Yo he aprendido espanol todos los dias por dos anos
As of yesterday, I have been using Duolingo to learn Spanish every day for two years. Since my last update in January I have definitely far surpassed any Spanish language skills I might have picked up back in my one year of high school Spanish and my one year of college Spanish, as I've moved into verb tenses I never got to before. Of my two year streak, only one day was actually missed and protected by the "streak protector" feature, which is pretty good given my infant related exhaustion for the first part of the year.
In addition to Duolingo, I've got a 266 day streak (again, as of yesterday) in Drops, which is essentially a language flashcards application that I'm using to pick up more Spanish (Mexican) vocabulary. Drops has some annoying problems as an application, it doesn't do any voice recognition like Duolingo, and as a software professional I kind of want to shake them for some of their design decisions, but it's also helped me pick up a bunch of random vocabulary in a manner very different from Duolingo. If Duolingo ever adds a flashcard function (yes please!) I'd drop Drops in a hurry, so to speak, but until then I'll keep using it.
In the past six months, Duolingo has rolled out more new features than they did in the first year and a half I used it. Some this includes short recorded call and response lessons, monthly challenges to build engagement, improved visibility into what your friends are doing and a "redo your mistakes" mode that's available in the pay version. I've also watched them roll out and roll back various story modes, or possibly I've just been in the beta group for them. With A-B testing, it's hard to say. I appreciate that the app continues to change usefully.
I'm not sure how many of new features in Duolingo were funded by their June IPO, but I can say that I like the app so much that I bought the company, or at least two shares of it. I suspect I'll pay for the premium version (Plus) in the near future just because the more Birdie becomes mobile the less free time I have and the more I want to skip the ads.
I still need to figure out a way to practice conversational Spanish. Duolingo recently added a "join a random chat room to practice Spanish with strangers" option, but the problem is that everyone there is learning, and you're not guaranteed to be grouped with someone who is actually good at Spanish, or even bothering to try to speak it. M has suggested we pay someone she knows for video conversation lessons on a weekly basis, and I'm inclined to try it. Otherwise, I'll settle for increasing fluency in reading random snippets of Spanish in my life. I've had ZERO problems with the two Spanish-language books Birdie was sent by the Imagination Library, so at least I can handle infant books! We've also looked for some Spanish-language television on our various streaming services, but that only helps if I want to watch the television in question!
I want to give a big shout out to my friend Brandt, who told me about Duolingo in the first place! Thanks Brandt!
In addition to Duolingo, I've got a 266 day streak (again, as of yesterday) in Drops, which is essentially a language flashcards application that I'm using to pick up more Spanish (Mexican) vocabulary. Drops has some annoying problems as an application, it doesn't do any voice recognition like Duolingo, and as a software professional I kind of want to shake them for some of their design decisions, but it's also helped me pick up a bunch of random vocabulary in a manner very different from Duolingo. If Duolingo ever adds a flashcard function (yes please!) I'd drop Drops in a hurry, so to speak, but until then I'll keep using it.
In the past six months, Duolingo has rolled out more new features than they did in the first year and a half I used it. Some this includes short recorded call and response lessons, monthly challenges to build engagement, improved visibility into what your friends are doing and a "redo your mistakes" mode that's available in the pay version. I've also watched them roll out and roll back various story modes, or possibly I've just been in the beta group for them. With A-B testing, it's hard to say. I appreciate that the app continues to change usefully.
I'm not sure how many of new features in Duolingo were funded by their June IPO, but I can say that I like the app so much that I bought the company, or at least two shares of it. I suspect I'll pay for the premium version (Plus) in the near future just because the more Birdie becomes mobile the less free time I have and the more I want to skip the ads.
I still need to figure out a way to practice conversational Spanish. Duolingo recently added a "join a random chat room to practice Spanish with strangers" option, but the problem is that everyone there is learning, and you're not guaranteed to be grouped with someone who is actually good at Spanish, or even bothering to try to speak it. M has suggested we pay someone she knows for video conversation lessons on a weekly basis, and I'm inclined to try it. Otherwise, I'll settle for increasing fluency in reading random snippets of Spanish in my life. I've had ZERO problems with the two Spanish-language books Birdie was sent by the Imagination Library, so at least I can handle infant books! We've also looked for some Spanish-language television on our various streaming services, but that only helps if I want to watch the television in question!
I want to give a big shout out to my friend Brandt, who told me about Duolingo in the first place! Thanks Brandt!