Duolingo

[Fleur-de-Lys]

Why not just order in French?

Well now, where's the fun in that? 

[Gardener]

Why not just order in French?

Well now, where's the fun in that? 

Well, depends on who you're eating with I suppose.

[yt][/yt]

[Daniel]

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[Xavier]

I only heard of DuoLingo through the posters here at SD. I signed up some time ago.

https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Xavier369818 I won a Latin trophy. Working on the Greek now.

I also signed up for some other languages just for fun. Took French in high school so brushing up on that.

[Daniel]

I just tried it out with Latin. I'd like it more if they had used the ecclesiastical pronunciations, but what do you expect? (I just disabled the sounds. Classical pronunciation gets on my nerves.)

Seems more like a game, but it just might work for reading/writing/translation practice. So far it reminds me very much of Hans Ørberg's Lingua Latina. I doubt it'll help much with speaking or fluency though, but you gotta start somewhere.

My only other complaint so far is the "woman has a wife" thing. I don't know if they're just trying to be goofy, or trying to push an agenda, but it's one strike against them.

edit - I must also say that I'm impressed at the flexibility in the way they allow you to translate the sentences (Latin to English as well as English to Latin... there's not just one single right answer, which is good, because Latin doesn't perfectly map onto English in the first place). I only wish that they'd allow for a "thou"/"ye" distinction, but I suppose it's no big deal.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I find myself spending a lot more time on Duolingo these days.

I'm still learning German, Russian, and Arabic, and I recently started Chinese, which I'm really enjoying.

[Lynne]

One of their French lessons (or was it Latin?) was a woman has a wife...

Yes. They also have male speakers reading sentences in the feminine and vice versa, which seriously undermines the learner's ability to learn gendered forms.

No, the sentence was "a woman has a wife" which as we all know is ridiculous.

Have you seen any other cases of indoctrination in their lessons?

[Daniel]

Another complaint I have with the Latin: some of the expected translations are excessively nit-picky.

For example, when ludus first showed up (without any context), I naturally translated it as "game". Because that's how I've always heard the word used. Yet Duolingo expects us to translate it as "school". (Guess that's good to know though!)

Then there is discipulus, which I wanted to translate as "disciple". Yet Duolingo expects "student". Seems a bit arbitrary, especially without context. (I mean, do we say that Plato was a "disciple" of Socrates, or do we say that he was a "student" of Socrates? Is there really much difference, apart from some subtleties in connotation which in many cases can be overlooked anyway?)

Another complaint I have is that Duolingo requires you to translate phrases such as natus est to "was born", using "was" rather than "is". Which I guess is understandable. However, both are good English translations. (At least with "born", since the English word "born" (without any helping verbs) is always to be regarded as a passive adjective of the past/perfect tense--an adjective indicating that the subject has completely undergone a change in status (and, in this case, a permanent change in status). Maybe this isn't the case with all such phrases, but it is the case with "is born": the being-born is something that happened in the past and is now complete, such that the person is described presently as "born", i.e. as once having-been-born. Because he who "was" born, still "is" born. It's not like he can be "born" one moment and "unborn" the next. Though I will admit, "is born" generally sounds poetic or archaic, not how we usually talk. Usually when we say "born", we're speaking not of the man's current status but of his status only at the time of his birth.)

Have you seen any other cases of indoctrination in their lessons?

I don't think so, though there might have been. I can't recall.

[Xavier]

These are my scores:

Latin
Total XP: 10647 XP
Greek
Total XP: 1370 XP
Hindi
Total XP: 1017 XP
French
Total XP: 150 XP
Hebrew
Total XP: 41 XP
Spanish
Total XP: 20 XP
Russian
Total XP: 15 XP
Chinese
Total XP: 14 XP

Latin I've completed every single course now. Greek I'm working on, and boy, it's harder than I thought! Hebrew is also important, as it's the other Biblical language. Hindi is easy for me as I'm Indian and Hindi is common here. The other 4 I'm just beginning. Not going to start any new course till I finish Greek, at least. With half an hour every day, maybe in 6 more months, I should be able to finish, I don't know. It's harder than it looks at first! At least in Latin all the letters are already known to English speakers; it's just pronunciation and vocabulary you need to master. Greek is completely different.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

Xavier,
Feel free to contact me if you are having trouble. I'm ahead of you in all of your languages except Hindi.

The Duolingo Hebrew course can be especially problematic, as the audio is sometimes missing. For a language that doesn't always write vowels, this can make acquiring new forms particularly difficult.

As for Greek, once you master the alphabet, I think you'll find that the grammar is very similar to Latin, and it's again just a question of learning vocabulary.

I should add that I haven't done Latin on Duolingo. I learned it in school. So I can't speak to issues with the course, only the language itself.

We have very similar interests, Xavier! 

[Fleur-de-Lys]

One of their French lessons (or was it Latin?) was a woman has a wife...

Yes. They also have male speakers reading sentences in the feminine and vice versa, which seriously undermines the learner's ability to learn gendered forms.

No, the sentence was "a woman has a wife" which as we all know is ridiculous.

Have you seen any other cases of indoctrination in their lessons?

I think you must have misunderstood my original response, Lynne.   I'll see if I can be more clear.

Yes, there are sentences referring to same-sex relationships and marriage. There are also sentences that seem to promote transgenderism, and this is problematic, not only from a moral standpoint, but also a linguistic one, because some languages demand different forms for male and female referents.

For example, in Portuguese, to say thank you, men say obrigado  while women say obrigada.  On Duolingo, however, you will hear both male and female speakers use both forms. Because Duolingo largely uses implicit learning, that is learning by generalizing the examples you hear, this modeling of incorrect forms makes it impossible for the naive learner to pick up the correct pattern. I've seen countless comments in the forum from learners confused by this.

[Vetus Ordo]

I'm trying to sluggishly make my way through the Arabic course.

I'm already able to say multicultural sentences such as George comes from Oman.

[Heinrich]

I'm trying to sluggishly make my way through the Arabic course.

I'm already able to say multicultural sentences such as George comes from Oman.

Waiting for the companion piece to 1001 Nights.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I'm trying to sluggishly make my way through the Arabic course.

I'm already able to say multicultural sentences such as George comes from Oman.

When you get as far as I have, you'll be able to say truly useful things like Omar is a fast Syrian translator.   The Arabic course is in need of further development.

[Vetus Ordo]

I'm trying to sluggishly make my way through the Arabic course.

I'm already able to say multicultural sentences such as George comes from Oman.

When you get as far as I have, you'll be able to say truly useful things like Omar is a fast Syrian translator.   The Arabic course is in need of further development.

I'm eagerly waiting for the part about easy cars.

Fascinating concept.