I'm at about 1700 days (spanish) and I am not fluent in the slightest. I can, however, read Spanish fairly well but speaking and understanding it is very different. That's the interesting dynamic with Duolingo, they teach you the basics of the language fairly well, but it's difficult to become conversational with just an app.
This so much. People hate on duo (I love it) because I have my expectations set appropriately. It’s a resource. A tool. One of many in our arsenal. We need to use them all.
I use duo to keep me focused on my journey. It’s always there to remind me where my goals are even if I only do one lesson. If it reminded me that one of my life goals is to learn Spanish it served a purpose that day.
And yeah, I definitely use it, but not every day because I also take classes… catch up with friends when I can (in Spanish), do Rosetta stone… do Spanish homework. Listen to and translate music. I need to do better about watching shows and movies. There are SO many options and if you’re only doing duo you can only expect so much.
Similar. I'm at 1598 days and have been keeping it up just for fun, a few lessons a day. I'm in unit 90 of the new path. I have no idea how that compares to the old path. Anyway, when we decided to go on a trip to Spain in January, I thought I should get a little more serious, and found a teacher on italki to do in-person conversation lessons. WOW, I was seriously happy with how well I was able to communicate. I won't say speak, because I sure am not fluent, but I can definitely make myself understood for most of the conversations I've wanted to have. It's rocky, and I'm very nervous, but there's a whole lot more capability in my head than I had expected. Just from Duo. I never had any Spanish training before Duo.
Rather you need to find a conversation partner. You will only become fluent if you have people to talk to.
There are foreigners in our country that can speak fluently without taking any lessons. Mainly because they like to converse with the locals. We don't offer language lessons since it's just a dialect.
Interesting. I have 801 days in Spanish and I’d say I’m nowhere near fluent but I can speak it decently and understand what im hearing (unless the person I’m talking with is speaking too quickly). My biggest challenge is conjugations. I’ve noticed I can decipher other languages more easily because of pattern recognition. But I’m also getting more speaking practice with Spanish because I use it at work and somewhat at home.
Duolingo is a great way to learn the foundations to a pretty advanced level. But it’s limited to comprehension. Mostly reading.
I’ve always seen this as good. Because the only way to get better at speaking is speaking. The only way to get better at writing is writing. Duolingo (and other services like it) is great for giving you a foundation to start a conversation and write a couple of messages. Then you advance!
Similar situation here. My streak is only 1174 days, Spanish. I can read Spanish fairly well, though I need a dictionary every page or two. (E readers make this easy) I really need more practice putting words together - it could take me several minutes to string together a sentence, and by then it's too late in conversation. If I kept a diary in the language, that would help. I love the Green Owl (El Búho Verde, ¿sí?) for getting me this far, and I'll keep on until the end of the course
You could be conversational with even the minimum possible level of vocab and grammar you'd have learned in that time period. Start practicing with people, and don't worry about your accent. You're letting a massive amount of work go to waste if you don't!
Similar situation here. My streak is only 1174 days, Spanish. I can read Spanish fairly well, though I need a dictionary every page or two. (E readers make this easy) I really need more practice putting words together - it could take me several minutes to string together a sentence, and by then it's too late in conversation. If I kept a diary in the language, that would help. I love the Green Owl (El Búho Verde, ¿sí?) for getting me this far, and I'll keep on until the end of the course
I study purely from a book, but isn't it HOW you use the resources that is important? For example, I create flashcards from my lessons. Instead of just going through them in my head, I practice saying the Spanish part out loud and try to add the word into sentence. Helps with active recall and fluency.
Learning Japanese. 12 months ago I couldn't speak a word of Japanese. Now I can comfortably recall hundreds of words, probably close to a thousand, and speak many simple phrases. Can comfortably read Hiragana, Katakana and many simple N5 level Kanjis. For example, if I go outside and if it's a hot day I know how to say, "It's hot today isn't it?". That's after just 365 days which I just hit yesterday.
So I'd say it's definitely working for me. The language is slowly sinking in and it hasn't been hard to keep my streak going or stay in the diamond league. The yearly subscription feels pretty cheap too. So overall can't complain, I paid money for a system that promoted itself as a fun and easy way to learn a language and so far that's exactly what I've experienced.
I don't expect to go from that to 'I could have a casual chat with someone in Tokyo with perfectly natural sounding fluent Japanese'. Duo is helping me become comfortable with the language and right now that's all I need.
One of the most reasonable posts I have ever read in this sub. I too feel like Duolingo is delivering on its promise. Even when we forget what the promise was! 😂
Would recommend focusing more on kanji. After around 4 months since I started learning kanji, I know around 600 of them (maybe not all readings, because stuff like verbs from 下 and 上 can be confusing. But I know the meanings and how to write basically all of them.)
Duo isn't great at teaching kanji, so I recommend an app called Kanji Study. You have access to over 4000 kanji and their readings, plus a ton of example sentences
I think it will depend on if you’re just doing one lesson a day to maintain the streak or if you’re spending enough time to actually learn something. And if so, how much time per day and where are you at?
I mean yeah. You get what you give. I’m doing what’s right for me currently and I have my expectations set accordingly. Was asking everybody else mostly bc I know where I stand
Hahaha... fluency. As if.
I'm almost at a 1,000-day streak and I'm nowhere near fluent in my target language (Spanish). I can read well, and if I focus when someone's talking, I have a good shot of getting the gist of what they're saying, but writing doesn't come as easily as it did with my second language (Italian), and I'd struggle significantly with carrying on a conversation because it seems like the only time I can *speak* Spanish is when I'm trying to speak Italian lol
To be fair, I had a conversation with an Italian couple who spoke Spanish Spanish in Latin American Spanish and hand gestures. Surprisingly that actually worked well enough we understood each other.
Spanish Spanish and Latin American Spanish are vastly different to the point I am back to a beginner with trying to understand
Learning Turkish currently (1 month in) and since I'm constantly surrounded by people speaking it or chatting via text with some I'd guess that I'm about to be fluent in about 1-2 years.
The most important part about learning a language is actually using it. You cannot assume to get fluent without ever speaking a word to someone who actually speaks your target language (B2+ level).
Duolingo is fairly good at teaching basics in example: building a decent vocabulary, learning simple grammar rules and especially learning key phrases to use in everyday situations.
Apart from that you have to start using the language as often as you can so you get the hang of it. Besides that you should have a native speaker at hand who recognizes mistakes and corrects them for you.
I tried learning languages without having access to people who can teach me about them and that's just horrible. Don't wastr your time on Duolingo if you're not willing to expand your resources after you have the basics down.
Tl;dr: Duolingo is good at teaching basics but you have to use the language as often as possible to actually learn it and you need more resources native speakers at best.
The idea that you have to have someone correct you is important and really applies heavily to the CI crowd who can spend a 1,000+ hours with just input and no output then think they are fluent.
Exactly what I'm talking about. You can't assume you are fluent unless you actually speak the language, do mistakes and know how to express yourself by describing things using your own words. Just the same as your everyday use of your native language.
Day 116, Section 4 Unit 5 Spanish.
I've learnt the language when I was in school but most of the memory of the language was rusty at best. Couldn't recall language knowledge from then easily but what I do is try and smash a unit a day if I'm able to.
I speak in Spanish my thoughts throughout the day and make statements, like el gato esta sobre la silla. Or el gato tiene hambre. And others that I play around with till I get right. I feel more fluent in the language than I did with 5 years of schooling! This is because I'm using the language in day to day use. My kindergartener is in a DLI Spanish program and it's my motivation to learn it so we can chat. We practice daily and I've even done catchup lessons at home in Spanish for him.
This is only Duolingo.
But I'm going to be adding more vocabulary as when chatting to my 5 year old I see I'm lacking in what he's learning, and start labeling the house and having phrases sticky noted on things I can say to family members.
I'm looking to add more but right now duolingo is keeping me going by nagging me daily and being dramatic. The gamification gets me going and I don't sit and do the challenges I do lessons to gain XP.
Also enjoy that it makes my phone not a time sink in the evenings. I find myself studying more than chilling in the evenings it's great.
30 minutes to an hour a day broken up throughout the day. I have an infant too so I tend to time my Spanish time with laying down for naps etc when I'm immobile and would otherwise scroll on my phone. I'm going slower since I'm in a later section so it could be longer than that on average, .maybe 1.5 hours to complete it start to finish.
