Learning a New Language with Duolingo

UPDATED: May 10, 2013 (see below)

Once I master Spanish, it will become the third language in my linguistic repertoire (English being my native tongue and German the second); and yet being someone for whom secondary languages have never come easily, I am always striving to find the best way to learn and maintain foreign language comprehension. As an English literature major in college, I had no problem dissecting the so-called gibberish of Shakespeare's Elizabethan speeches, but declared my minor in German partially to force myself to continue taking classes in that field of study. Hamlet I had down pat, but the subtle mechanics of German grammar stump me to this day. By minoring in the language, I was able to keep my understanding somewhere around the 'pretty-damn-good' level; since then, as I am rarely presented with an opportunity to speak, read or write German, my comprehension has begun to slip ever-so-gently from my grasp. 

Of course, you say, you could just…keep up with it. I could indeed. But, as we all know, once the vengeful cycle of adult life kicks into gear, we find ourselves with less-and-less time for frivolous activities such as bettering ourselves by pushing our mental capacity to a new limit. Time after time, those little notions, all of the 'I wish I could learn to…' dreams fall by the wayside and we continue on with our "real" lives. Between work and friends and errands and the hobbies we already nurture, who has time to pick up a Gibson and learn the opening licks of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song? 

However, I am attempting to try take on new challenges and go out of my way to add skills to my mismatched collection of hobbies and interests. Therefore, having decided to take a job on another continent, I also allowed myself to force another new language - literally - down my own throat. Sitting at home in the States I never would have pushed myself to actually learn Spanish (unless I bought the Spanish Muzzy DVD's…if only so I could boast that I had Muzzy DVD's in my house). In addition, I would have had very few people willing to speak Spanish with me on a daily basis, dully riding it out as I fumbled through masculine and feminine noun conjugations in a coffee shop down in Old City. Aha! I said. But should I move to a Spanish-speaking country, I will learn the ins-and-outs in no time! 

Well, yes and no. A goodly plot, to be sure, but more easily said than done. Despite the fact that many of my daily encounters (food shopping, speaking with a student's parents, etc.) do force me to have mastered a most basic level of the language, I have been brutally reminded just how hard it can be to keep your chin up during the first few months of beginning a new skill. German, for example, was an overwhelmingly embarrassing experience for the first six months, at least. My high school teacher will no doubt remember one of the first tests I took, on which I managed to write the sentence 'I wear a desk to school' because I had failed to memorize both new sets of vocabulary properly. It took me a long time and a lot of hard work to feel that I really "spoke" German, and the same will be true for Spanish. Once I manage to gain a medium level of grammar and comprehension, the rest will fall into place over time - it's just getting there that's the tough part. 

So, what have I been doing to get this Spanish train on track? Well, besides getting a lot of help from my friends here and watching 'Never Been Kissed' and 'Mean Girls' with Spanish dubbing (purely for intellectual purposes, you understand), I have also been searching around trying different methods of online lessons. Having attempted more than one tutorial company, I think I have finally landed on a good program: duolingo.com and the Duolingo app on my iPhone have proven more consistent and more rewarding than any other method I have thus-far attempted. The app for your smartphone is a great option for on-the-go learning, although you may want to avoid practicing in public places, as the program will a) occasionally speak to you and b) ask you to respond and be recorded. The more expansive online portion of the application includes the option to practice words and concepts that you have experienced difficulty with, as well as specialists to chat with and ask questions and forums full of online language learners who would also like to know why those pesky, sexist masculine/feminine articles are necessary in this silly language you've chosen to pick up. 

I have already recommended the program to my father (shout out to mi padre) so we can learn Spanish together and he can brush up on his French (although why anyone would want to speak the language of cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys is beyond me). In addition, I use it occasionally for my English tutoring here in Bolivia. I would therefore like to recommend the app to all of you, whether you plan on finally mastering that new language or you just want to impress that girl at your office by pretending you can tell her romantically passionate things in Italian (when really you're saying, oh I don't know…'I wear a desk to school' - just an example). 

