Leaning a new language with a poor memory.
January 10, 2016 3:42 PM Subscribe
It's my 50th year and I still don't know another language. I am determined to learn Spanish and I've started with Duolingo, but it doesn't seem to "stick. I've repeated the basic lessons a few times, but keep getting some words wrong. I've just done these questions, what is wrong with me?!
Are they any good tips or methods on how to remember what I've just done ?
Best answer: I am learning a new language too. One thing I've learned is that forgetting something and relearning it is a key part - it's the foundation of Spaced Repetition concepts like Duolingo. For Duolingo, I suggest you just move on once you pass a lesson. Then tomorrow, go back and redo the older ones. Keep doing that. It's part of the Duolingo method. Eventually you will just know that a gato is a cat.
Once I was comfortable with Duolingo and committed to language learning, I started supplementing with other resources - making flashcards with Duolingo words/grammar and studying them using Spaced Repetition. Using words and grammar to write paragraphs in Lang-8. Using Michel Thomas tapes to attack language learning through listening and speaking, etc. etc. As wintersweet says - working up to a basic level of fluency to be able to read and listen to Spanish-language media.
posted by muddgirl at 4:00 PM on January 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
Once I was comfortable with Duolingo and committed to language learning, I started supplementing with other resources - making flashcards with Duolingo words/grammar and studying them using Spaced Repetition. Using words and grammar to write paragraphs in Lang-8. Using Michel Thomas tapes to attack language learning through listening and speaking, etc. etc. As wintersweet says - working up to a basic level of fluency to be able to read and listen to Spanish-language media.
posted by muddgirl at 4:00 PM on January 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
FWIW I picked up the banjo recently... my first fretted stringed instrument ever, although I had years of classical training. I'm 50. It's really hard to get learning to stick at this age. I wish I had a better answer other than that I had to accept my limitations.
wintersweet has some good ideas above.
Is it possible that there's a Spanish learners' club nearby, or maybe even online? Nothing like speaking the language with others to help learn it. I took intensive Spanish in college and all the courses were taught in Spanish with a heavy class discussion component. By the end of the second term I probably would have been comfortable going to Latin America by myself.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:00 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
wintersweet has some good ideas above.
Is it possible that there's a Spanish learners' club nearby, or maybe even online? Nothing like speaking the language with others to help learn it. I took intensive Spanish in college and all the courses were taught in Spanish with a heavy class discussion component. By the end of the second term I probably would have been comfortable going to Latin America by myself.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:00 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
My experience with Duolingo is that it is helpful but it's not in itself sufficient. I don't think its algorithms are enough to ensure that you get enough repetition of the vocabulary you need to learn (and learning enough vocabulary is, once you progress beyond the elementary level, very much the hard part of learning another language), but I also think that the exercises themselves are narrow enough that you just don't get enough different types of exposure to make the words and phrases stick.
I suggest you find as many other sorts of ways to practice your Spanish as you can, and incorporate them into your efforts as much as possible. Start by just reviewing other lists of phrase book/survival vocabulary that you find on the web, then, make flashcards (perhaps using another app, like Anki, rather than dealing with physical cards -- but make the actual cards yourself if you think it might be useful for your learning style), and as soon as you have enough of a basis to do it, try to work real-world language examples into your practice. You can find lots of Spanish videos and written works available on the web -- newspapers, etc. It'll take awhile before you are ready for that but once you are, it'll help reinforce what you're picking up from Duolingo, and give you experience using your language abilities in other contexts, which will strengthen the skills you're learning. Also, consider at least reading web forums/bulletin boards in Spanish, even if you don't contribute, just for the sake of seeing more real-world examples. (And when you have specific questions, the forums at WordReference.com are tremendously helpful for things like understanding the difference between vocabulary words or bits of grammar.)
