushing to master the complete Michel Thomas range on the iPhone more than duo lingo atm, have hit two birds with one stone two days in a row with a fairly good walk around green park with a full two session into long term memory, flash card to top off then walk back play with the sentence a little.

the quality of the French course of Michel is meant to be the peak of the series with huge volume like vocab and conversation (on top the advanced) material its like free beer, that is to say even if you are only half as interested in French as say another language, you are spoilt with the quality and decent quantity, spoon fed life tools is nice.


Also going into a French game server(s) and telling them off for being French in great French, is on my to do list as a life time task, I'm going to really let them have it good



duo lingo falling back, but learnt that waking a little early but staying in bed just 15mintues back with the phone and your brain is not contaminated, nice chance to put the info in and it stay in. So lay on bed, resting waking up, do your course a little, then have clothes shower and 1 hour to work to let it settle in.

 

Good going RB. Here's where I'm up to, using just Duolingo though.

 

install the Michel Thomas app on your iPhone for Spanish and Ill ship a gift card for the first three hours, only thing is to post to the forum your progression and feedback so others get inspired


deal?

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/michel-thomas-spanish/id527887730?mt=8

 

this would be a big boost towards focusing on language pick up.


12 Lessons of Waking Up at 4:30 a.m. for 21 Days




Might have to try that starting Nov 1st!

 

Thanks for the offer but I'm on Android.

 

Weekend goal, complete and master all the eight hours. Enough of this dragging my feet stuff.

Je peux essayer de parler français.

Edit: editted the main tittle since more resources than just duolingo gets mentioned.