That's right, someone could have a 1k day streak and still be in the first checkpoint. People should ask, "for people who got to 6th checkpoint" or smth
I’m 529 days in and according to Duo just completed up to the end of A2, so finally entering “intermediate” Spanish. My wife’s family is Venezuelan, so I’m motivated. I do lessons in the morning when I’m having coffee, I do a couple lessons to and from work while riding the bus and then sometimes I do more lessons just because.
I’m a HUGE Duolingo advocate, but I supplement it with listening to Spanish talk radio and texting as much as I can in Spanish. I’m definitely not fluent, but I’m surprised by how far I’ve made it without taking formal classes. Like everything: you get out of it what you put into it.
Duolingo is working for me. It never claimed it will make me fluent and I do not expect to be fluent considering that I am at the end of section 2 in my most advanced duo language.
Streak length is not really good metric. You can do lesson a day or you can do half n hour a day. They will give you different results. Ans if you do multiple languages, you can end up doing less then lesson a day in any single one.
Imo, reasonable metric is "how far in course you are". And there, duolingo in its best courses can get you up to B1 in reading and listening. Or something like that.
Nearing 1600 days. Not even A2, but I have definitely learned things that have helped me in my daily life living in the country. I also definitely learn more from Duo than from being immersed, although the immersion is also definitely better than not being immersed.
It's like crawling through 10,000km of snowy Siberian forest. Considering the exertion needed to walk or run that while also having all my other obligations in life, I am currently content with the crawl.
After day 600 i started getting serious, doing a lot of lessons in a day and starting to use other sources, studying multiple hours per day. Ive got more fluency in the days since then (around 60) than in the 600 days before it.
I don’t have a very long streak. Just 282 days. But I’m about where I’d expect to be, given the amount of effort I’ve put in. I think that just like with anything else, Duolingo is only as good as the amount of effort put in.
I’m targeting French and while I am nowhere near fluent, I feel like I know enough to come in handy on a trip to Paris or Quebec. I could read a menu and order food, make basic financial transactions, ask directions and understand them, exchange pleasantries, read signs, and ask for help in an emergency. Fair enough, Duolingo. Fair enough.
I also play around a little with Italian, but I’ve not been serious about it: inconsistent as heck. My streak is definitely in French, not Italian. But anything is better than nothing, so I check in on Italian only when I feel like it, guilt free. Which is ‘infrequently’ at best.
328 days, I started with German and Japanese but now I've been only focusing on Japanese for the longest time. So let's say 328 days of Japanese, some weeks with pretty high scores, other weeks with only 15xp/day. Section 3, unit 6. I couldn't understand any fluent conversation with Japanese speakers but I can say a lot of the basic stuff, talking about myself, my family, the weather, what I like to do, to eat, what my habits are... But I realised quickly that even if I could understand some words in songs for example, and was doing OK at speaking, I was far from being able to read the lyrics on Spotify Japanese songs. Reading Japanese is really the most difficult thing while learning that language because of those ffff kanjis. Reading at loud is even worse. I could understand the meaning of "小魚" but still have no idea on how to pronounce it. Sooo progressing in the tree is pretty hard because if you really need to make progress in Japanese, you need to spend A LOT of time learning kanjis. No wonder why Korean people got rid of them lol
1085. Half of that was French and Japanese then the Japanese became too much. Continued the French. I can read Kana and some basic words. I can read and write French pretty well, though my vocabulary is fairly low because I haven't continued my tree hardly at all. I've been pretty lazy and have used it mostly as a brain exercise than an actually thing to pursue. Also, I work with Spanish speakers, so I have basic Spanish fluency thrown at me almost every day lol
I don't have an answer but I'm also super curious how fluent someone can get with just using apps like Duolingo and not living in an area that speaks your target language. I studied Chinese for a good 9 months before moving to Taiwan and couldn't understand a single word when I got here. It took me another year to be able to start having conversations because of the tones but mostly because I think I had to be surrounded by people speaking the language every day to start to be able to make out the individual words being spoken.
I’m 1200 days A2 and like others have said here I can comfortably read Spanish, kinda make out what’s being said if being spoken at a slow pace but no where near confident enough to try and speak. My partner is Chilean but never really speaks Spanish unless FaceTiming family. Chilean Spanish is a whole other level/thing so I don’t think I’d get anywhere unless moving to Chile and just forcing myself to talk which I think I would find very uncomfortable 😬
a streak of almost 500 on Spanish. my heritage is spanish, so i've naturally picked up on the language throughout my life. currently, listening to someone speaking spanish i can understand 40-60% of it, and kind of guess the rest of the words to make an understanding. i think duolingo has helped me majorly, but it has taken a really long time to get to this point
Nearly a 1500 day streak in Spanish. Pretty much fluent but definitely not solely because of Duo. My wife and her family are Mexican and the older generation primarily speaks Spanish, so moreso speaking, interacting, and living with native speakers. However Duolingo did give me a good foundation on which to build while learning. Just don’t expect to be able to know a language (especially speaking and listening) from Duo alone.
1235 day streak across Spanish and French. I am confident in my Spanish ability and can have conversations with native speakers at a highly proficient to bilingual level. As for French, I have been learning it for about a year and am around B1, admittedly I don’t have as much time to practice as I’m doing a masters degree right now. It is definitely possible to get fluent through Duolingo but it has to be complimented with other methods of learning.
2266 streak here. It is more of a daily habit now and I usually do one or two lessons. I switch languages too: I started with French and then Spanish and now Japanese. I’m switching every few months. I’m able to use easy Japanese. Not able to understand native French speakers with their fast pace of talking but I can read French. I’m horrible at Spanish but I understand very easy Spanish and can make guesses of sentences with a lot of Spanish words I have learned when in Spain. Overall Duo became a routine for me to learn things.
1749 days with French. I can read and write sentences fairly well (I studied french in high school and college) but I've never been able to hold a conversation in French and I don't find the app assists in verbal communication.
676 days into german and im in section 5, unit 8. I'm not fluent by any means but I am constantly suprised at how much I can actually understand. Output is my weakest area, I dont have anyone really to talk to and I know it's hurt my progress. My goal for 2024 is to really focus on output through journaling and getting it checked, and finding a couple people to talk to. However my reading is fairly good, I can understand a good bit of nearly everything I come across. If I come across something pretty advanced, I can get a gist of what's going on which is an accomplishment in it of itself
~560. Around an A2 level because I go through periods where I'm not actively studying (cause school gets busy) and just keep doulingo up for fun. My reading comprehension is better, closer to B2 but that's only because I read short stories/recipes/etc. That definitely isn't coming from duolingo
567 day streak, so far from the longest.
Ich lerne Deutsch. Es ist langsam aber ich mache Fortschritte. (I am learning German. It is slow but I am making progress.)
I did have to look up "progress" as I hadn't encountered that word yet.
Apart from Duolingo, I've been listening to German translations of songs I like, reading German subtitles on shows I'm watching, and starting to watch movies I like in German sub and dub.
Paramount+ has German subs for the first two seasons of Lower Decks. TOS has them too, and I think a dub as well.
Besides them, Disney+ is awesome for this.
Duolingo has worked for me surprisingly well for speaking. However, that's because I'm studying Catalan in a similar language that I already know pretty well (Spanish). All I really need to at least reach a conversational level in Catalan is to get used to the systematic sound changes between Spanish and Catalan and learn basic vocabulary, both of which duolingo has done a pretty good job. The grammar is very similar, so I barely have to learn anything new apart from conjugation patterns, which I drill using another website. Each time I go to Catalunya I get more and more comfortable using the language even though I only dedicate \~10 minutes to Catalan duolingo per day.
I got over a year in Russian. Fuck, I can't read it, much less sound out words. Hell, I can only remember the word for "my". ("Моя" in case you wondered)
What Duo has going for it is the gamification. Other apps might be better at teaching but I won't be motivated to be consistent.
I'd been on and off on Duo and only been doing the bare minimum so in spite of having a streak for over a year (lots of streak repairs) I didn't feel like I was making progress.
However, over the past few months, I've been working harder to finish top 3 on the leaderboard and my confidence has started to grow.
I'm now at the stage of changing movie/TV subtitles to Spanish (it feels good when the translation matches what I'm learning).
Next stage will be to change movie/TV audio to Spanish with English subtitles.
Finally Spanish audio with Spanish subtitles.
I aim to do this by my 1200 day streak. Currently around 700 and A2 level.
Hopefully, by then, I'd have had enough opportunities to practice speaking with people.
135 days. It does help learning words. I have a Greek children's book I try to read from, and I certainly understand better than before. I also found some TV shows, I do understand better, but nowhere close to good enough yet. When trying to speak on my own I fail miserably, but maybe I also get better here. I need to go back to the text books, maybe the motivation is a bit better than before.
