I learned probably 90% of my Spanish through Duolingo. My reading is good enough that I can usually follow along with Spanish news articles and Spanish spoken at a moderate pace. (So almost none of it, haha) I have hearing comprehension problems with English as well though, so that’s not Duolingo’s fault.

I’m definitely not fluent, but it’s not like I wouldn’t know what to do if someone handed me a form in Spanish, either.

Overall it’s just the repetition that matters. I don’t think I would know any less Spanish if I’d spent 20-30 minutes every day for the past 2+ years using a different app to learn.

[–] cathfish@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thanks. That's quite a good result I think. Did you practice outside the app (I mean at the beginning) ? How long would you say it takes to be able to read a newspaper article without too much difficulty?

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is just for the English speaker learning Spanish Duolingo course, which I’m told is one of the best ones, so it may not apply to other courses. But IMO it was easier to pick up the majority of the beginner vocabulary in Duolingo (they’ve got the drill aspect of language learning down pat) and then spread out to other sources. I especially needed outside help with grammar because (at least when I was doing the early parts) Duolingo didn’t explain grammar very much, so there was a bit of ramming my head against a brick wall.

How long an article takes me to read depends on how many colloquial phrases it has that Duolingo hasn’t introduced me to, if uncommon words or jargon are used, etc. The dictionary app I use is pretty good and includes slang, so when I do run into unknowns it only takes a few seconds to look it up. But overall I’d say I read maybe 1/2 to 2/3 the speed I read English, depending on all the above factors. It does fatigue me a lot faster than reading English, but I think that’s a normal thing for second languages you’re still learning.

Edit: oh oops I misunderstood your last question, it took me maybe a year to start on news articles and maybe another 6 months to get comfortable with them. Totally YMMV depending on how much and how seriously you study, this wasn’t anything like full time study for me.

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago

The quality depends on the individual(s) developing the training content as well. I don't know if it's changed, but the Korean course used to be quite bad/lazy and had a lot of Konglish and English loanwords, even for words that had an actual Korean equivalent. I think official courses and textbooks, as well as videos and podcasts, are all much better ways of learning than through these flash card apps. A better use case is retention of existing language skills, I think.

[–] tormeh@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 days ago

I'd be surprised if anyone has. You need to actually use a language to learn it properly. But an app is a good start and supplement.

[–] Oriion@jlai.lu 2 points 3 days ago

I'd say it's good for vocab, and hearing maybe ? Some things really sound unnatural.

The only course I can speak of is Japanese (no premium) and it's imho complete ass if it's your only source of knowledge. Only gimmicky sentences and speech elements

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

Exclusively with Duolingo? Could be a little too hard depending on the language. I used it to learn French, also had actual classes and some other resources, but used Duolingo for a while as main resource. It's not optimal as it sucks to learn actually speaking, but it's fine for reading/writing, and sometimes a little to easy for listening.