Practicing the skills in a variety of different contexts helps reinforce them more than just using them in the same lessons/practice exercises over and over, and real-world language examples help with exposure to vocabulary, which is the limiting problem for the second language student in the long run.
posted by mister pointy at 4:12 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I suggest you find as many other sorts of ways to practice your Spanish as you can, and incorporate them into your efforts as much as possible. Start by just reviewing other lists of phrase book/survival vocabulary that you find on the web, then, make flashcards (perhaps using another app, like Anki, rather than dealing with physical cards -- but make the actual cards yourself if you think it might be useful for your learning style), and as soon as you have enough of a basis to do it, try to work real-world language examples into your practice. You can find lots of Spanish videos and written works available on the web -- newspapers, etc. It'll take awhile before you are ready for that but once you are, it'll help reinforce what you're picking up from Duolingo, and give you experience using your language abilities in other contexts, which will strengthen the skills you're learning. Also, consider at least reading web forums/bulletin boards in Spanish, even if you don't contribute, just for the sake of seeing more real-world examples. (And when you have specific questions, the forums at WordReference.com are tremendously helpful for things like understanding the difference between vocabulary words or bits of grammar.)
Practicing the skills in a variety of different contexts helps reinforce them more than just using them in the same lessons/practice exercises over and over, and real-world language examples help with exposure to vocabulary, which is the limiting problem for the second language student in the long run.
posted by mister pointy at 4:12 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
A friend who teaches a foreign language (French) once mentioned to me that a typical learner needs to encounter a word 20-30 times, sometimes more, before she or he will remember it.
Context is helpful, too: don't just remember that hijo means "son"; try to put it in a context that makes it memorable. E.g., if you're Christian (or just aware of the Christian roots of western culture), think of "el Padre, el Hijo Jesucristo, y el Espíritu Santo."
And, FWIW, I learned a number of languages in my late teens and early to mid 20s (French, Latin, German, Dutch, Italian, and a smattering of ancient Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese), but when I tackled Norwegian in my 40s, it seemed a lot tougher. Some of that is probably just because I don't have the time now that I had then, but I do suspect that learning new tricks takes more effort for this old dog.
posted by brianogilvie at 4:14 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Context is helpful, too: don't just remember that hijo means "son"; try to put it in a context that makes it memorable. E.g., if you're Christian (or just aware of the Christian roots of western culture), think of "el Padre, el Hijo Jesucristo, y el Espíritu Santo."
And, FWIW, I learned a number of languages in my late teens and early to mid 20s (French, Latin, German, Dutch, Italian, and a smattering of ancient Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese), but when I tackled Norwegian in my 40s, it seemed a lot tougher. Some of that is probably just because I don't have the time now that I had then, but I do suspect that learning new tricks takes more effort for this old dog.
posted by brianogilvie at 4:14 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I also have a terrible memory and do Duolingo, and the most helpful thing to me has been the strengthen skills thing. Just doing the lessons isn't sufficient to make things stick for me--I do the lesson, and then go do the timed strengthen skills drill (which can cover either just that section or everything you've learnt to date) for a while.
For me, having to remember the thing, and remember it against the clock, has been really effective. Just do it over and over again until the association is automatic, and you don't have to think about it anymore.
posted by MeghanC at 4:15 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
For me, having to remember the thing, and remember it against the clock, has been really effective. Just do it over and over again until the association is automatic, and you don't have to think about it anymore.
posted by MeghanC at 4:15 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
MeghanC nailed it. The cool thing about Duolingo is Strengthen Weak Skills. It takes some time for things to sink in. You probably won't get things even if you repeat lessons. But over time, you'll go back and redo some things, and after a while, it'll start to stick. It'll take a few months, so don't get discouraged.
If you'd like to supplement Duolingo, I think the best thing is to look at media in that language. Listen to music, read the newspaper, etc. none of it will make sense at first, but gradually you'll start to see/hear words you recognize. And of course, there's nothing like talking to a native speaker.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:51 PM on January 10, 2016
If you'd like to supplement Duolingo, I think the best thing is to look at media in that language. Listen to music, read the newspaper, etc. none of it will make sense at first, but gradually you'll start to see/hear words you recognize. And of course, there's nothing like talking to a native speaker.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:51 PM on January 10, 2016
People learn via interactions with all their senses, which is why good teachers don't just lecture. Speaking/reading is only part of the puzzle. Try writing some of the lessons.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:55 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:55 PM on January 10, 2016
I'm going to add the Keep the faith anecdote as well. I turned to Duolingo as a refresher on .french a couple months back - 30 years after Jr. High French classes - and actually packed it in because I felt I wasn't getting anywhere. But 2 weeks ago I was in Paris and tried having basic conversations with people and holy shit the knowledge was just There. It had sunk in after all. (I even went on a DATE on New Year's Eve with a guy, and we spoke in French more so than in .english!)
