Can You *Really* Use Duolingo to Learn a New Language?

is Duolingo a great app for language Learners  can you really use it to learn a new language  

these are the questions I'll be answering in  today's video I don't want to be a hater I  

know that dual lingu can be a great start for  beginners but there are some major highs and  

lows we absolutely need to talk about this video  is brought to you by Squarespace a onstop website  

platform for entrepreneurs to build beautiful  websites connect with their audience and sell  

products or Services easily but more about them  later let's first talk about all the arguments  

against using dolingo first of all dingo is an  app which means that you can't really change your  

learning environment it's very rigid the exercises  on the app are often predictable and repetitive  

and because of that a lot of people think that  it creates this artificial environment in a lot  

of cases you can just guess the correct answer  without actually thinking about it because your  

learning environment is restricted to a single app  all you're pretty much doing is the exercises that  

the app is giving you and obviously it is so  much different from having a real conversation  

with a native speaker conversations are often  spontaneous like you don't know what this person  

is going to ask you and the exercises on the app  tend to be pretty much the same and because of  

that we move on to the second disadvantage which  is slow progress people who only use dual lingo  

They Don't Really progress very fast because again  there is this artificial environment you usually  

don't practice the language outside of the app and  there are so many other things you could be doing  

to make progress faster when it comes to learning  a new language yes maybe this repetition aspect  

helps people memorize words but at the end of the  day you're not learning a lot of words so if you  

were practicing by yourself you know learning  the language and then memorizing all the words  

with the help of ani you would progress faster  obviously on Dual lingo you're going to have  

limited speaking and listening practice if you're  only using one single app I mean that's what  

you're going to get dingo doesn't offer a lot of  speaking exercises or listening exercises and it's  

going to be very different from real immersion  when you're actively trying to immerse yourself  

into the language every single day and plus most  people use dualingo for like five or 10 minutes a  

day which is better than nothing yeah but if we're  talking about this fullon immersion it's maybe not  

enough especially if you want to improve your  language skills fast a lot of you guys who use  

draingo regularly will probably remember this  sentence about drinking milk it goes something  

like I drink milk every day I think that's what I  saw on the Spanish path on Duolingo and when I saw  

that personally for me it was not really relevant  that's the first thing and the second thing is I  

was relying on translation and this is another  disadvantage of dualingo especially if you want  

to progress you know get to this intermediate  level advanced level you have to stop relying  

on translation over Lin and translation can hinder  thinking in this language directly and I know what  

a lot of you guys are thinking right now Veronica  I am a beginner I have to rely on translations but  

actually even a lot of beginners in a lot of cases  don't for example if you're learning basic nouns  

or basic verbs something like an apple or to eat  you don't need need the translation all you need  

is a picture like a visual representation of this  noun or verb or maybe adjective I know sometimes  

it's harder to learn adjectives this way but  especially nouns or verbs and especially when  

you're a beginner and once you start progressing  you actually don't really need translation either  

because you can create definitions using the  words you already know if you're learning a  

very new difficult word how can you explain it  in simple words words in your target language  

and so if all you do is translate back and forth  it can really slow down your progress it can slow  

down the process of internalizing the language  and this phrase internalizing any language is  

actually a very interesting one and I'm going  to tell you guys what it means and what goes  

into this process let's imagine you're building  something out of Lego a lot of kids use Lego  

but I also know that a lot of adults absolutely  love Lego I mean there are Lego sets that like  

literally include thousands of pieces and so  adults enjoy building those things as well and  

so the process of collecting all the Lego breaks  would be the process of learning vocabulary if I  

decide to learn a new language right now let's say  German the first thing I'm going to do is focus on  

increasing my vocabulary because I literally  don't know how to say anything in German then  

you hold all those bricks and you learn how they  fit to together right because you actually have  

to like build a tower let's say and this is where  grammar comes in because grammar connects words  

together just like you know you're learning how  to fit all the bricks together then comes a lot  

of practice you practice practice practice it's  all about building and rebuilding using the brakes  

that you already have and all the new braks that  you acquire along the journey then once you have  

already created something you go out there and  play with your friends or show your friends your  

creations and that's when you actually start using  the language in real life a lot like you start  

talking to people you start you know experimenting  with different words and asking people oh is that  

correct did just say that correctly or can you  correct my mistakes can you help me with grammar  

can you teach me some sling then once we have  this solid base of experience you know building  

a lot of things with Lego we start building just  by using our imagination and that's where thinking  

and a foreign language comes in because once you  already have this space it becomes so much easier  

to start experimenting and thinking in your  foreign language and singing in this language  

and then you know you walk into your room you're  knock over your creation and you start over that's  

where you practice again and you make mistakes  you learn from them you practice again you make  

mistakes you learn from them and of course a big  part of becoming good at creating Lego things is  

practicing it consistently practicing it by  yourself with your friends playing a little  

bit every single day the same thing about language  learning it's all about consistent practice and  

that's where a lot of people actually like du  lingo but we'll talk about that later so this  

is the process of internalizing the new language  and unfortunately dual lingo lacks a few key  

components to help you internalize a new language  better once you understand the basic of a language  

you have to go out there and find more advanced  resources and unfortunately dualingo is not an  

advanced resource there's no Advanced grammar  no Nuance vocabulary like Nuance slang let's  

say or modernday slang and obviously no cultural  insights and so if your goal is to become advanced  

in a language you will absolutely have to look for  other resources I don't think that you can become  

