Duolingo Anyone?

[Prudie]

Are any other ABers trying to learn a language with Duolingo? Any of you tried and gave up or even better feel it was really worthwhile? I'm on my 74 day Spanish streak but not sure how I'm really getting on.

[sandyRoe]

Tu hablas unas, Prudie ? y yo hablo un poco, también.
Pero nosotros hablamos mejor inglés.

[sandyRoe]

Mi gusto Duolingo!

[Gizmonster]

I'm also learning Spanish on DL.
My tip - always read the tips that accompany the lesson. When you click on the circle that opens up each level, you'll see "tips".
When you reach Checkpoint 5, there are no more tips .... it's madness and when the forums were open (they closed earlier this year), people kept asking for tips to be included.
Go at your own speed - whether that's one lesson per day or twenty lessons a day ..... everyone is different and what works for one person won't necessarily work for someone else.
Today was my 1224th day by the way ..... approx 3 1/2 years :)

[Gizmonster]

Sandy - that should be:
me gusta Duolingo.

[sandyRoe]

I'm still making basic errors even after some ochenta días. :-((

[Buenchico]

^^^ As 'gustar' isn't reflexive, I can't see why either 'mi' (Italian?) or 'me' should come into it. Neither can I see why the third person form (as used by GM) should be used either.

Simply 'gusto Duolingo' or, for stress, 'yo gusto Duolingo' looks better to me. Mind you, it is over half a century since I studied Spanish at school ;-)

[Prudie]

Si Sandy, Yo hablo un poco. Giz that's really impressive. So being serious for a moment, I have done Rosetta Stone, Babel (on my phone) and a couple of terms of adult learning in Spanish but they focus so much on tourist phrases. I have French and German to A level so understand probably more than someone who's never really learnt a language and am familiar with tenses and genders etc. So far I've found Duolingo the best as it actually teaches you the formal verbs etc rather than asking where the bus stop is. I also tend to get near perfect scores each day but I still don't feel I could even begin to say what I wanted to a Spanish person. Maybe that will come as the course advances?

[The Builder]

Well done on that Prudes. I finished the Swedish tree a while ago.
I just go back every day and do the practice routines.
Apart from being great fun, it can actually amount to something. It'll never make us anywhere near fluent, but I've taken a couple of tests, and I can get to around B1 level (intermediate).
(A1/A2 is lower/upper beginner. C1/C2 is seriously good.

As long as you stick at it, you don't have to worry about how well you're doing. Just try to finish the tree.

[Prudie]

Too advanced for me Chris but both Duolingo and google translate give I like as me gusta.

[Peter Pedant]

I tried arabic ( not duo lingo)
and cdnt get it to work so had wasted my moolah - loo-loo, soldi, moneda
and havent tried it again

VERY easy to do evg classes in thpanith
less easy in arabic - but hey I am hoping for the start of the academic year!

and good luck

[sandyRoe]

Buena suerte con el árabe, pp

[Peter Pedant]

I watch France inter a lot
no not for spanish - but I note there is France inter in Thpanith. Internet - there ARE slow language channels.... where... they ....speak....very ..... clearly

Prood if you have done a language to A level
I would do what interpreters do to learn a language: you buy a lext book and dictionary and work your way thro it. Thpanith is EASILY amenable for that. In my immersion course (Granada) I thought I was ready for a newspaper by the end of the first week, and wrote to el pais ( monitored by a teacher) at the end of the fourth ( not printed)

and chris you naughty boy!
mi gusta - yes mee gooooster, is an impersonal verb and takes an accusative as the subject ( no prob here, every subject does NOT have to be in the nominative)
direct parallel ( with English that is!)
It is raining in London - - - does NOT equal - - - - London rains
jesus
Il fait beau - - not bow fayz foo !
dei and kry - kry me pisteuein - I must believe ( acc+infin)
Greek of course

[sandyRoe]

I'll just slowly plough through DL. Some of the English words needed to learn at a higher level are unknown to me.

[Peter Pedant]

dictionary?

[Prudie]

PP I did do 2 terms of evening classes, you know like the Council run, but it was all about ordering a meal,catching a bus or buying some apples. I wanted to learn formally like what I did at skool, declensions, tenses and correct grammar. Duolingo at lest seems to give a nod to that but you may well be right, a formal textbook may be my preferred learning method as it's how I learnt F and G.

[sandyRoe]

No, no. I know what that means. :-)

[Patsy33]

Well done, Prudie.
My Uncle gave me a book on learning the Spanish language several years ago. I was doing quite well, I thought.. I kept forgetting words that I learned! I did a bit at school too. It's something you need to keep at, which I didn't. When you think you know enough to get you by, and in Spain and hear the locals speaking so fast, you feel like saying, "Slow down!"..:-)

[Prudie]

That's the thing Patsy, when I see it written down I understand it all instantly but when you hear them speak it is so fast that I can't follow a word.

[JimF]

"As 'gustar' isn't reflexive"

That's got nothing to do with it. Gustar means "it is pleasing", like the French verb plaîre

So, "me gusta xxx" means "xxx is pleasing to me.

And, if "xxx" is plural, then it's "me gustan"

Explained very well here:
https://chatterbug.com/grammar/spanish/I-like-me-gusta

[Gizmonster]

You beat me to it Jim.
Gustar and encantar work backwards like Jim explained.
A few examples to help you understand:
Te gusto = I please you = you like me.
Nos gustan = they/you(plural) please us = we like them/you(plural).
Les gustamos = we please them/you(plural) = they like us/you(plural).

I hope this helps.