As always, when I find something I believe useful and think others would enjoy trying, I like to share it. So, here you have my review of DuoLingo, the online language program and smartphone app. I hope it helps you with all of your foreign language endeavors, however noble or shallow they may be. 

¡Suerte!

I wanted to update this post to add some pros and cons, with the hope that they will help any of you deciding whether or not to use this program. All apps, etc. have their good and bad qualities and this one may not be for you. Read on to see if it's something you're interested in.

* Also, if you want to know about other apps and sites I've tried, feel free to comment or e-mail me. Let me know what you want out of a language program and I'll see if I can help you find the right fit. *

PROS:

• Totally 100% free AND there are no ads
• Easy to use and follow, including smartphone apps and online tutorials
• FYI: Duolingo just launched their Android app. Not sure if they still need to work any bugs out, but good news for Droid users!
• The "Language Tree" guides you through your lessons, building each new skill on top of the last one you learned
• The tree won't let you move beyond certain levels until you have mastered the previous skill
• You can also test out of a skill if you feel you know it well enough and you can return to finished lessons to work more on that particular skill
• It's a fun way to learn a language by yourself and a good program to use instead of a class (or in addition to!) if you need to brush up on a language or learn a new one. 

CONS:

• One of my biggest pet peeves with Duolingo is that it doesn't give you any form of vocab lesson before you begin your quizzes. This means that during your study of a new skill, the app may throw a word at you that you've never seen, leaving you feeling bewildered and - frankly - a little stupid.
• Hint: if you don't know what a word is, you can linger over it and a little drop-down box will give you a cheat - this does not affect your overall score.
• The timed sessions make me want to throw my laptop out the nearest window
• To be fair, these sessions are optional and you are always given the choice to run your practice quizzes without a timer. 
• However, if you do choose to use a timed session to solidify one of your skills, remember that the clock moves VERY QUICKLY and pretty much the only way to "beat the timer" is to answer every question correctly. Therefore, it is sometimes better to take an extra beat and get the answer right, rather than rush and get them all wrong.

My suggestions?

First, you might as well give this program a try. As I said before, it won't work for everyone and maybe there is a better program out there for you. BUT, it's free and easy and you don't have to download anything (for the online lessons), so give it a go and see if you like it. 

Second, regarding the lack of vocab, you can try one of two things. I personally try and complete the session first and see how the new words go, even though I sometimes peek (especially if I think I know the translation and want the self-satisfaction of my own unacknowledged genius). After I complete a whole section, I go back to the vocab list they've created for me, and I write down the words I had trouble with. Alternatively, you can see what the category is (clothing, for example) and then go look up the most common/probable words beforehand. 

EITHER WAY, remember that you can get special help with the words you have difficulty with. To do this, click on your desired category; on the right side of the new page you will see a list of words you have been exposed to, beginning with the most recent. To practice one particular word, click on it and then select 'Practice Word'; to review all of your trouble words, choose either 'Practice Skill' or click 'View Full Vocabulary from ______' and then select 'Practice Weakest Words'. 

Third, if the timed practices are going to drive you bonkers, don't bother with them. It will be more detrimental to your learning process to spend 20 minutes attempting lessons and 30 minutes pulling your hair out and crying. I use the timed lessons sporadically, usually if I'm in a good mood and/or I feel I know that skill very well and can beat that demonic little clock. Plus, if you do get all the answers right, it gives you a reason to thrust your fist into the air Judd Nelson style and yell out the phrase of your choice (mine is "suck it, Spanish" - feel free to use it as you wish). 

One last thing - don't forget that the website has forums that you can access to ask questions or find questions others have already asked. Sometimes it helps to see how another student answers a question you had, rather than looking up the "textbook definition" and finding a dissertation on when to use 'y' versus 'e' for the conjunction 'a'. 

Mi hermana tiene cuatro gatos y un perro

Bienvenido a Bolivia!

So, now that I have been here for four days, how does it feel?

Javier Suarez: So, what, you know like five words in Spanish?
Katey Miller: Maybe ten.

