If you’ve been on this blog for any amount of time, you know that I like language. I also like travel, and the two often go hand-in-hand. I’ve spent a lot of time learning languages and learning about language.
But there are a lot of tools online that claim to help you learn language, and while some can be useful, others aren’t. I’m going share some of my experiences to help you know what works. Not all of these tools are entirely reliant on internet, either!
Why You Shouldn’t Use Duolingo for Language Learning
Duolingo is one of the most well known language learning apps out there.
They have great marketing, and are known for leaning into a lot of the memes surrounding their app.
However, after you spend any significant amount of time on it (I personally had an 1100+ day streak before quitting), you’ll find that it doesn’t really help all that much.
Sure, you’ll remember some words, and a bit of grammar.
But you’ll never actually speak the language beyond a very surface level.
This is because learning a language requires a lot more than basic sentence and word memorization.
Nothing will help you learn a language better than actually having to use it on your own. By which I mean forming sentences by yourself in conversations and writing.
Oftentimes, Duolingo will show you the same few sentences over and over across a couple lessons, which just makes you memorize the meaning of the sentence. You won’t necessarily know why the sentence means what it means. And you might not even remember it outside the context of Duolingo.
I started to notice this exact thing after I spent quite a bit of time with it, especially after Duolingo removed many of the grammar notes that were vital to my understanding of the language. (I was learning Irish Gaelic, which wasn’t really a great course on there to begin with. Even so, these same issues apply across the whole app.)
Previously, I would have recommended that you only use Duolingo to brush up on grammar/ vocab, or to help you get into a habit of practicing.
Unfortunately, some recent developments have changed even that.
Duolingo and AI
Recently, Duolingo has had a big hit to their reputation by swapping out a lot of their human translators for AI.
Now, I don’t want to get too into the AI discussion here, but let me just say that AI cannot understand language in the same way as a human. This makes it very easy for false information to spread, especially when people assume that AI knows better than them. (For a little more on this, see my post about some AI-generated language books.)
Just to explain briefly, AI can translate language, but it doesn’t actually understand all of the hidden or implied meanings surrounding a word. Some dialects can understand one meaning of a word while others understand something completely different. For example, in Latin American countries, the word coger means ‘take’ or ‘grab’, while in Spain, it’s the equivalent of ‘fuck’. This is an important distinction that an AI wouldn’t notice.
I think that AI can be an amazing tool for some things, like calculating every amino acid/ protein pair (which would take us multiple lifetimes). But for writing, art, and most human things, it just can’t understand them properly. Maybe we’ll get there one day.
So, by swapping to AI for their translations, Duolingo has risked making their language exercises even more inaccurate. If you want to learn a language, Duolingo should not be your go-to.
Online Tools for Language Learning
We live in an internet age.
There are a lot of ways to take advantage of this to help yourself learn a language, without having to change much about your day-to-day.
Discord
This is a fairly popular messaging app, one that continues to grow in popularity.
The advantage of Discord is that it is easy (and free!) to make an account and get started, and anyone can make or join any (public) server.
Discord is commonly used for gaming, but has expanded over time to support all kinds of communities, including language-learning communities. I am in one called Craic le Gaeilge intended for practicing Irish Gaelic. They’re a very friendly, well-informed group that can help you with almost anything regarding Irish Gaelic.
They even have special tags for your level of proficiency, location, and dialect, if you want to share such things. You can also indicate if you want people to correct your grammar, and they’re very polite when they do so!
If I could just get going in an actual conversation there, it would jumpstart my Irish Gaelic proficiency like a rocket!
There are so many other communities like this out there that’ll give you easy opportunities to practice speaking, so give it a try!
Social Media for Language Learning
This might seem weird, but depending on the language, it isn’t difficult to find communities and accounts devoted to specific languages.
Obviously a more obscure language might be harder to find, but you never know!
Once you start following and engaging with some of these accounts, the language will become a part of your daily social media feed. You’ll interact with it constantly, and get organic practice!
Music/ Radio/ TV/ Etc.
Again, this depends on the obscurity of the language, and the efforts out there to keep it going.
But if you can find a radio station, or some music you enjoy in the language, it’s easy to integrate into your day. Just turn it on and listen for a bit!
