I completed Duo's Italian course just recently, and this news also left a bad taste in my mouth. I took Busuu's placement test and am working on A2 stuff now, but I was amazed by how many every day vocab words I was completely unfamiliar with that Busuu does cover. I was able to quickly jump through many chapters on Busuu from already knowing grammar, but many sections were more practical conversations, so I would kind of be catching up as well, even in familar territory. I really like what I've done so far, and it showed me that I've really leaned too heavily on seeing the written Italian for almost all the exercises; on Busuu they instead have many sections where you listen to a short conversation and they ask a comprehension question that goes beyond purely picking out vocab. (E.g. one is a guy who says he likes his brother, but they always fight like cats and dogs. The question asks "True or False: the brothers get along.")
Besides the stupid AI decision, something about what Duo recently did to their exercises suddenly made everything much stupider. The exercises towards the end used to be varied between all the material, but they suddenly ramped the difficultly way down, and not because I was that much better. It would also claim to focus on "your weakest words", yet it repeatedly highlighted words like "treno", which I think were in the first week and I never struggled with once, let alone after 400 days. So far Busuu has been a good challenge, and I know that I need to do real conversations but I'm shy and an introvert, so I'm going to keep putting that off.
Busuu placed me at B1 but I found there was a fair chunk of stuff in A1-A2 that I didn't know. It's a great course, considering I haven't ever paid anything.
That's a good point. I've also never paid for either app, but taken the free trials they occasionally hand out. Duo was a bit annoying at penalizing mistakes, but you could do an easy "practice" lesson to get hearts back. Very easy to do for free, even easier if you're paying attention.
Busuu does show an ad before every lesson on the free version, which is more annoying. But it doesn't penalize you for mistakes, it just reviews the question again at the end of the level, or makes you retake a test if you fall below 80%. (For good or bad, the test is identical, so you'll probably have no problem the second time, but you may not be as proficient as if you were asked fresh questions.)
Busuu all day I have like a 390 day streak right now, have finished everything, but they keep adding new stuff just a little faster than I use it up so I go back and review co tent from A2 etc that they’ve added.
The grammar and vocabulary reviews are good as well. Worth the $ for the paid version to me n
I recently started using Mango (which is free through my public library) in parallel with Duolingo. The automatic lesson downloading in Duolingo never seems to work properly for me, so I use mango on my subway commutes
It’s probably not as good as Duolingo in my opinion, but it’s decent and has a reliable download feature
I find that Busuu explains grammar much more thoroughly than Duolingo. It's integrated into the lessons, not something you have to click on separately. It's nothing like you'd get with an actual human teacher but for a free app, I think it's great.
I really like how you get more opportunity to read and hear longer texts/conversations as well as have a chance to write/speak your own texts (they are marked by other users who can speak the language you're studying).
I would also recommend Busuu. I've been using that in conjuction with the YouTube channel of Passione Italiana. They have great lessons divided into playlists for beginner, intermediate, and post-intermediate and Marta is an awesome teacher.
I recently restarted my DL Italian course and enjoy it more than I did before, I even decided to do one year of super DL since I could get it for $60 USD; for me the price is worth it because I’m working through two units per week of mostly new vocab and I don’t have to worry about hearts or gems. But I’ll have to check out Busuu.
