Community post
Duolingo chaos: many years and languages, little progress
I started doing Duolingo (almost) daily 1426 days ago, that is almost 4 years.
I started with Mandarin Chinese. For almost 2 years I was doing Chinese only every single day on Duolingo (I studied it before! At university and with private teachers!). Eventually I had finished the Duolingo Chinese course and moved on to other languages.
I couldn't decide which language to pick up next, so I started with Russian, then French, then German and started bouncing between languages often without commiting to a single one.
Which of those languages do you speak?
The result is that I do not speak any of those languages well, except for French because it is very similar to my native language, (Brazilian) Portuguese, but even then it is not good enough.
On the plus side Duolingo updated their Mandarin Chinese course, so I can get back to studying and improving my Chinese, but honestly I am a bit unmotivated. I have been studying Chinese for, I swear to you, over 10 years, and I am still stuck at HSK 3.
I am nowadays interested in germanic languages such as German, Dutch and Swedish, but I can't pick one and dump the others, which HINDERS PROGRESS and slows me down. If I don't pick a single one and commit the next 2 years will show as little progress as the past 2 years. My other languages will not get as good as my Chinese and my Chinese also will never become fluent.
I think I have linguistic commitment issues.
Replies (6)
Saludos, @igormuba, honesta reflexión.
Duolingo es una herramienta fantástica para crear el hábito diario, 1426 días de racha muestran bastante dedicación, felicidades por la constancia, pero tiene un peligro enorme: la gamificación. A veces la aplicación nos hace sentir que estamos avanzando mucho porque vemos subir los puntos de experiencia (XP) y las ligas, cuando en realidad solo estamos entrenando la memoria a corto plazo con mecánicas de juego.
Saltar entre tantos idiomas diferentes (pasar del chino al ruso o las lenguas germánicas) satura el cerebro. Al final, no has resfirmado y fijado el aprendizaje en uno y coges otro, lo que corre el riego de perdida de habilidad en el que menos ejercites. Es completamente normal que te sientas estancado en el HSK 3 de chino si tu energía se está dividiendo en diez direcciones distintas. El portugués te da una ventaja enorme con el francés, pero con familias lingüísticas tan diferentes, el enfoque lo es todo.
Most times, we try to do a lot of things because we want to accumulate or achieve much within a time frame. And we think we do until we realise we don't. Mayne just stick to one, be focused and intentional about it and see the result.
Buenas! Então, tenho a mesma impressão. Para mim, funciona mais para a prática de idiomas do que para a aprendizagem propriamente dita.
Também é útil pra ter um contato inicial com um idioma e escolher se gosta ou não! Eu acho que o Duolingo até me ajudou com o chinês, mas sem ter tido aulas por fora eu nunca teria saído do básico
I would pick German, at least way more people speak it than Dutch and Swedish :)
Plus Dutch and Swedish are "useless" because most of them speak English so good they sound almot native! So yeah I agree with you, German is so much more useful