A-Z Blog Challenge: E is for English

and all its mysterious workings.

For the past couple of years I've been studying French and German via the Duolingo website. It's been fun and educational in more ways than just improving my knowledge of those two languages.

Duolingo.com is a US based website so when it was first set up - and I began learning there very soon after that  - it was very US centric. If you used a phrase or spelling that varied from the US version when you translated something you were likely to be marked as incorrect. It was extremely annoying as you can imagine but, thanks to them having a system where you could report such matters, things rapidly improved - although a few intractable issues remained for a long time, hardly surprising when much of the work is done by volunteer moderators. They now accept a number of regional variants in most areas - even if I'm still pushing them to accept a couple of Australianisms like 'How are you going?'.

The interesting thing, though, comes in the discussion sections where you can ask questions and have them answered by the moderators or other students and comment on various matters. This is a very helpful part of the learning process but it's also where people can get testy and where the many and varied differences as to what constitutes 'correct' English shows up. Many see their regional variant as the only correct usage and sometimes they defend this fiercely.

As I have a degree in English and am an English teacher by profession, I'm often tempted to join in these fiery discussions but I've learned a thing or two about the internet over the years and so, unless it's a simple grammatical or structural issue, I bite my tongue - or perhaps that should be hold back my fingers. It's by far the safest way as many of these commenters - who I presume come from a fairly insular background where they rarely meet people different from themselves - are so convinced they are right that there's no likelihood I'll change their minds.

Fortunately these people are the minority. One of the things I really like about Duolingo is how most people want to help and will go out of their way to do so. It makes for a pleasant learning system and one that, now I'm close to finishing in both languages, I will miss.

ink i

Duolingo Two Years On

I've been studying French and German for the past two years via Duolingo, a free immersion language learning website. I had learned German at school and even did a first year unit at university, unlike French which I only took for one year at secondary school plus a later one year adult education course in conversational French.

Admittedly, this was a very long time ago and all the German I've had any contact with in the last thirty years - despite having a family member who comes from Austria - has been subtitled programmes on SBS, the Australian national television channel which caters for non-English speakers as part of its remit, and I've had even less to do with French.

Still I thought the basics of German at least would still be there and initially I was right. I powered through the first ten sections, testing out after a few lessons. It was great. Then I realised that I wasn't retaining all the changes in the language - and there were many since I had last done any German study.  Some were subtle variations in nuance but some were more dramatic. There were words that hadn't even been thought of - computers and health insurance, anyone - and others that had changed in usage or even spelling.

French was even worse. I found I remembered very little apart from greetings, counting one to ten and basics like please and thank you. Testing out was a fantasy because, although I often did, it was not based on any real understanding. Actually, it was often more luck than anything else.

So I went back to basics in both languages and started over. Now I resist the addictive urge to keep on doing lessons - one of the most appealing things about Duolingo is the way the lessons are structured so it feels like a game and it's very easy to get caught up - and make myself really learn each section. This means I've slowed down dramatically in my progress up the "tree" but it also means I have a much better grasp of the language. I'll probably take another year to reach the end of the course but that's okay because I'll have a good understanding of the language.

So is Duolingo the perfect learning system for languages? I can only speak for myself here but, much as I am enjoying my experience, as far as I'm concerned there are a few things I'd like to see changed. Because it is immersion - you read, hear and practise speaking the language and are supposed to learn it from that - very little grammar is explained and, for me, that doesn't always work. There is a comment section and there are knowledgable moderators in each language who answer questions in this section but the answers can get lost in lengthy threads. I need to know why something works as it does and that's meant tracking down other sources. Not an insurmountable problem in these days of internet searches - all Duolingo students have their own favourite links and many share them with the community - but one extra step to factor in. I'd like to see a comprehensive list of all the words I've learned, too, something that was there but has been removed for some reason.

That aside, there's much to like. It's free, there's an inclusive and supportive community, the lessons are fun and I've learned an immense amount in a relatively short time. I recommend it highly.

French? German? English? Duolingo. - A-Z Blog Challenge

I discovered Duolingo - a free language learning website - nearly two years ago when a friend signed up for the beta French version. It was years since I'd studied languages at any level but I wanted something to stretch my mind - and, boy, did it need stretching. I hadn't done any serious study for mutter, mutter years. Yes, I'm a writer but that mostly involves wandering around in my own imagination and then getting words on the page that tell a story that engages and is grammatically correct. Learning a language, especially since we were intending to travel to Europe at the time, seemed a good way to start.

So I had a look, liked its gamified way of teaching and signed up along with several friends. I was having so much fun I added German which I had learned many, many years ago and most of which was long forgotten - and, working on the assumption that it's better to take things slowly, I'm still going and doing at least one lesson a day in both languages although all my friends have long since dropped out and the travel never eventuated.

It's not the perfect language learning system but it does what it sets out to. Since it uses the immersion technique there is minimal grammar teaching. The idea is that you pick it up as you practise and to a degree that does happen. There's also the option to comment where questions can be asked and are answered by other students and the moderators. Even so I find I need to refer to other sources and there are many on the internet. I know! Who'd have thought it!

Because when you answer a query you are expected to provide a reference link or explanation, there's been an interesting and unexpected side effect. My knowledge of English grammar has improved enormously. All those things that I just knew have to be justified and while my grammar has always been pretty good I now have a much better idea of why something is said or used in a particular way. It's been very informative and, most surprising of all, is that the best sources of grammar information are websites where English is taught as a second language.

Am I fluent in either language? No. Will I be just using Duolingo to become fluent? Probably not because you need to speak a language to become fluent and that means interacting in conversations, not just parroting back what you hear. Does that mean it's a waste of time? No. I already have a reasonable vocabulary - enough to read quite a lot - and if I keep on - and find myself a conversation group (the next important step I think) I should soon be able to hold at least a basic conversation.

Wish me luck.

Just Whiling Away Some Time

and letting you all know I have been working. There are words on the page, there has been editing and there will be more. Yes, indeed.

And, thanks to my friend, Adrian, there is distraction - in a good way. A few days ago I was telling a friend how, although I was once a fluent German speaker and a considerably less fluent French speaker, as the years have gone by, with little opportunity to practise either language, my ability has declined to barely there. I pondered about trying to revitalise my knowledge of at least one language other than English but decided it would probably be too hard.

Then, in a moment of pure serendipity, Adrian announced he was learning French online free via a website called Duolingo. He sent me an invitation and I signed up. I'm really enjoying myself. They also offer German and Spanish with plans for other languages in the future but for the moment I'll settle for trying to acquire at least enough French to cover the basics - and not making the owl cry. You'll have to sign up to find out what that means.

Au revoir, mes amis.