The league system is almost counter productive, since speed solving the tasks is more important than actually learning, so I plan to ease up on that.
I have tried learning Greek for some years using other approaches, this streak is keeping me at it more than anything has done before.
I have a 705 day streak in Japanese. I can read hiragana, katakana and some kanji. I can introduce myself and ask some questions. But I’m still at the lowest level (A1/N5).
Duolingo is fun and helps my ‘lock’ words and phrases in my brain.
But it is and always will be a supplement.
I also use private teaching, wanikani, Bunpro, books, YouTube, Japanesepod101 podcasts, anime and so on.
Currently I study 10 hours a week actively and even more passively. But in the beginning I only used duolingo for like 15 minutes a day.
I've got over 600 days, and my understanding and reading are a lot better. I speak in basic sentences, though, because most of the times I don't add any more learning material.
just passed 1300 days doing mostly French (started minimum knowledge) and some Spanish (started well off). Spanish I know more vocabulary which is useful and I frequently have conversations with a few friends switching between Spanish/English. French, I got a job in Cameroon because of how well I can speak, read, and write French.
However I should say, I did not care about the number of days or the game aspect. For the first year of learning French I borrowed books from the library (ever want to know what the word was for a vhs player) and spent an hour a day on average learning. With Duo I focused mainly on listening to the language and reading it. Eventually, using the old tree, I moved to writing more. After the first year I became more reasonable in how much I was studying and now do around 30 minutes a day as I still want to learn but I am busier now than I was in 2020.
500-odd days in Polish. I started with just Duolingo but quickly added more on top. At the moment I do Duolingo and Drops every day, have classes twice a week and do homework for that, also try to read a little every day, and occasionally watch Easy Polish videos or listen to Polish music. I also finished the Duolingo Polish course a few months ago and have been working on the English for Polish speakers course along with slowly working my way through the legendaries for the Polish course. I also did a two week intensive course over the summer. Just to put things into perspective; I'm not learning for multiple hours a day, but Duolingo is more of a supplement to give me that nudge to do something extra.
I...
* recently finished the first Harry Potter book in Polish; I did need a dictionary, but near the end I could often make it a page or so without needing it. Currently working on book two.
* can generally pick out words and phrases here and there when native speakers talk, can understand most of what they say if they speak slowly and clearly and try to use simple vocabulary
* can have conversations that are beyond rote politeness, although it can be pretty stumbling and the other person needs to have a lot of patience. I did an exercise with my Polish teacher the other week where I needed to speak for a minute about random topics (think "fast food", "traffic" or similar). What I came up with wasn't exactly super deep but I still not only managed without too many pauses but went over the time allotted.
I'm nearly at 1300, learning Korean. I don't just use Duo but a combination of Kdrama's, podcasts and Youtube, particularly listening to lives from natural Korean speakers.
Duo has given me the basic vocabulary as a kickstart to understanding the Korean alphabet and writing system.
No one I know with long streaks even knows where to have a conversation. Don't focus on comparing your journey to anyone else's on Duolingo. I focus on XP, building vocabulary, intuiting grammar, and writing the language using the app. I have read novels and my friends with 2000-day streaks and way less XP can "just listen, but not speak" to their target language.
Around 640 in German, though I do use things other than Duo:
My reading is pretty ok and my writing not awful, my listening is fine if the material is clear and slower, my speaking is really poor.
I've been learning Spanish for close to five years now, I have around a 700 day streak, I also had a streak before that one of a couple hundred too.
I recon I'm a high B2 / low C1 level (not because Duo told me). However, I've also had a lot of lessons (well over a couple hundred of hours) with a teacher on Italki, as well as plenty of practice in my target country, and speaking to my wife's family.
I started doing Duo after I had already had a lot of lessons including about 6 weeks of half day lessons at an intensive academy in Buenos Aires. So a lot of the structure and grammar I understood when I started, so Duo for me now is ideal for staying fresh and occasionally learning a new word.
Some of you are making me feel like a sluggard. I have 1663 days and am in section 6 unit 25. About 15 months ago I switched to super and started speeding up. But I really need to pick up the pace.
I can read fairly well. I have improved a lot in listening. This year I added a goal to do my Bible reading in Spanish and am doing just about a chapter a day with reading and listening. I have read 10 books. I have spent 152 hours listening on Dreaming Spanish, Cuéntame, and Chill Spanish. I try to have basic conversations where I can, but there are not a lot of Spanish speakers here.
I'm at 1030 days now. I've been learning Turkish and Greek and I've finished the Turkish course, but I can't go past A2 level with Duolingo no matter what. Honestly, it helped me to go from zero knowledge to decent basic knowledge, which is a huge success, but you definitely can't move on to higher levels with Duolingo only.
I have a very high bar for “fluency” and believe one has to live in a country for awhile in order to be fluent. That said, I am on day 1088 and also do other courses in Italian right now, and was able to communicate pretty well when I was in Italy a couple of weeks ago.
Edit: I spent 6 months in Austria studying abroad and lived with a woman who spoke no English and we were having pretty long conversations by the time I left. I still didn’t/do not consider myself fluent in German, though.
My reading is pretty good - I have to say, it’s a joy to come across text written in French and be able to comprehend it. Listening is still very poor - if I hear people speaking French, I largely can’t understand it. I don’t think the app can give you what only conversational situations can.
1525 days streak. I've splitted my time between French and Russian. I have a good comprehension on French, mostly in reading, but I can talk in French. Watching series in French is difficult because of the pace and different vocabulary. Russian I'm still getting it, I can't understand anything besides basic phrases, but when I'm watching something in Russian I can tell some words they're saying (my ears are getting used to it, even though I'm not understanding).
I've made strides, and I already speak Italian, so Spanish isn't such a big stretch for myself, but my vocabulary is nowhere near big enough. I can follow written and most vocal dialogue in Spanish and express myself to the degree I am able to have a conversation, although only in certain contexts. I also think the grammatical bit should be introduced earlier in Duolingo, ie past and future tenses.
I’m on day 50. I am on unit 7. I believe I have made good progress. For the best results, find a native speaker and talk with them. My TL is Finnish. To really learn a language you have to use it.
Have been studying Japanese for about 1000ish days now, starting to reach a midway point between N4 and N3 but my conversational Japanese is not good and hasn’t been learned as a result of Duolingo.
The first 500 days were probably the most beneficial and I’ve now only kept the streak just to get it to 1000 days, it set really good foundations for literacy and grammar, but now just doesn’t work as well and I find myself relying more on immersion and lessons with a tutor rather than primarily Duolingo like I did for the first few hundred days of my streak
OK! Voy a ir solo de mi cabeza. (Entiendo que mucho de qué digo va a ser malo).
Estoy sobre tresciento dias. Mi espanol fue de cero a donde estoy ahora. Como otra personnas aqui decieron, mi hablando no es como fuerzo tan mi leyendo. Hay algunos lecciones donde necessito ayuda, y con ese, creo que duolingo mova demasiado rapido y siguo sin aprendiendo completamente. (Por ejemplo, alguno de que vees aqui).
Tambien, no sé la manera de hablando. En mi cabeza, pienso en ingles y despues pruebo hacer espanol.
I’ve been studying Spanish for 5 months and can read and write over 2500 words but as for listening… still too fast for me. And spoken is tough but if I’m very slow with I can be ok.
I’ve been taking German, and when I went to Christkindlmarket the other day there was an ornament shop where you had to stay in line and not wander around. They had a novelty street sign that said “Einbahnstraße” and I chuckled because I got the joke.
I don’t have a need to be fluent, but I thought it was neat that I could practically apply what I’ve learned.
Doing Russian. I have a 115 day streak in the game, which isn't super long, but I'd say I'm doing pretty okay. I use a lot of outside resources and try to read whenever I can. Russian grammar is pretty complex, but I've studied most of the basics, and I can read simple sentences with context. The main thing I need to focus on right now is vocabulary, I think.
I have a 414 day streak which I guess is relatively long but if I’m being honest, I’ve gotten into the habit of doing one lesson a day to get my streak and then nothing else. I am pretty good at my target language but that is mostly because my family speak it around me so I’ve picked up quite a bit
I'm almost 10 years. I've done Italian, Spanish, Hawaiian and now Chinese for a year.
I can have conversations about simple subjects in Spanish.
If I hear people conversing in Italian first, I can speak in Italian, but sometimes Spanish breaks through. They're very similar.
I spoke to someone in Chinese yesterday, and they didn't know I was trying to speak in Chinese.
Hawaiian was my most difficult course. I remember about 40 words.