I'd try adding some kind of Spanish Learner's club stuff to that as well; Duolingo is good for drilling words, but a conversation will help really lock things in in a way that 's more natural-feeling, and you may surprise yourself how much you know after all.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:59 PM on January 10, 2016
I'd try adding some kind of Spanish Learner's club stuff to that as well; Duolingo is good for drilling words, but a conversation will help really lock things in in a way that 's more natural-feeling, and you may surprise yourself how much you know after all.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:59 PM on January 10, 2016
Fwiw, I found duolingo to be awesome for bringing my French speaking and understanding up a notch, but I had studied that formally for several years beforehand and also dabbled in it ever since. My habit with duolingo was just to do a lesson or two a day, and that was totally sufficient to improve my ear and remind me of forgotten concepts. When I decided to try to pick up some Spanish (which I am totally naive to) using duolingo on a similar schedule it was a total flop for me. There were also a few lessons in the French section that involved some structures I had not worked with before, and they are not sticking well and/or I can only use them in the very specific way of the example in the duolingo. Ymmv but maybe duolingo just isn't a good way to introduce language concepts for some people. I've thought about what I should do to get somewhere with Spanish and it seems to me I need to start with some formal classes...
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:12 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:12 PM on January 10, 2016
Also, if you have the Duolingo phone/tablet app, I've found it's helpful to switch between using the app and then doing lessons on the Duolingo website on my laptop. They cover the same material, but in a different structure. I think for language learning, encountering words in different contexts is helpful. Yet I agree that while Duolingo is a good place to start, it probably isn't sufficient to get most people fluent on its own.
posted by lisa g at 5:52 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by lisa g at 5:52 PM on January 10, 2016
Best answer: Telenovela.
I'm not even kidding you. They over-enunciate (thank you!) and are super over-dramatic so you get context clues. I also think they speak slower than many native speakers and the grammar is usually very good.
You may also learn to deliver a truly good side-eye.
posted by 26.2 at 5:52 PM on January 10, 2016 [13 favorites]
I'm not even kidding you. They over-enunciate (thank you!) and are super over-dramatic so you get context clues. I also think they speak slower than many native speakers and the grammar is usually very good.
You may also learn to deliver a truly good side-eye.
posted by 26.2 at 5:52 PM on January 10, 2016 [13 favorites]
I like Duolingo better than Rosetta Stone, but they both teach intuitively when compared to how we were taught languages in school. My library offers a free subscription to Rosetta, and I've been taking advantage for both Spanish and French. Perhaps you have something similar available to you?
My other suggestion is to hit up the library for spanish children's books and audio tapes. They are easier to follow along, and may be stories you already know.
posted by TauLepton at 6:20 PM on January 10, 2016
My other suggestion is to hit up the library for spanish children's books and audio tapes. They are easier to follow along, and may be stories you already know.
posted by TauLepton at 6:20 PM on January 10, 2016
I haven't used DuoLingo, but I will say that after several years of trying to learn French in high school and college, I actually finally became semi-conversational with a combination of phrase book + audio. I don't know why it stuck when years of language lab tapes didn't, but my guess is twofold: the phrases were all in context and with a purpose, rather than "random lesson for this week," and that my learning style is very dominantly visual-- and reading the text while also listening to it, then listening over and over (while running, actually), and picturing the text in my mind's eye while saying it really helped it sink in finally.
posted by instamatic at 7:24 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by instamatic at 7:24 PM on January 10, 2016
Things take as long as they're gonna take. Figure out how long it takes to do a level, multiply by 15 levels, that's roughly how long it will take you to finish the course. So what if you're 20% or 50% slower than average, maybe you'll take a year and a half to finish Duolingo instead of a year for someone with more affinity for languages. It doesn't matter as long as you stick with it. The only way you can go wrong is by giving up.
posted by miyabo at 7:57 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by miyabo at 7:57 PM on January 10, 2016
For words that just won't stick in memory, I do some or all of the following. I use a word processor for the first one, Anki, a spaced repetition software, for the rest. In the following 'target' is the word you're trying to memorize
- A two column list with target followed by English word. Just read it. Don't try to memorize, don't test your self, just read it several times a day for several days. I also use do this when I add many new words at once.