Podcasts, especially those geared towards learners, can be immensely helpful, too!
Another good alternative is TV or movies. Netflix added a ‘Search by Language’ option, which has been immensely helpful for me to find Spanish-language shows. Previously, when I searched ‘Spanish’, it would only bring up shows made in Spain, rather than all shows in Spanish.
Entertainment can be a great way to engage yourself with the language, especially if you find something that interests you! You could always look for a voiceover of a show you already know you like!
When you’re a beginner to a language, it can help to engage with kid’s media because of the simplified language. This isn’t always easy, though, but anything you can find will be effective!
And don’t be afraid to use English subtitles at first! Even if you’re mostly reading the subtitles, you’re still getting used to the sounds of the language.
Offline(ish) Tools for Language Learning
Not everyone wants to look at a screen all the time for language learning. No healthy person should do it all the time. It’s a big part of our lives, but there are plenty of ways around it.
Some of these suggestions rely on a screen in one way or another, but aren’t as involved as the options above. (And, of course, it’s easy to listen to music without screens!)
Workbooks/ Exercises
One thing that helped me a lot with my Irish studies was a simple workbook. It contained 36 lessons, a pronunciation guide, audio files, an English to Irish glossary, and one the other way around.
When I initially started with this book, I struggled to keep up with it. I would try to do a whole lesson in a single day, spend hours on it, and get burnt out.
Once I finished college and could focus on it more, I found a better way to do it.
I split lessons up into digestible chunks that I could do in a single day, with the plan of getting through a lesson a week.
This worked exceptionally well! I finished the entire workbook about two weeks ago after working on it for nearly a year.
Every lesson had different stories to translate and took a slightly different approach to the exercises. It was everything Duolingo wants to be, without the gamification and ads.
Books
If you’re a reader, a great way to continue to engage with the language is to find a book written into it. Translated books can work, too, especially if it’s one you know you like.
As you read through it, look up words you aren’t sure about, and try to translate as much as you can. Don’t stress about translating every detail, though. Sometimes context will be enough to figure it out.
I’d also advise looking for a book that fits your current understanding of the language. You wouldn’t read an academic paper in Spanish if you’re just starting out, so maybe hold off on the Pride and Prejudice translation, too!
A book like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, while simple, will be easier to digest when you’re starting out!
Flashcards and AnkiWeb
A tool I’ve finally started using again is flashcards.
Now, you could write out your own paper flashcards and study them. It’s a common approach for a reason.
Let me just say that this shouldn’t be your only approach to language learning. Learning vocabulary is important, but won’t get you speaking the language.
There’s a tool I love to use in place of physical flashcards called Anki. You can use it on computers, tablets, and phones, and it really is a great tool for studying anything!
You can avoid the whole process of writing out all the cards by downloading card sets from others, for one.
But the real strength of Anki is how it presents the cards to you. After seeing the card and the answer, you get four options: again, hard, good, and easy. Based on what you press, it determines how long to wait before showing you again.
This will, of course, only help you if you’re honest with yourself about how well you knew the terms. If you just click through each one and say it’s easy, you won’t learn anything.
New terms will show up again in a matter of minutes, while those you’ve mastered won’t appear again for years.
Anki includes a ton of options to customize how the cards are shown to you, how many you see on a daily basis, and so many other things! You can even set certain days to be easier than others if you’re especially busy.
This allows you to keep consistent engagement, and it can be a great replacement for Duolingo!
Did I mention it’s free?
(I am, unfortunately, not sponsored by Anki.)
Conclusion
That was a lot, I know. But I don’t want you to think that you need to do all of these consistently to learn a language. Some strategies might work better for you than others. I would suggest, at the very least, to find one thing to practice each language skill (reading, writing, speaking, and listening).
Every language will be different, too, in how available these resources are. For example, it’ll be harder to find such resources for American Indigenous languages than for Spanish or Japanese.
Adapt the strategies to your own abilities, time, and learning capabilities, and you’ll start to see some great improvement!
Consistency is one of the biggest factors, so make sure you’re doing something every day!
I hope this was a helpful read! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, let me know below or contact me directly! I check my blog every day, so I’ll get back to you soon!
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As always, thank you for reading! I appreciate your visit!