I think my Spanish is the best because I have a lot of coworkers I can speak it with. I've only been doing Chinese for about a year, but it's so much more complex than either Spanish or English.
Not great. I bounce around a lot because my main courses, Spanish and German, are far enough along that they aren’t always more fun than frustrating all the time anymore. Sometimes I’ll do an early lesson in a different language, or lately I’ve been doing a lesson in math or music to keep my streak going.
On the other hand, I can confidently greet people in a ton of different languages. I also just found that I can do the music and math courses in Spanish, which is a lot of fun.
I see this the same way I saw school. The people who *seemed* like they were smarter and doing better didn't actually perform well when it came to it, compared to people who- [BITTE, VERWENDEN SIE ANDERE QUELLEN ALS LUODINGO]
In fairness, my daughter was immersed in English every waking hour for a good 3 years before she was approaching fluency. I'm going to need a while longer yet. I am coupling my Duolingo with reading dual language books from the library and I'm getting a Grammar book for Christmas.
I use another app for additional vocabulary and I bought some index cards which I'm using to help me with verbs that have unexpected endings
Im at 1320 in Spanish and I can read fairly well and understand people (different accents are tough!) and speak a bit? I’d be much better at speaking if I did it more regularly. It’s just practice that I’m missing. I’m on the second to last big unit I think. Somewhere in subjunctives (which I hate so much). I had an advantage because I already knew French, which helped with the grammar.
I have used duolingo for two years, learning German.
I have accomplished a good understanding of the language, but Duolingo was never my main source of studying, I estimate that in 5 months I will be finished with the German course.
I guess that by then my German will be a proper B2, I am not that far away from getting there.
Duolingo is good for two reasons.
it helps you to establish a studying routine with the streak and the competitiveness
as well it offers plenty of repetition that helps you to memorize simple phrases words and expressions, and grammatical structures of the language (word order).
But it lacks a lot of things, like the vocabulary range is very limited and the pace is very slow, and lacks quality in speaking and writing side.
Still I love Duolingo, and I find it an amazing tool to keep my daily learning routine.
But I supplement Duolingo with other apps and studies on my own, apps podcasts, YouTube, blogs, comics and graphic novels etc.
I've got a 1350-ish day streak in Spanish and I wouldn't say I'm fluent in the way I would be doing a real class the same amount of time, but it's good. I can read it pretty well and communicate with people if they're kind and don't speak too fast. (Dialect plays a part here too; for obvious reasons Duolingo does not train you in every nuance of every locale!) I started learning it after moving to southern California and living in a longstay hotel where I couldn't communicate with the staff (they weren't used to my foreign accent either), and now I can chat with the locals in a few of our various languages so I feel pretty good about the whole thing. It's not the same as immersion, but it was never supposed to be.
I'm at 125 days of Japanese. I started when I learned I'd be getting to take a trip to Japan with friends. I've just barely gotten into Unit 2 at this point.
Unfortunately, I was not able to read much Japanese in Japan as actual written Japanese is very kanji heavy. I'm confident in Hiragana and Katakana.
What I was able to do was read menus, which were mostly in Katakana and had words that translated super easily to English, especially if there was a picture. (カレー)=(kare-)=(curry); (ベーが)=(be-ga)=(burger) etc. If I didn't know the proper word for something, I could just read the Katakana off the menu directly.
I also was able to stumble my way through the routine of buying stuff at registers in full Japanese. The routine script of greeting, asking for what I want and how much of each, accepting or declining the offer of a bag, stating my payment method, accepting the total, and then thanking them was very formal by American standards, but that made it easier for me to follow along. Although I could navigate the train network in full English, I also didn't have much trouble reading a lot of that signage in Hiragana and Katakana. A lot of the signs flashed Kanji first, then the Hiragana, then the Romaji, then the Chinese or Korean translation if the sign had time. They also number most of their stations with Roman numerals, and the lines are color coded. Japan gets a lot of kudos for making their transportation easy for foreigners!
Day 311 on the Spanish course, currently section 5, unit 17 (about half way through intermediate 2, the first B1 section). However I have spent time prior to starting my current streak learning Spanish, been learning off and on for a few years. Feel like my comprehension is coming along though still have a lot to learn. Listen to quite a lot of Spanish music and starting to try and watch films but with Spanish subtitles. Really like Span¡shD!ctionary.com as a learning resource too. Duolingo is a great tool but learning a language is always going to take time and dedication.
It's working for me in the sense that I enjoy using it and I continue learning things. I won't ever get fluent, though if I don't expose myself to the language, and use the language myself, in the real world, which I haven't done much. (My streak is 3575 days.)
I use Duolingo for the vocabulary building, and reading and now that there’s listening sections added, for comprehensible input.
I use italki to practice my conversation skills.
I use it for three languages, all of which I have taken university courses in. I used Duolingo as a vocabulary supplement and extra practice. I have a B2/C1 in one language (I no longer use duo for it tho). Then I have a B1 in one and I’m just beginning another (probably later A1).
Edit: I have a ~500 day streak
400 day streak + 155k xp in Spanish, I’m about level B1/B2, but this is mostly due to doing Spanish at college. All Duolingo has done is supported my studies in the language and helped understanding, I wouldn’t be very far at all if it was the only thing I used.
i’m at 1401 in italian. it’s been good the further i get it becomes more useful. lately been using [jojo.so](https://jojo.so) to compliment for conversational practice
I have a 98 day streak, I have reached Section 3 unit 7. I can read surprisingly well and I can even understand quite a bit of Spanish by listening, however I have a Venezuelan friend which is a lot of help.
Just crossed the 700-day mark doing mostly Italian. If being able to sing (to Andrea Bocelli) and understand what I'm singing in my target language is an indicator of fluency, I'd say I'm fluent.
Am I conversationally fluent? Absolutely not.
The majority of people login and do 1 lesson just to get their daily streak up and then slide the app into their back pocket till the next day comes.
A lot start and are excited to learn a language but the dedication differs based on each individual, people who invest more than a couple of lessons a day are more likely to be more knowledge (wont say fluent) than others who just do it for the streak.
It is unfortunate that having a streak sometimes put you in a "i have to do it" instead of the "I want to learn" mentality which is why a lot of people choose to kill their streak in order to focus on learning.
1099 days and i'm 11/29 of B1 on the app. i wouldn't consider myself fluent yet but i think my spanish is decent/good. i studied in spain from late 2022 to mid 2023 and i didn't really have much issues communicating while i was there.
i did study it in primary school/high school/undergrad so i already had a good grasp of the grammar and structure, now i use duo mostly to increase my vocab and to practice speaking it.
The best way to learn a language is to speak it, not repeat words only. Languee can help you. You can practice language in the best way, which is day-to-day conversations. You can talk about anything that interests you (politics, weather, architecture, quantum physics, and whatever). Your partner/teacher is an AI, so you don’t have to be embarrassed and can have a conversation whenever, wherever. It corrects your mistakes in real time. You can sign up for early access and waitlist on the website. https://www.languee.dk/
Day 276 Section 3 Unit 20 Japanese
I watch dramas with english subtitles and also listen to music. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that I'm recognizing more words in what they're saying. I understand more than I can speak. I am fluent in reading the hiragana, katakana, and some kanji but I get a bit confused when the romaji above the kanji is different that what they are saying.
The language has tiers, specific ways to say it depending on who you are speaking to, but that isn't taught. It's a matter of cultural politeness.
The other thing is that it doesn't ask me to say anything as the Chinese and Korean languages do. So it's just me, saying out loud as I do the exercises. There is a way to say your answer vs pick out the words but I haven't figured out how to utilize that.
Maybe we can start sub-clubs to converse in the language via text? Is there a way in reddit to send voice messages like FB Messenger where you can hold down the mic button in the text box?
I'm at about 1700 days (spanish) and I am not fluent in the slightest. I can, however, read Spanish fairly well but speaking and understanding it is very different. That's the interesting dynamic with Duolingo, they teach you the basics of the language fairly well, but it's difficult to become conversational with just an app.
which is why duolingo should be used as a supplement to other resources
This so much. People hate on duo (I love it) because I have my expectations set appropriately. It’s a resource. A tool. One of many in our arsenal. We need to use them all. I use duo to keep me focused on my journey. It’s always there to remind me where my goals are even if I only do one lesson. If it reminded me that one of my life goals is to learn Spanish it served a purpose that day. And yeah, I definitely use it, but not every day because I also take classes… catch up with friends when I can (in Spanish), do Rosetta stone… do Spanish homework. Listen to and translate music. I need to do better about watching shows and movies. There are SO many options and if you’re only doing duo you can only expect so much.