The rest are flash cards.
- Target in a phrase that is common to you. To make it easy, make phrases where you already know the foreign other words. Easier still is don't bother learning the other foreign words
- Phrase where the English word sounds like the target. E.g. for the Spanish target 'sorpresa', which means surprise, my flash card is 'A sorbet surprise' & 'Una sorpresa sorbete' (oops - this assume you know what sorbet is).
- For targets where you confuse target with a similar sounding word, create a phrase of words containing the distinctive sound of one of the words. E.g., for 'nuestros' and 'nosotros' I made 'We were young' & 'Nosotros éramos jóvenes' because the Spanish phrase has many 'O's, there is an 'O' in each emphasized syllable, and there are no 'U's
- Images. Pair a simple image with a target. Excellent technique but time consuming. One must learn how to make an image card in the app, find the images and sometimes crop the images. I do the last 2 while listening to podcasts. Public Anki decks have about 2200 distinct images last time I checked. There are education sites with many images ripe for cropping. Search 'picture based learning' and target language
Searching Google Images with target and 'pictogram' is either wonderful or no results. 'Icon' also works, but not as well because many results are too small or vaguely connected to the target. You can also click 'search tools' and select 'type' select 'clip art' or 'line drawing', though the latter doesn't work often for me.
posted by Homer42 at 9:24 PM on January 10, 2016
- A two column list with target followed by English word. Just read it. Don't try to memorize, don't test your self, just read it several times a day for several days. I also use do this when I add many new words at once.
The rest are flash cards.
- Target in a phrase that is common to you. To make it easy, make phrases where you already know the foreign other words. Easier still is don't bother learning the other foreign words
- Phrase where the English word sounds like the target. E.g. for the Spanish target 'sorpresa', which means surprise, my flash card is 'A sorbet surprise' & 'Una sorpresa sorbete' (oops - this assume you know what sorbet is).
- For targets where you confuse target with a similar sounding word, create a phrase of words containing the distinctive sound of one of the words. E.g., for 'nuestros' and 'nosotros' I made 'We were young' & 'Nosotros éramos jóvenes' because the Spanish phrase has many 'O's, there is an 'O' in each emphasized syllable, and there are no 'U's
- Images. Pair a simple image with a target. Excellent technique but time consuming. One must learn how to make an image card in the app, find the images and sometimes crop the images. I do the last 2 while listening to podcasts. Public Anki decks have about 2200 distinct images last time I checked. There are education sites with many images ripe for cropping. Search 'picture based learning' and target language
Searching Google Images with target and 'pictogram' is either wonderful or no results. 'Icon' also works, but not as well because many results are too small or vaguely connected to the target. You can also click 'search tools' and select 'type' select 'clip art' or 'line drawing', though the latter doesn't work often for me.
posted by Homer42 at 9:24 PM on January 10, 2016
Duolingo is great at incentivising daily practice. The disappointment of breaking a 70 day streak was crushing! As others have said, using the strengthen skills tool often helps to solidify the vocabulary. If you want to progress faster, try turning up the minimum xp to maintain a streak. Mind's set at 20 xp (2 lessons) per day, which is good enough to keep my conversational Spanish up to par, but when I started tackling French, I found that I needed four or so lessons per day to progress as quickly as I wanted.
Duo's comments section also helped a lot, because native speakers can explain some of the more confusing grammar rules in a way that the lessons just don't. If I kept messing up on a certain phrase or tense, I could read through the comments and often get a better grasp on both what the rule was and why it applied (or, sometimes, didn't) in that particular sentence.
Conversing with other people is a wonderful way to make the concepts stick in your head. Some folks I know have really enjoyed using Livemocha for this, but I haven't tried it.
