On my quest to find a better site than Duolingo, I ran upon this one. http://www.isfeidirliom.ie/ What a great site for beginners! The lessons give you vocabulary and you can hear the words spoken. It gets into grammar some but not so much that you get frustrated. Then it has games to play to reinforce what you are learning. I really have enjoyed it and love the easy, slow pace. I am kind of amazed at how much I really do know after being so confused all the time on Duolingo.
Keep in mind that the lessons take a couple minutes to load so don't give up when you get a blank page, just wait and it will bing at you when it has loaded.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
New Thoughts On Duolingo
What happens as you take a large online course like Duolingo is that as you go along your thoughts about it change. I am now on level 16 with 10 more lesson sections to go on my Irish "tree" on Duolingo, and it isn't nearly as good as I once thought. For about the first 10 lessons everything was great and it goes right down hill from there on. Oh I am sure if you are really dedicated, write down all the words and all the strange odd exceptions, then study for hours on end....you could probably learn it...but most of us don't have time to study 40 words at a time...and this is the problem from about the 10th lesson on...the work just gets way too hard. It is as if the "course creators" as they call them on Duolingo, got together and had a competition to make the most difficult...useless...sentences they possibly could...and also use the hardest words they could find-----and then we aren't going to give them that word again for the next twenty lessons and let's see if they still remember it....
Or in the next section we are going to give them 43 new verbs (Verbs Present 3 section) but we really will only use about 6 of those verbs ever again and never enough so they can really remember them.
It just isn't a course for beginners. I wouldn't even call it a course for intermediate learners. It's an advanced course.
I really believe that in order for a beginner to really get a handle on a language, they have to start with easy sentences that they are going to use..a LOT...repetition is the key and you aren't going to get that at Duolingo no matter what they say. The Irish course has way too many words for that.
For a while I thought it was just me. Those moderators on the Irish boards sure did have me thinking I was the stupid one because I don't know all the parts of speech. I wonder if they realize how many people they drive away from the course with that? But it wasn't me. I tried the French course. Nice course. WAY, WAY easier! I am getting a lot out of it. I am on level 13 in the French course and haven't been on it for very long at all. I tried the Spanish course. Never had any Spanish in my life! I so far am not finding the course that terrible but I am only on level six. I tried the Welsh course. I thought I should try something closer to a Celtic language to really see if it wasn't just Irish that was hard. I haven't gone far on the Welsh course but already I love it. Short lessons without a million words in the lessons. Welsh is going great!
I'll still stick with the Duolingo Irish tree, see if it gets any better but I am not taking it too seriously.
Or in the next section we are going to give them 43 new verbs (Verbs Present 3 section) but we really will only use about 6 of those verbs ever again and never enough so they can really remember them.
It just isn't a course for beginners. I wouldn't even call it a course for intermediate learners. It's an advanced course.
I really believe that in order for a beginner to really get a handle on a language, they have to start with easy sentences that they are going to use..a LOT...repetition is the key and you aren't going to get that at Duolingo no matter what they say. The Irish course has way too many words for that.
For a while I thought it was just me. Those moderators on the Irish boards sure did have me thinking I was the stupid one because I don't know all the parts of speech. I wonder if they realize how many people they drive away from the course with that? But it wasn't me. I tried the French course. Nice course. WAY, WAY easier! I am getting a lot out of it. I am on level 13 in the French course and haven't been on it for very long at all. I tried the Spanish course. Never had any Spanish in my life! I so far am not finding the course that terrible but I am only on level six. I tried the Welsh course. I thought I should try something closer to a Celtic language to really see if it wasn't just Irish that was hard. I haven't gone far on the Welsh course but already I love it. Short lessons without a million words in the lessons. Welsh is going great!
I'll still stick with the Duolingo Irish tree, see if it gets any better but I am not taking it too seriously.
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