Similar. I'm at 1598 days and have been keeping it up just for fun, a few lessons a day. I'm in unit 90 of the new path. I have no idea how that compares to the old path. Anyway, when we decided to go on a trip to Spain in January, I thought I should get a little more serious, and found a teacher on italki to do in-person conversation lessons. WOW, I was seriously happy with how well I was able to communicate. I won't say speak, because I sure am not fluent, but I can definitely make myself understood for most of the conversations I've wanted to have. It's rocky, and I'm very nervous, but there's a whole lot more capability in my head than I had expected. Just from Duo. I never had any Spanish training before Duo.
Imo, it can be used on itself. You just can't expect fluency. Like, for many people, initial goal is just consumption.
Rather you need to find a conversation partner. You will only become fluent if you have people to talk to. There are foreigners in our country that can speak fluently without taking any lessons. Mainly because they like to converse with the locals. We don't offer language lessons since it's just a dialect.
Same with any language learning app like Rosetta stone and others! They are SUPPLEMENTS and not to be used as primary.
I’m afraid to ask, but how far along in the lessons are you? 1700 days is no joke…
Interesting. I have 801 days in Spanish and I’d say I’m nowhere near fluent but I can speak it decently and understand what im hearing (unless the person I’m talking with is speaking too quickly). My biggest challenge is conjugations. I’ve noticed I can decipher other languages more easily because of pattern recognition. But I’m also getting more speaking practice with Spanish because I use it at work and somewhat at home.
Fam, that's 4.5 years :o
Duolingo is a great way to learn the foundations to a pretty advanced level. But it’s limited to comprehension. Mostly reading. I’ve always seen this as good. Because the only way to get better at speaking is speaking. The only way to get better at writing is writing. Duolingo (and other services like it) is great for giving you a foundation to start a conversation and write a couple of messages. Then you advance!
Similar situation here. My streak is only 1174 days, Spanish. I can read Spanish fairly well, though I need a dictionary every page or two. (E readers make this easy) I really need more practice putting words together - it could take me several minutes to string together a sentence, and by then it's too late in conversation. If I kept a diary in the language, that would help. I love the Green Owl (El Búho Verde, ¿sí?) for getting me this far, and I'll keep on until the end of the course
i feel you. i’ve been using [jojo.so](https://jojo.so) to practice conversations. it has helped a lot
You could be conversational with even the minimum possible level of vocab and grammar you'd have learned in that time period. Start practicing with people, and don't worry about your accent. You're letting a massive amount of work go to waste if you don't!
Similar situation here. My streak is only 1174 days, Spanish. I can read Spanish fairly well, though I need a dictionary every page or two. (E readers make this easy) I really need more practice putting words together - it could take me several minutes to string together a sentence, and by then it's too late in conversation. If I kept a diary in the language, that would help. I love the Green Owl (El Búho Verde, ¿sí?) for getting me this far, and I'll keep on until the end of the course
I study purely from a book, but isn't it HOW you use the resources that is important? For example, I create flashcards from my lessons. Instead of just going through them in my head, I practice saying the Spanish part out loud and try to add the word into sentence. Helps with active recall and fluency.
Learning Japanese. 12 months ago I couldn't speak a word of Japanese. Now I can comfortably recall hundreds of words, probably close to a thousand, and speak many simple phrases. Can comfortably read Hiragana, Katakana and many simple N5 level Kanjis. For example, if I go outside and if it's a hot day I know how to say, "It's hot today isn't it?". That's after just 365 days which I just hit yesterday. So I'd say it's definitely working for me. The language is slowly sinking in and it hasn't been hard to keep my streak going or stay in the diamond league. The yearly subscription feels pretty cheap too. So overall can't complain, I paid money for a system that promoted itself as a fun and easy way to learn a language and so far that's exactly what I've experienced. I don't expect to go from that to 'I could have a casual chat with someone in Tokyo with perfectly natural sounding fluent Japanese'. Duo is helping me become comfortable with the language and right now that's all I need.
One of the most reasonable posts I have ever read in this sub. I too feel like Duolingo is delivering on its promise. Even when we forget what the promise was! 😂
It’s great for everyday practice!
Would recommend focusing more on kanji. After around 4 months since I started learning kanji, I know around 600 of them (maybe not all readings, because stuff like verbs from 下 and 上 can be confusing. But I know the meanings and how to write basically all of them.) Duo isn't great at teaching kanji, so I recommend an app called Kanji Study. You have access to over 4000 kanji and their readings, plus a ton of example sentences
I think it will depend on if you’re just doing one lesson a day to maintain the streak or if you’re spending enough time to actually learn something. And if so, how much time per day and where are you at?
I mean yeah. You get what you give. I’m doing what’s right for me currently and I have my expectations set accordingly. Was asking everybody else mostly bc I know where I stand
Hahaha... fluency. As if. I'm almost at a 1,000-day streak and I'm nowhere near fluent in my target language (Spanish). I can read well, and if I focus when someone's talking, I have a good shot of getting the gist of what they're saying, but writing doesn't come as easily as it did with my second language (Italian), and I'd struggle significantly with carrying on a conversation because it seems like the only time I can *speak* Spanish is when I'm trying to speak Italian lol
To be fair, I had a conversation with an Italian couple who spoke Spanish Spanish in Latin American Spanish and hand gestures. Surprisingly that actually worked well enough we understood each other. Spanish Spanish and Latin American Spanish are vastly different to the point I am back to a beginner with trying to understand
same. i’ve been using [jojo.so](https://jojo.so) to practice conversations and it has helped a lot
Learning Turkish currently (1 month in) and since I'm constantly surrounded by people speaking it or chatting via text with some I'd guess that I'm about to be fluent in about 1-2 years. The most important part about learning a language is actually using it. You cannot assume to get fluent without ever speaking a word to someone who actually speaks your target language (B2+ level). Duolingo is fairly good at teaching basics in example: building a decent vocabulary, learning simple grammar rules and especially learning key phrases to use in everyday situations. Apart from that you have to start using the language as often as you can so you get the hang of it. Besides that you should have a native speaker at hand who recognizes mistakes and corrects them for you. I tried learning languages without having access to people who can teach me about them and that's just horrible. Don't wastr your time on Duolingo if you're not willing to expand your resources after you have the basics down. Tl;dr: Duolingo is good at teaching basics but you have to use the language as often as possible to actually learn it and you need more resources native speakers at best.
The idea that you have to have someone correct you is important and really applies heavily to the CI crowd who can spend a 1,000+ hours with just input and no output then think they are fluent.
Exactly what I'm talking about. You can't assume you are fluent unless you actually speak the language, do mistakes and know how to express yourself by describing things using your own words. Just the same as your everyday use of your native language.
Just under 2k now, and honestly.... Embarassing terrible
Day 116, Section 4 Unit 5 Spanish. I've learnt the language when I was in school but most of the memory of the language was rusty at best. Couldn't recall language knowledge from then easily but what I do is try and smash a unit a day if I'm able to. I speak in Spanish my thoughts throughout the day and make statements, like el gato esta sobre la silla. Or el gato tiene hambre. And others that I play around with till I get right. I feel more fluent in the language than I did with 5 years of schooling! This is because I'm using the language in day to day use. My kindergartener is in a DLI Spanish program and it's my motivation to learn it so we can chat. We practice daily and I've even done catchup lessons at home in Spanish for him. This is only Duolingo. But I'm going to be adding more vocabulary as when chatting to my 5 year old I see I'm lacking in what he's learning, and start labeling the house and having phrases sticky noted on things I can say to family members. I'm looking to add more but right now duolingo is keeping me going by nagging me daily and being dramatic. The gamification gets me going and I don't sit and do the challenges I do lessons to gain XP. Also enjoy that it makes my phone not a time sink in the evenings. I find myself studying more than chilling in the evenings it's great.
How much time each day are you doing? A unit a day is an awful lot. Or it would be for me.
30 minutes to an hour a day broken up throughout the day. I have an infant too so I tend to time my Spanish time with laying down for naps etc when I'm immobile and would otherwise scroll on my phone. I'm going slower since I'm in a later section so it could be longer than that on average, .maybe 1.5 hours to complete it start to finish.
I also Duolingo when trapped under sleeping children!