Good on you for expanding your horizons!
posted by landunderwave at 10:33 PM on January 10, 2016
Duo's comments section also helped a lot, because native speakers can explain some of the more confusing grammar rules in a way that the lessons just don't. If I kept messing up on a certain phrase or tense, I could read through the comments and often get a better grasp on both what the rule was and why it applied (or, sometimes, didn't) in that particular sentence.
Conversing with other people is a wonderful way to make the concepts stick in your head. Some folks I know have really enjoyed using Livemocha for this, but I haven't tried it.
Good on you for expanding your horizons!
posted by landunderwave at 10:33 PM on January 10, 2016
I signed up for a class at my local community college. Having a routine, being with other learners, and using our vocabulary in conversations in class was really helpful. The routine, schedule, and repetition were also great for keeping me on track. Our teacher also had us sing songs and read the lyrics and translate them--something you can easily do on your own.
posted by stillmoving at 5:48 AM on January 11, 2016
posted by stillmoving at 5:48 AM on January 11, 2016
You might just learn language differently. There's lots of different approaches to it.
If it helps, Duolingo does nothing for me. I found that I learn by exposure. To get better at Italian I read a short introduction to structure. Most basic language books will do the same. Then, I started reading.
So, I've just finished reading Italian mystery novels by Pietro Colaprico and stories by Manzini and Recami. I understand now maybe 80% of what I'm reading and the rest I can guess by context. After seeing the same word popup I start to infer what it means. So I keep improving.
I just went to Duolingo Italian and tried to test out of it. How do you think I did? I failed even passing the first few levels. One main reason is I don't know many of the basic words for animals like 'monkey' or 'elephant' - I have yet to encounter them in my readings!.
So Duolingo says I don't know any Italian. And yet I am reading Italian novels. The paradoxes of language learning.
posted by vacapinta at 7:36 AM on January 11, 2016
If it helps, Duolingo does nothing for me. I found that I learn by exposure. To get better at Italian I read a short introduction to structure. Most basic language books will do the same. Then, I started reading.
So, I've just finished reading Italian mystery novels by Pietro Colaprico and stories by Manzini and Recami. I understand now maybe 80% of what I'm reading and the rest I can guess by context. After seeing the same word popup I start to infer what it means. So I keep improving.
I just went to Duolingo Italian and tried to test out of it. How do you think I did? I failed even passing the first few levels. One main reason is I don't know many of the basic words for animals like 'monkey' or 'elephant' - I have yet to encounter them in my readings!.
So Duolingo says I don't know any Italian. And yet I am reading Italian novels. The paradoxes of language learning.
posted by vacapinta at 7:36 AM on January 11, 2016
Nothing's wrong with you! It's just that
I've repeated the basic lessons a few times
It takes many, more than a few times! brianogilvie's language teacher friend says 20-30 times or more; it takes many more times than that to maintain a language. And if we don't use a language, even if it's our mother tongue, we start forgetting.
I think the early stage of picking up basic vocabulary and grammar is not much different to remembering anything else: if you use a phone number a lot, or a credit card number or password... long and meaningless they may be, but you find you eventually remember them, sometimes without even any conscious effort on your part, without even intending to. It's just repetition. The main thing with language learning for you right now I think is, you don't yet know how long it's supposed to take — and this is where many people give up, thinking they're just not good at it. As EmpressCallipygos says, keep the faith!
Are you using the "strengthen skills" feature of Duolingo? It is not in the lessons that the retaining-what-you've-learnt happens; that happens as you keep using the "strengthen skills" feature, which asks you to recall what you've learnt. As muddgirl says, it's forgetting something and relearning it that is the key part of spaced repetition. Good thing about the "strengthen skills" feature is, as you progress through the tree, it will keep throwing up the words you've learnt in new sentences, combinations and contexts. That is how it sticks.