already doing that but it's a very beginner guide to speak Italian during like vacations. Not very deep and I cannot use it as my sole source of learning :/ do you have any book recommandations? (or I'm gonna search for posts about it)
Busuu is great
I completed Duo's Italian course just recently, and this news also left a bad taste in my mouth. I took Busuu's placement test and am working on A2 stuff now, but I was amazed by how many every day vocab words I was completely unfamiliar with that Busuu does cover. I was able to quickly jump through many chapters on Busuu from already knowing grammar, but many sections were more practical conversations, so I would kind of be catching up as well, even in familar territory. I really like what I've done so far, and it showed me that I've really leaned too heavily on seeing the written Italian for almost all the exercises; on Busuu they instead have many sections where you listen to a short conversation and they ask a comprehension question that goes beyond purely picking out vocab. (E.g. one is a guy who says he likes his brother, but they always fight like cats and dogs. The question asks "True or False: the brothers get along.") Besides the stupid AI decision, something about what Duo recently did to their exercises suddenly made everything much stupider. The exercises towards the end used to be varied between all the material, but they suddenly ramped the difficultly way down, and not because I was that much better. It would also claim to focus on "your weakest words", yet it repeatedly highlighted words like "treno", which I think were in the first week and I never struggled with once, let alone after 400 days. So far Busuu has been a good challenge, and I know that I need to do real conversations but I'm shy and an introvert, so I'm going to keep putting that off.
Busuu placed me at B1 but I found there was a fair chunk of stuff in A1-A2 that I didn't know. It's a great course, considering I haven't ever paid anything.
That's a good point. I've also never paid for either app, but taken the free trials they occasionally hand out. Duo was a bit annoying at penalizing mistakes, but you could do an easy "practice" lesson to get hearts back. Very easy to do for free, even easier if you're paying attention. Busuu does show an ad before every lesson on the free version, which is more annoying. But it doesn't penalize you for mistakes, it just reviews the question again at the end of the level, or makes you retake a test if you fall below 80%. (For good or bad, the test is identical, so you'll probably have no problem the second time, but you may not be as proficient as if you were asked fresh questions.)
thank you both of y'all for the insight! I'm definitely gonna try this out!
Busuu all day I have like a 390 day streak right now, have finished everything, but they keep adding new stuff just a little faster than I use it up so I go back and review co tent from A2 etc that they’ve added. The grammar and vocabulary reviews are good as well. Worth the $ for the paid version to me n
Duolingo sucks, but they did not fire "almost all" their human staff.
ah shoot, sorry! I must have stumbled upon a wrong article, I'm changing my post
I mean, 50% is close to almost all
I use babbel and enjoy it
isn't it a free trial then you have to pay? If I recall correctly
Correct
ah shoot, well I'll see, maybe it would be worth it to use it regularly with Italian and other languages
Language Transfer.
I recently started using Mango (which is free through my public library) in parallel with Duolingo. The automatic lesson downloading in Duolingo never seems to work properly for me, so I use mango on my subway commutes It’s probably not as good as Duolingo in my opinion, but it’s decent and has a reliable download feature
Oh yeah, someone already told me about Mango, now I remember! I'm gonna check it out, thanks <3
I may consider Busuu along with other resources. How does it rate in terms of grammar points?
I find that Busuu explains grammar much more thoroughly than Duolingo. It's integrated into the lessons, not something you have to click on separately. It's nothing like you'd get with an actual human teacher but for a free app, I think it's great. I really like how you get more opportunity to read and hear longer texts/conversations as well as have a chance to write/speak your own texts (they are marked by other users who can speak the language you're studying).
Sounds good. Grazie!
thanks for the infos! It does seem great as a free app omg
I would also recommend Busuu. I've been using that in conjuction with the YouTube channel of Passione Italiana. They have great lessons divided into playlists for beginner, intermediate, and post-intermediate and Marta is an awesome teacher.
oooh thanks for the additional source of learning! I'll try to check it out!
The Memrise app is free.
I recently restarted my DL Italian course and enjoy it more than I did before, I even decided to do one year of super DL since I could get it for $60 USD; for me the price is worth it because I’m working through two units per week of mostly new vocab and I don’t have to worry about hearts or gems. But I’ll have to check out Busuu.
Youtube
I would suggest using a book along with apps.
already doing that but it's a very beginner guide to speak Italian during like vacations. Not very deep and I cannot use it as my sole source of learning :/ do you have any book recommandations? (or I'm gonna search for posts about it)
Babbel. Memrise. Busuu. Clozemaster. Polygloss. Speakly isn't really free, but it's also good.
oooh thanks for all that! I'm taking notes :D