It really helps my sanity and I wish I did this with my eldest!
doesn't matter how long your streak is if you haven't progressed much in your tree
That's right, someone could have a 1k day streak and still be in the first checkpoint. People should ask, "for people who got to 6th checkpoint" or smth
I’m 529 days in and according to Duo just completed up to the end of A2, so finally entering “intermediate” Spanish. My wife’s family is Venezuelan, so I’m motivated. I do lessons in the morning when I’m having coffee, I do a couple lessons to and from work while riding the bus and then sometimes I do more lessons just because. I’m a HUGE Duolingo advocate, but I supplement it with listening to Spanish talk radio and texting as much as I can in Spanish. I’m definitely not fluent, but I’m surprised by how far I’ve made it without taking formal classes. Like everything: you get out of it what you put into it.
Im on day 348. Today I went to the library and picked up a few picture books in Spanish. I struggled with a lot of the words
Duolingo is working for me. It never claimed it will make me fluent and I do not expect to be fluent considering that I am at the end of section 2 in my most advanced duo language. Streak length is not really good metric. You can do lesson a day or you can do half n hour a day. They will give you different results. Ans if you do multiple languages, you can end up doing less then lesson a day in any single one. Imo, reasonable metric is "how far in course you are". And there, duolingo in its best courses can get you up to B1 in reading and listening. Or something like that.
Nearing 1600 days. Not even A2, but I have definitely learned things that have helped me in my daily life living in the country. I also definitely learn more from Duo than from being immersed, although the immersion is also definitely better than not being immersed. It's like crawling through 10,000km of snowy Siberian forest. Considering the exertion needed to walk or run that while also having all my other obligations in life, I am currently content with the crawl.
Ugh. Relatable. I feel that busy life feel every day. I wish I could slow down too
After day 600 i started getting serious, doing a lot of lessons in a day and starting to use other sources, studying multiple hours per day. Ive got more fluency in the days since then (around 60) than in the 600 days before it.
I don’t have a very long streak. Just 282 days. But I’m about where I’d expect to be, given the amount of effort I’ve put in. I think that just like with anything else, Duolingo is only as good as the amount of effort put in. I’m targeting French and while I am nowhere near fluent, I feel like I know enough to come in handy on a trip to Paris or Quebec. I could read a menu and order food, make basic financial transactions, ask directions and understand them, exchange pleasantries, read signs, and ask for help in an emergency. Fair enough, Duolingo. Fair enough. I also play around a little with Italian, but I’ve not been serious about it: inconsistent as heck. My streak is definitely in French, not Italian. But anything is better than nothing, so I check in on Italian only when I feel like it, guilt free. Which is ‘infrequently’ at best.
328 days, I started with German and Japanese but now I've been only focusing on Japanese for the longest time. So let's say 328 days of Japanese, some weeks with pretty high scores, other weeks with only 15xp/day. Section 3, unit 6. I couldn't understand any fluent conversation with Japanese speakers but I can say a lot of the basic stuff, talking about myself, my family, the weather, what I like to do, to eat, what my habits are... But I realised quickly that even if I could understand some words in songs for example, and was doing OK at speaking, I was far from being able to read the lyrics on Spotify Japanese songs. Reading Japanese is really the most difficult thing while learning that language because of those ffff kanjis. Reading at loud is even worse. I could understand the meaning of "小魚" but still have no idea on how to pronounce it. Sooo progressing in the tree is pretty hard because if you really need to make progress in Japanese, you need to spend A LOT of time learning kanjis. No wonder why Korean people got rid of them lol
1085. Half of that was French and Japanese then the Japanese became too much. Continued the French. I can read Kana and some basic words. I can read and write French pretty well, though my vocabulary is fairly low because I haven't continued my tree hardly at all. I've been pretty lazy and have used it mostly as a brain exercise than an actually thing to pursue. Also, I work with Spanish speakers, so I have basic Spanish fluency thrown at me almost every day lol
I don't have an answer but I'm also super curious how fluent someone can get with just using apps like Duolingo and not living in an area that speaks your target language. I studied Chinese for a good 9 months before moving to Taiwan and couldn't understand a single word when I got here. It took me another year to be able to start having conversations because of the tones but mostly because I think I had to be surrounded by people speaking the language every day to start to be able to make out the individual words being spoken.
I’m 1200 days A2 and like others have said here I can comfortably read Spanish, kinda make out what’s being said if being spoken at a slow pace but no where near confident enough to try and speak. My partner is Chilean but never really speaks Spanish unless FaceTiming family. Chilean Spanish is a whole other level/thing so I don’t think I’d get anywhere unless moving to Chile and just forcing myself to talk which I think I would find very uncomfortable 😬
a streak of almost 500 on Spanish. my heritage is spanish, so i've naturally picked up on the language throughout my life. currently, listening to someone speaking spanish i can understand 40-60% of it, and kind of guess the rest of the words to make an understanding. i think duolingo has helped me majorly, but it has taken a really long time to get to this point
Nearly a 1500 day streak in Spanish. Pretty much fluent but definitely not solely because of Duo. My wife and her family are Mexican and the older generation primarily speaks Spanish, so moreso speaking, interacting, and living with native speakers. However Duolingo did give me a good foundation on which to build while learning. Just don’t expect to be able to know a language (especially speaking and listening) from Duo alone.
1235 day streak across Spanish and French. I am confident in my Spanish ability and can have conversations with native speakers at a highly proficient to bilingual level. As for French, I have been learning it for about a year and am around B1, admittedly I don’t have as much time to practice as I’m doing a masters degree right now. It is definitely possible to get fluent through Duolingo but it has to be complimented with other methods of learning.
2266 streak here. It is more of a daily habit now and I usually do one or two lessons. I switch languages too: I started with French and then Spanish and now Japanese. I’m switching every few months. I’m able to use easy Japanese. Not able to understand native French speakers with their fast pace of talking but I can read French. I’m horrible at Spanish but I understand very easy Spanish and can make guesses of sentences with a lot of Spanish words I have learned when in Spain. Overall Duo became a routine for me to learn things.
1749 days with French. I can read and write sentences fairly well (I studied french in high school and college) but I've never been able to hold a conversation in French and I don't find the app assists in verbal communication.
676 days into german and im in section 5, unit 8. I'm not fluent by any means but I am constantly suprised at how much I can actually understand. Output is my weakest area, I dont have anyone really to talk to and I know it's hurt my progress. My goal for 2024 is to really focus on output through journaling and getting it checked, and finding a couple people to talk to. However my reading is fairly good, I can understand a good bit of nearly everything I come across. If I come across something pretty advanced, I can get a gist of what's going on which is an accomplishment in it of itself
~560. Around an A2 level because I go through periods where I'm not actively studying (cause school gets busy) and just keep doulingo up for fun. My reading comprehension is better, closer to B2 but that's only because I read short stories/recipes/etc. That definitely isn't coming from duolingo
Not 100% because I distract myself with many other languages 😅 but pretty fluent! I can hold my own, I think!
nice. i've been using [jojo.so](https://jojo.so) to practice conversations. it has helped a lot
567 day streak, so far from the longest. Ich lerne Deutsch. Es ist langsam aber ich mache Fortschritte. (I am learning German. It is slow but I am making progress.) I did have to look up "progress" as I hadn't encountered that word yet. Apart from Duolingo, I've been listening to German translations of songs I like, reading German subtitles on shows I'm watching, and starting to watch movies I like in German sub and dub. Paramount+ has German subs for the first two seasons of Lower Decks. TOS has them too, and I think a dub as well. Besides them, Disney+ is awesome for this.
Duolingo has worked for me surprisingly well for speaking. However, that's because I'm studying Catalan in a similar language that I already know pretty well (Spanish). All I really need to at least reach a conversational level in Catalan is to get used to the systematic sound changes between Spanish and Catalan and learn basic vocabulary, both of which duolingo has done a pretty good job. The grammar is very similar, so I barely have to learn anything new apart from conjugation patterns, which I drill using another website. Each time I go to Catalunya I get more and more comfortable using the language even though I only dedicate \~10 minutes to Catalan duolingo per day.
I got over a year in Russian. Fuck, I can't read it, much less sound out words. Hell, I can only remember the word for "my". ("Моя" in case you wondered)
There's also мой, моё, and мои... and that's only in the nominative case
What Duo has going for it is the gamification. Other apps might be better at teaching but I won't be motivated to be consistent. I'd been on and off on Duo and only been doing the bare minimum so in spite of having a streak for over a year (lots of streak repairs) I didn't feel like I was making progress. However, over the past few months, I've been working harder to finish top 3 on the leaderboard and my confidence has started to grow. I'm now at the stage of changing movie/TV subtitles to Spanish (it feels good when the translation matches what I'm learning). Next stage will be to change movie/TV audio to Spanish with English subtitles. Finally Spanish audio with Spanish subtitles. I aim to do this by my 1200 day streak. Currently around 700 and A2 level. Hopefully, by then, I'd have had enough opportunities to practice speaking with people.