Whenever I feel like try as I might, nothing is sticking on Duolingo, that means I'm going too fast, taking in too many new lessons without doing enough "strengthen skills". If you take new lessons too slowly, you get bored; if you do them too quickly, you get too much wrong, feel like nothing is sticking, and get discouraged. There is a sweet spot in-between, and all you have to do is see how you feel and adjust the ratio of new lessons to "strengthen skills" to suit where you are. Like right now, nothing seems to stick, so I would recommend you completely stop taking new lessons and touching the tree at all, and just strengthen skills. I'd practise without a timer, because that keeps prompting you on what you got wrong until you get it, whereas the one with the timer just ends the practice session when time runs out, and having to restart is a bit of a hassle, and doesn't necessarily return you to the same material. (Timer is great for later, when you're more confident.)
Try to do about 50 points a day if possible, but anything 20 or above is good. Read out loud if you can as you are learning — I often find it easier to remember how things sound. Keep the streak going by doing it every day, and before you know it, you'll find that it is sticking for you. It's a thing that honestly, once you get used to it, barely feels like it takes much effort. And the result, of a previously secret code revealing itself to you as you find you can read more and more bits of Twitter headlines (follow Spanish news, and find their headlines talking about much of same stuff as English news!) or understand more and more of what people are saying (watch a Russian interview with Regina Spektor, and understand when she's saying "thanks"!), feels like magic.
There's a lot of good advice for how to learn a language in this thread, but I think much of it is for when you are further along; right now, Duolingo is quite enough. Duolingo's Spanish tree was the first one I did, and what gave me confidence for language-learning; Duolingo has many flaws, but their Spanish tree is the best one out of the ones I've done, with good structure, explanations, and reasonably good audio. I also found Spanish to be the easiest language to learn from English, compared to other languages. So I absolutely believe you can do it!
posted by catchingsignals at 7:52 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've repeated the basic lessons a few times
It takes many, more than a few times! brianogilvie's language teacher friend says 20-30 times or more; it takes many more times than that to maintain a language. And if we don't use a language, even if it's our mother tongue, we start forgetting.
I think the early stage of picking up basic vocabulary and grammar is not much different to remembering anything else: if you use a phone number a lot, or a credit card number or password... long and meaningless they may be, but you find you eventually remember them, sometimes without even any conscious effort on your part, without even intending to. It's just repetition. The main thing with language learning for you right now I think is, you don't yet know how long it's supposed to take — and this is where many people give up, thinking they're just not good at it. As EmpressCallipygos says, keep the faith!
Are you using the "strengthen skills" feature of Duolingo? It is not in the lessons that the retaining-what-you've-learnt happens; that happens as you keep using the "strengthen skills" feature, which asks you to recall what you've learnt. As muddgirl says, it's forgetting something and relearning it that is the key part of spaced repetition. Good thing about the "strengthen skills" feature is, as you progress through the tree, it will keep throwing up the words you've learnt in new sentences, combinations and contexts. That is how it sticks.
Whenever I feel like try as I might, nothing is sticking on Duolingo, that means I'm going too fast, taking in too many new lessons without doing enough "strengthen skills". If you take new lessons too slowly, you get bored; if you do them too quickly, you get too much wrong, feel like nothing is sticking, and get discouraged. There is a sweet spot in-between, and all you have to do is see how you feel and adjust the ratio of new lessons to "strengthen skills" to suit where you are. Like right now, nothing seems to stick, so I would recommend you completely stop taking new lessons and touching the tree at all, and just strengthen skills. I'd practise without a timer, because that keeps prompting you on what you got wrong until you get it, whereas the one with the timer just ends the practice session when time runs out, and having to restart is a bit of a hassle, and doesn't necessarily return you to the same material. (Timer is great for later, when you're more confident.)
Try to do about 50 points a day if possible, but anything 20 or above is good. Read out loud if you can as you are learning — I often find it easier to remember how things sound. Keep the streak going by doing it every day, and before you know it, you'll find that it is sticking for you. It's a thing that honestly, once you get used to it, barely feels like it takes much effort. And the result, of a previously secret code revealing itself to you as you find you can read more and more bits of Twitter headlines (follow Spanish news, and find their headlines talking about much of same stuff as English news!) or understand more and more of what people are saying (watch a Russian interview with Regina Spektor, and understand when she's saying "thanks"!), feels like magic.