Forgiving the sappy/girly/corny movie reference (although I am not avergonzado to admit that I own 'Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights' - who doesn't love Diego Luna?), that pretty much sums it up. Before I left the States, I had to decide whether or not to give myself a crash course in basic Spanish, or to wait until I arrived and throw myself into it. I chose the latter.

As anyone who has traveled to a non-English speaking country will tell you, nothing can prepare you to be surrounded by an entire nation of people speaking a foreign tongue: "What are they saying? What am I saying? Man, I feel stupid right now." Even once you begin to build your own vocabulary, you need to find a way to remember new words without forgetting the ones you already know; and then you have to learn to spell those words...and then how to pronounce them properly. Nobody wants to be known as la gringa, after all.

However, my situation is unique. Having been hired by a small, private bilingual school, I arrived in Bolivia with an instant network of native speakers to help me on my way. How proud my father must have been to get an e-mail on my third day on Bolivia in which I declared I could now say my first "complicated" Spanish sentence: "Mi hermana tiene cuatro gatos y un perro" = my sister has four cats and a dog. Well on my way to fluent, no?

When I arrived in Cochabamba, my host, along with her 8-year-old hija and 20-year-old sobrino, collected me at the airport and took me straight to their home in the city. The house is large and teeming with life: eight people are currently living in the two buildings (which sit side-by-side), including myself, la madre y el padre, la abuela y el abuelo, dos hijos, un hija y un sobrino/primo. Add in five small dogs and a myriad visitors coming and going all day long, and you begin to understand mi casa nueva. 

The Bolivian lifestyle isn't far off from what I expected. As with many Latin American countries (and perhaps you could say Spanish and Portugese speaking countries; Brazilians, for example, speak primarily Portugese, not Spanish), life revolves around a handful of issues: family, religion, food and politics. To a large degree, I am still rather ignorant of the Bolivian religious and political ideals; additionally, these affairs are more personal and varied than their companions on the list (much like they are in the U.S. and elsewhere). So, I shall focus this post on the F's: family and food.

As I hope you have noticed, family is muy importante in Bolivian culture. The more traditional, one might say antiquated, family structure (i.e. grandparents and cousins in the house as well as the parents and children) is neither common nor uncommon in modern Bolivian society; however, it is probably more customary to find here than back in America. The cousin (el primo), who has recently moved from La Paz to Cochabamba for university, explained to how tight-knit Bolivian families are. When a new baby is born into a family, for example, "Nothing will ever be the same. You must accept someone new into the family, and that changes everything." He says this having experienced life with a 15-year-old hermana  and, more recently and unexpectedly, a 5-year-old hermana. He told me that many young people continue to live at home with their parents (or other family members such as aunts, uncles and grandparents) much longer than Americans do. It is unorthodox for a Bolivian to live on what we called a "college campus", and most university students live at home and commute to school.

And when you're living in a Bolivian household, you will also be experiencing MUCHO traditional Bolivian food. Every day and every meal I am introduced to something different, from new foods to new dishes to new customs.

The most "exotic" dish I have become privy to would (hands down) be charque kan. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular dish, let me paint you a picture: a traditional indigenous recipe of dried llama meat, served with beans, potatoes and boiled eggs, with cheese on top (everything here has cheese on top).

Better yet, let me show you a picture, albeit one more appetizing than the plate I was handed: charque kan.

A Bolivian may tell you that this dried, shredded llama meat is akin to jerky, but this is unlike anything you will find at a highway truckstop in the States. There is nothing off-putting about the flavor of the meat, but it was much too dry for my personal taste. Despite getting myself over the mutilation of the poor, innocent llama, I couldn't get beyond the dry, salty nature of the charque kan.

Cousin: Te gusta?
Me: No. Lo siento...no. No. 

Excuse me while I wash down my llama with a giant glass of mocochinchi, a cider-like drink made from dehydrated peaches - also foreign to my gringa palate.

And so it goes, when you're living or traveling abroad and want to experience the local culture. But don't worry; for dinner we'll have chicken, rice and salad - go grab a Coke from the fridge, if you'd like one.

Alas: another day, another llama. At least I think that's how the saying goes...