Advanced on Dual lingo just by using the onean on  res source and so the main question that a lot of  

people have is can you actually become fluent  on Dual lingo and if your definition of fluency  

is the same as mine where you can converse with  people freely you know a lot of advanced grammar  

rules you know modern day slang I would say no I  don't think you can become fluent again just by  

using dual lingo if you're only relying on this  app I don't think it's possible before we talk  

about how dualing can become a fantastic tool for  picking up new languages I want to take a moment  

to talk about Squarespace just like dualingo can  simplify your language learning Squarespace can  

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if you guys have been following me here for a  while you probably remember that I used to have  

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domain by using my code Veronica now let's move  on to all the arguments for using dual Linko and  

there are many because again I don't want to be  a hater I want this video to be as unbiased as  

possible I want to present different arguments  and you do you you choose for yourself so first  

of all I don't even know if I have to mention  it but dualingo is fun it's just fun and that's  

enough that's it if you think about using a fun  app that has like gameification features really  

fun interesting features versus a boring black  and white great grammar book or like a textbook  

I mean obviously you're going to choose a fun app  and that's why a lot of people love dualingo on  

dualingo you can earn points you can level up and  you can maintain streaks and all of that makes  

you want to come back these amazing gamification  features makes language learning fun and that's  

something that I want for every single one of  you guys learning in your language I want you  

to have fun because if you're not having fun  you're probably going to quit so fast and so  

if dualingo helps you bring this element of fun  into your language learning that's amazing another  

huge benefit of dualingo is that it helps a lot  of people stay on track when life gets busy I  

get it we all live very busy lives and sometimes  we need something to help us build momentum and  

that's where to lingo comes in it can help a lot  of people stay on track because a lot of us have  

5 minutes a day to practice language a lot of us  have 10 minutes a day to practice the language  

because you're motivated to maintain your streak  on Dual lingo and your phone is literally like  

always with you you're going to be more likely  to practice this new language on the Dual lingo  

app the practice sessions are short they are  accessible very easy to use like everything is  

super straightforward about the app and because  it's so easy to use it's fun to use you can  

literally access it like any time it creates an  anchor and in some of my previous videos I already  

talked about this concept of anchor in language  learning it's basically something that is going  

to make you come back to language learning no  matter what no matter how busy your life gets  

for me it's my weekly lessons with my Spanish  teacher because I feel very serious about taking  

up someone else's time and if I booked a class  I can't just cancel it because I feel lazy or I  

don't feel like studying Spanish today no like I  book the class I paid money I'm literally taking  

up someone else's this time so I absolutely have  to show up this is my anchor if for you dualingo  

can become that Anchor Great and why do I talk  about anchor so often because they help us build  

a language learning habit the app can really help  you build a language learning habit especially  

if you have never studied a foreign language  in your life before I think I saw one person  

say something like du lingo is a wonderful first  step on the latter to acquiring a new language and  

I really agree with that statement once you  start learning a new language you're pretty  

much creating a new habit and we all know that to  create a new habit you have to start small small  

consistent steps lead to Big results lead to you  achieving your big goals and basically your big  

goals then later creates you who you become later  in life and so I can honestly see how for a lot  

of people dual lingo can become this first step  towards becoming advanced in a foreign language  

later in life obviously as I mentioned at the  very beginning of this video dual lingo is an  

amazing app for beginners like a lot of people  can build a solid beginner foundation on the app  

and then move on to using some other resources  or continue using dualingo but also use some  

other resources to progress faster and become  Advanced sooner yes doolingo can even help you  

have simple conversations like hello I'm Veronica  I'm 24 years years old I live in this country I'm  

from that country these are my hobbies stuff like  that like very simple very basic conversations  

but once you realize that you want to go further  than that you are going to have to use some other  

resources and obviously for a lot of people a  huge benefit of dual lingo is that they don't  

have to spend a lot of money to learn a language  the free version of the app has extensive content  

a lot of lessons a lot of exercises you can  practice a lot of different languages and you can  

even practice less commonly taught languages and  usually those languages tend to be more expensive  

to learn if you were to learn them with a teacher  for example like I learned that on Dual Lango you  

can learn Welsh or Navajo or Hawaiian and those  languages might not be typically available in  

traditional language courses or they might be very  expensive to learn so let's talk about the main  

takeaway of this video what do I want you to take  away from it I think dingo is a great resource to  

to get started on your language learning Journey  but I really want you to remember that it's just  

one piece of a big puzzle if you imagine your  language learning as this big complex colorful  

puzzle dual lingu could be a part of it just a  part of it not the whole puzzle but your progress  

absolutely depends on how you use the app and  with other resources to use because I know a  

lot of people use du lingo you know laying on the  couch feeling lazy and not really paying a lot of  

attention and they don't use any other resources  so obviously those people are going to progress  

a lot slower so I didn't think it should be  your sole resource you are responsible for  

your language learning Journey not dual lingo so  make sure to diversify your resources I think you  

can use draw lingo to stay consistent at the very  beginning and build a solid foundation but please  

add other resources like books maybe lessons  practice with native speakers again make it  

fun and do a lot of different things we all know  that consistency is key and if dualingo helps you  

stay motivated that's great however if you think  that dual lingo is consuming time you can spend  

on other more effective activities then reconsider  its use I think it's going to be it for this video  

if you found it helpful please give this video a  thumbs up and subscribe to my YouTube channel if  

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