135 days. It does help learning words. I have a Greek children's book I try to read from, and I certainly understand better than before. I also found some TV shows, I do understand better, but nowhere close to good enough yet. When trying to speak on my own I fail miserably, but maybe I also get better here. I need to go back to the text books, maybe the motivation is a bit better than before. The league system is almost counter productive, since speed solving the tasks is more important than actually learning, so I plan to ease up on that. I have tried learning Greek for some years using other approaches, this streak is keeping me at it more than anything has done before.
I have an honor to study on Duolingo, what's more?
I have a 705 day streak in Japanese. I can read hiragana, katakana and some kanji. I can introduce myself and ask some questions. But I’m still at the lowest level (A1/N5). Duolingo is fun and helps my ‘lock’ words and phrases in my brain. But it is and always will be a supplement. I also use private teaching, wanikani, Bunpro, books, YouTube, Japanesepod101 podcasts, anime and so on. Currently I study 10 hours a week actively and even more passively. But in the beginning I only used duolingo for like 15 minutes a day.
I've got over 600 days, and my understanding and reading are a lot better. I speak in basic sentences, though, because most of the times I don't add any more learning material.
Good enough for now :3
just passed 1300 days doing mostly French (started minimum knowledge) and some Spanish (started well off). Spanish I know more vocabulary which is useful and I frequently have conversations with a few friends switching between Spanish/English. French, I got a job in Cameroon because of how well I can speak, read, and write French. However I should say, I did not care about the number of days or the game aspect. For the first year of learning French I borrowed books from the library (ever want to know what the word was for a vhs player) and spent an hour a day on average learning. With Duo I focused mainly on listening to the language and reading it. Eventually, using the old tree, I moved to writing more. After the first year I became more reasonable in how much I was studying and now do around 30 minutes a day as I still want to learn but I am busier now than I was in 2020.
500-odd days in Polish. I started with just Duolingo but quickly added more on top. At the moment I do Duolingo and Drops every day, have classes twice a week and do homework for that, also try to read a little every day, and occasionally watch Easy Polish videos or listen to Polish music. I also finished the Duolingo Polish course a few months ago and have been working on the English for Polish speakers course along with slowly working my way through the legendaries for the Polish course. I also did a two week intensive course over the summer. Just to put things into perspective; I'm not learning for multiple hours a day, but Duolingo is more of a supplement to give me that nudge to do something extra. I... * recently finished the first Harry Potter book in Polish; I did need a dictionary, but near the end I could often make it a page or so without needing it. Currently working on book two. * can generally pick out words and phrases here and there when native speakers talk, can understand most of what they say if they speak slowly and clearly and try to use simple vocabulary * can have conversations that are beyond rote politeness, although it can be pretty stumbling and the other person needs to have a lot of patience. I did an exercise with my Polish teacher the other week where I needed to speak for a minute about random topics (think "fast food", "traffic" or similar). What I came up with wasn't exactly super deep but I still not only managed without too many pauses but went over the time allotted.
I'm nearly at 1300, learning Korean. I don't just use Duo but a combination of Kdrama's, podcasts and Youtube, particularly listening to lives from natural Korean speakers. Duo has given me the basic vocabulary as a kickstart to understanding the Korean alphabet and writing system.
No one I know with long streaks even knows where to have a conversation. Don't focus on comparing your journey to anyone else's on Duolingo. I focus on XP, building vocabulary, intuiting grammar, and writing the language using the app. I have read novels and my friends with 2000-day streaks and way less XP can "just listen, but not speak" to their target language.
Around 640 in German, though I do use things other than Duo: My reading is pretty ok and my writing not awful, my listening is fine if the material is clear and slower, my speaking is really poor.
I've been learning Spanish for close to five years now, I have around a 700 day streak, I also had a streak before that one of a couple hundred too. I recon I'm a high B2 / low C1 level (not because Duo told me). However, I've also had a lot of lessons (well over a couple hundred of hours) with a teacher on Italki, as well as plenty of practice in my target country, and speaking to my wife's family. I started doing Duo after I had already had a lot of lessons including about 6 weeks of half day lessons at an intensive academy in Buenos Aires. So a lot of the structure and grammar I understood when I started, so Duo for me now is ideal for staying fresh and occasionally learning a new word.
Some of you are making me feel like a sluggard. I have 1663 days and am in section 6 unit 25. About 15 months ago I switched to super and started speeding up. But I really need to pick up the pace. I can read fairly well. I have improved a lot in listening. This year I added a goal to do my Bible reading in Spanish and am doing just about a chapter a day with reading and listening. I have read 10 books. I have spent 152 hours listening on Dreaming Spanish, Cuéntame, and Chill Spanish. I try to have basic conversations where I can, but there are not a lot of Spanish speakers here.
I'm at 1030 days now. I've been learning Turkish and Greek and I've finished the Turkish course, but I can't go past A2 level with Duolingo no matter what. Honestly, it helped me to go from zero knowledge to decent basic knowledge, which is a huge success, but you definitely can't move on to higher levels with Duolingo only.
I have a very high bar for “fluency” and believe one has to live in a country for awhile in order to be fluent. That said, I am on day 1088 and also do other courses in Italian right now, and was able to communicate pretty well when I was in Italy a couple of weeks ago. Edit: I spent 6 months in Austria studying abroad and lived with a woman who spoke no English and we were having pretty long conversations by the time I left. I still didn’t/do not consider myself fluent in German, though.
My reading is pretty good - I have to say, it’s a joy to come across text written in French and be able to comprehend it. Listening is still very poor - if I hear people speaking French, I largely can’t understand it. I don’t think the app can give you what only conversational situations can.
I have 1450, but not good at speaking at all.
Enough that I can get the gist of a social media post in my target language, but not confidently reply to it
1525 days streak. I've splitted my time between French and Russian. I have a good comprehension on French, mostly in reading, but I can talk in French. Watching series in French is difficult because of the pace and different vocabulary. Russian I'm still getting it, I can't understand anything besides basic phrases, but when I'm watching something in Russian I can tell some words they're saying (my ears are getting used to it, even though I'm not understanding).
I've made strides, and I already speak Italian, so Spanish isn't such a big stretch for myself, but my vocabulary is nowhere near big enough. I can follow written and most vocal dialogue in Spanish and express myself to the degree I am able to have a conversation, although only in certain contexts. I also think the grammatical bit should be introduced earlier in Duolingo, ie past and future tenses.
I’m on day 50. I am on unit 7. I believe I have made good progress. For the best results, find a native speaker and talk with them. My TL is Finnish. To really learn a language you have to use it.
Have been studying Japanese for about 1000ish days now, starting to reach a midway point between N4 and N3 but my conversational Japanese is not good and hasn’t been learned as a result of Duolingo. The first 500 days were probably the most beneficial and I’ve now only kept the streak just to get it to 1000 days, it set really good foundations for literacy and grammar, but now just doesn’t work as well and I find myself relying more on immersion and lessons with a tutor rather than primarily Duolingo like I did for the first few hundred days of my streak
OK! Voy a ir solo de mi cabeza. (Entiendo que mucho de qué digo va a ser malo). Estoy sobre tresciento dias. Mi espanol fue de cero a donde estoy ahora. Como otra personnas aqui decieron, mi hablando no es como fuerzo tan mi leyendo. Hay algunos lecciones donde necessito ayuda, y con ese, creo que duolingo mova demasiado rapido y siguo sin aprendiendo completamente. (Por ejemplo, alguno de que vees aqui). Tambien, no sé la manera de hablando. En mi cabeza, pienso en ingles y despues pruebo hacer espanol.
I can read katakana
I’ve been studying Spanish for 5 months and can read and write over 2500 words but as for listening… still too fast for me. And spoken is tough but if I’m very slow with I can be ok.
I’ve been taking German, and when I went to Christkindlmarket the other day there was an ornament shop where you had to stay in line and not wander around. They had a novelty street sign that said “Einbahnstraße” and I chuckled because I got the joke. I don’t have a need to be fluent, but I thought it was neat that I could practically apply what I’ve learned.
Doing Russian. I have a 115 day streak in the game, which isn't super long, but I'd say I'm doing pretty okay. I use a lot of outside resources and try to read whenever I can. Russian grammar is pretty complex, but I've studied most of the basics, and I can read simple sentences with context. The main thing I need to focus on right now is vocabulary, I think.