There's a lot of good advice for how to learn a language in this thread, but I think much of it is for when you are further along; right now, Duolingo is quite enough. Duolingo's Spanish tree was the first one I did, and what gave me confidence for language-learning; Duolingo has many flaws, but their Spanish tree is the best one out of the ones I've done, with good structure, explanations, and reasonably good audio. I also found Spanish to be the easiest language to learn from English, compared to other languages. So I absolutely believe you can do it!
posted by catchingsignals at 7:52 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have been learning a new language too, and found that duolingo introduces the words too quickly to "stick." I usually use some sort of flashcard app to review each new level several times, and then after that the built-in reviewing functions are enough.
I also agree with people that duolingo alone is not enough-- right now I use duolingo, the app babbel (which has more grammar), and take an adult education class 1x a week. The combination, unsurprisingly, has been more effective than any of the apps alone. I get more practice in different settings, and get exposed to words and concepts for the "first" time at different stages in all three mediums so I get new chances for it to sink in.
When you have more than one app/ location to study, you can also study "more" without pushing further ahead than you can absorb. So, doing basic lessons on 2 apps for a long time in one day lets you reinforce, but spending super long on duolingo in one day will move you further through the tree but maybe not in a way you can lastingly comprehend.
TV was not as useful for me initially... After a few months of study and at a super basic conversational level, it can help me practice distinguishing sounds and reinforce words and sentence structures. When I was just just starting out though, I think an hour spent on TV was 100x less effective than an hour with flash cards. It was just too hard to help.
However, I mainly just wanted to encourage you-- I have found that memorizing words gets much easier the more you know! The first couple hundred words were so, so, difficult to make stick. I do not have a good memory for that sort of thing. But now, I can learn words much faster. I think my brain is used to learning them, but also increased familiarity with the language makes the words more meaningful and easier to remember. One you know what a Spanish word "should" sound like, and get a subconscious understanding of roots and word parts, you won't need to memorize the "whole" word to learn it. It becomes closer to the difficulty level of learning a new vocabulary word in English, versus memorizing a string of nonsense sounds, which was what it used to be like.
posted by sometamegazelle at 4:17 PM on January 11, 2016
I also agree with people that duolingo alone is not enough-- right now I use duolingo, the app babbel (which has more grammar), and take an adult education class 1x a week. The combination, unsurprisingly, has been more effective than any of the apps alone. I get more practice in different settings, and get exposed to words and concepts for the "first" time at different stages in all three mediums so I get new chances for it to sink in.
When you have more than one app/ location to study, you can also study "more" without pushing further ahead than you can absorb. So, doing basic lessons on 2 apps for a long time in one day lets you reinforce, but spending super long on duolingo in one day will move you further through the tree but maybe not in a way you can lastingly comprehend.
TV was not as useful for me initially... After a few months of study and at a super basic conversational level, it can help me practice distinguishing sounds and reinforce words and sentence structures. When I was just just starting out though, I think an hour spent on TV was 100x less effective than an hour with flash cards. It was just too hard to help.
However, I mainly just wanted to encourage you-- I have found that memorizing words gets much easier the more you know! The first couple hundred words were so, so, difficult to make stick. I do not have a good memory for that sort of thing. But now, I can learn words much faster. I think my brain is used to learning them, but also increased familiarity with the language makes the words more meaningful and easier to remember. One you know what a Spanish word "should" sound like, and get a subconscious understanding of roots and word parts, you won't need to memorize the "whole" word to learn it. It becomes closer to the difficulty level of learning a new vocabulary word in English, versus memorizing a string of nonsense sounds, which was what it used to be like.
posted by sometamegazelle at 4:17 PM on January 11, 2016
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- Make meaningful, short sentences using the word (preferably sentences that are true, emotional, and/or funny). It's OK if some of the sentence is in English for now.
- Say it aloud while you work on it.
- Write it on stickies and put it on related things in your home (label your objects, put verbs in relevant places, etc.).
Vocabulary doesn't tend to stick if you don't have anything to use it for, so have a goal of working up to kids' books/TV shows/listening to music/talking to somebody/etc.
posted by wintersweet at 3:53 PM on January 10, 2016