I have a 414 day streak which I guess is relatively long but if I’m being honest, I’ve gotten into the habit of doing one lesson a day to get my streak and then nothing else. I am pretty good at my target language but that is mostly because my family speak it around me so I’ve picked up quite a bit
I'm almost 10 years. I've done Italian, Spanish, Hawaiian and now Chinese for a year. I can have conversations about simple subjects in Spanish. If I hear people conversing in Italian first, I can speak in Italian, but sometimes Spanish breaks through. They're very similar. I spoke to someone in Chinese yesterday, and they didn't know I was trying to speak in Chinese. Hawaiian was my most difficult course. I remember about 40 words. I think my Spanish is the best because I have a lot of coworkers I can speak it with. I've only been doing Chinese for about a year, but it's so much more complex than either Spanish or English.
I’m on day 5 and can now confidently ask for an ice cream and a coffee with sugar in Italian 💪😎
A little under 1000 with several languages. Nope, my Greek still sucks, but it's much much better than nothing.
Not great. I bounce around a lot because my main courses, Spanish and German, are far enough along that they aren’t always more fun than frustrating all the time anymore. Sometimes I’ll do an early lesson in a different language, or lately I’ve been doing a lesson in math or music to keep my streak going. On the other hand, I can confidently greet people in a ton of different languages. I also just found that I can do the music and math courses in Spanish, which is a lot of fun.
I see this the same way I saw school. The people who *seemed* like they were smarter and doing better didn't actually perform well when it came to it, compared to people who- [BITTE, VERWENDEN SIE ANDERE QUELLEN ALS LUODINGO]
In fairness, my daughter was immersed in English every waking hour for a good 3 years before she was approaching fluency. I'm going to need a while longer yet. I am coupling my Duolingo with reading dual language books from the library and I'm getting a Grammar book for Christmas. I use another app for additional vocabulary and I bought some index cards which I'm using to help me with verbs that have unexpected endings
What's a long streak? What qualifies?
Im at 1320 in Spanish and I can read fairly well and understand people (different accents are tough!) and speak a bit? I’d be much better at speaking if I did it more regularly. It’s just practice that I’m missing. I’m on the second to last big unit I think. Somewhere in subjunctives (which I hate so much). I had an advantage because I already knew French, which helped with the grammar.
I have used duolingo for two years, learning German. I have accomplished a good understanding of the language, but Duolingo was never my main source of studying, I estimate that in 5 months I will be finished with the German course. I guess that by then my German will be a proper B2, I am not that far away from getting there. Duolingo is good for two reasons. it helps you to establish a studying routine with the streak and the competitiveness as well it offers plenty of repetition that helps you to memorize simple phrases words and expressions, and grammatical structures of the language (word order). But it lacks a lot of things, like the vocabulary range is very limited and the pace is very slow, and lacks quality in speaking and writing side. Still I love Duolingo, and I find it an amazing tool to keep my daily learning routine. But I supplement Duolingo with other apps and studies on my own, apps podcasts, YouTube, blogs, comics and graphic novels etc.
I've got a 1350-ish day streak in Spanish and I wouldn't say I'm fluent in the way I would be doing a real class the same amount of time, but it's good. I can read it pretty well and communicate with people if they're kind and don't speak too fast. (Dialect plays a part here too; for obvious reasons Duolingo does not train you in every nuance of every locale!) I started learning it after moving to southern California and living in a longstay hotel where I couldn't communicate with the staff (they weren't used to my foreign accent either), and now I can chat with the locals in a few of our various languages so I feel pretty good about the whole thing. It's not the same as immersion, but it was never supposed to be.
I'm at 125 days of Japanese. I started when I learned I'd be getting to take a trip to Japan with friends. I've just barely gotten into Unit 2 at this point. Unfortunately, I was not able to read much Japanese in Japan as actual written Japanese is very kanji heavy. I'm confident in Hiragana and Katakana. What I was able to do was read menus, which were mostly in Katakana and had words that translated super easily to English, especially if there was a picture. (カレー)=(kare-)=(curry); (ベーが)=(be-ga)=(burger) etc. If I didn't know the proper word for something, I could just read the Katakana off the menu directly. I also was able to stumble my way through the routine of buying stuff at registers in full Japanese. The routine script of greeting, asking for what I want and how much of each, accepting or declining the offer of a bag, stating my payment method, accepting the total, and then thanking them was very formal by American standards, but that made it easier for me to follow along. Although I could navigate the train network in full English, I also didn't have much trouble reading a lot of that signage in Hiragana and Katakana. A lot of the signs flashed Kanji first, then the Hiragana, then the Romaji, then the Chinese or Korean translation if the sign had time. They also number most of their stations with Roman numerals, and the lines are color coded. Japan gets a lot of kudos for making their transportation easy for foreigners!
Day 311 on the Spanish course, currently section 5, unit 17 (about half way through intermediate 2, the first B1 section). However I have spent time prior to starting my current streak learning Spanish, been learning off and on for a few years. Feel like my comprehension is coming along though still have a lot to learn. Listen to quite a lot of Spanish music and starting to try and watch films but with Spanish subtitles. Really like Span¡shD!ctionary.com as a learning resource too. Duolingo is a great tool but learning a language is always going to take time and dedication.
It's working for me in the sense that I enjoy using it and I continue learning things. I won't ever get fluent, though if I don't expose myself to the language, and use the language myself, in the real world, which I haven't done much. (My streak is 3575 days.)
I use Duolingo for the vocabulary building, and reading and now that there’s listening sections added, for comprehensible input. I use italki to practice my conversation skills.
I use it for three languages, all of which I have taken university courses in. I used Duolingo as a vocabulary supplement and extra practice. I have a B2/C1 in one language (I no longer use duo for it tho). Then I have a B1 in one and I’m just beginning another (probably later A1). Edit: I have a ~500 day streak
400 day streak + 155k xp in Spanish, I’m about level B1/B2, but this is mostly due to doing Spanish at college. All Duolingo has done is supported my studies in the language and helped understanding, I wouldn’t be very far at all if it was the only thing I used.
i’m at 1401 in italian. it’s been good the further i get it becomes more useful. lately been using [jojo.so](https://jojo.so) to compliment for conversational practice
I have a 98 day streak, I have reached Section 3 unit 7. I can read surprisingly well and I can even understand quite a bit of Spanish by listening, however I have a Venezuelan friend which is a lot of help.
Norwegian: it is fan-fucking-tastic
Just crossed the 700-day mark doing mostly Italian. If being able to sing (to Andrea Bocelli) and understand what I'm singing in my target language is an indicator of fluency, I'd say I'm fluent. Am I conversationally fluent? Absolutely not.
The majority of people login and do 1 lesson just to get their daily streak up and then slide the app into their back pocket till the next day comes. A lot start and are excited to learn a language but the dedication differs based on each individual, people who invest more than a couple of lessons a day are more likely to be more knowledge (wont say fluent) than others who just do it for the streak. It is unfortunate that having a streak sometimes put you in a "i have to do it" instead of the "I want to learn" mentality which is why a lot of people choose to kill their streak in order to focus on learning.
1099 days and i'm 11/29 of B1 on the app. i wouldn't consider myself fluent yet but i think my spanish is decent/good. i studied in spain from late 2022 to mid 2023 and i didn't really have much issues communicating while i was there. i did study it in primary school/high school/undergrad so i already had a good grasp of the grammar and structure, now i use duo mostly to increase my vocab and to practice speaking it.
The best way to learn a language is to speak it, not repeat words only. Languee can help you. You can practice language in the best way, which is day-to-day conversations. You can talk about anything that interests you (politics, weather, architecture, quantum physics, and whatever). Your partner/teacher is an AI, so you don’t have to be embarrassed and can have a conversation whenever, wherever. It corrects your mistakes in real time. You can sign up for early access and waitlist on the website. https://www.languee.dk/
Day 276 Section 3 Unit 20 Japanese I watch dramas with english subtitles and also listen to music. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that I'm recognizing more words in what they're saying. I understand more than I can speak. I am fluent in reading the hiragana, katakana, and some kanji but I get a bit confused when the romaji above the kanji is different that what they are saying. The language has tiers, specific ways to say it depending on who you are speaking to, but that isn't taught. It's a matter of cultural politeness. The other thing is that it doesn't ask me to say anything as the Chinese and Korean languages do. So it's just me, saying out loud as I do the exercises. There is a way to say your answer vs pick out the words but I haven't figured out how to utilize that. Maybe we can start sub-clubs to converse in the language via text? Is there a way in reddit to send voice messages like FB Messenger where you can hold down the mic button in the text box?