i am learning welsh obviously (plus brushing up french)
the welsh is going badly -- french is telling me i am 24% fluent, which is a fib imo
― mark s, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:23 (one year ago) Permalink
should I install this and see how bad my German has become, y/n
― the Hannah Montana of the Korean War (DJP), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:28 (one year ago) Permalink
(I'm already downloading it)
― the Hannah Montana of the Korean War (DJP), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:29 (one year ago) Permalink
Duolingo is a great way to absorb language basics and grammar rules, but once you have that stuff down and are in the mode of adding vocabulary I found it kind of inefficient.
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:29 (one year ago) Permalink
xp You will learn many duck-related German sentences ime
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:32 (one year ago) Permalink
i have been surprised how much french i still know in terms of vocab: my grammar was and is terrible
― mark s, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:33 (one year ago) Permalink
polyphonic otm, I finished the French tree and have never gone back, currently use Memrise (and used Lingvist until I ran out of words) to build vocab
― rob, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:35 (one year ago) Permalink
in welsh i have discovered nothing about ducks but i have encountered a DRAGON (draig)
― mark s, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:38 (one year ago) Permalink
I completed the Japanese Duolingo and it is good for absorbing things by wrote but I grew frustrated with never having any of the grammar explained to me. It’s provided a good base.
There’s some more discussion of Duolingo
Do You Speak A Second Language? 日本語は話せます 🇯🇵
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:39 (one year ago) Permalink
pimsleur >> duolingo
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:39 (one year ago) Permalink
well but Duolingo is free
― rob, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:44 (one year ago) Permalink
honestly DL is more like a fun app that helps you read stuff in a foreign language
― rob, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:45 (one year ago) Permalink
huh 46% fluent
not bad I guess
― the Hannah Montana of the Korean War (DJP), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:45 (one year ago) Permalink
Was going to say, however tell me more about why pimsleur is good? Everything else I have been trying has been lower cost but really falls down on getting me to speak. I’d pay for some live interaction.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 19:51 (one year ago) Permalink
I used to be fluent in Portuguese but haven't used in 20 years - wonder if this could get me back on my bullshit.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 20:27 (one year ago) Permalink
Duolingo fluency shield suffers from grade inflation especially when you are progressing through, say, the first third of the course or have just taken the placement test. At some points if starts to drop off and decay and you may regret giving into your ex-clever schoolboy’s craving for this particular form of external gratification.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 21:49 (one year ago) Permalink
Think last word should have been "validation."
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 22:00 (one year ago) Permalink
whenever i type "nos lau" (thursday night) it tells me i have a typo and that the correct spelling is "nos lau"
― mark s, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 09:20 (one year ago) Permalink
Did you type a lower case “el” (wrong) or a capital “eye” (correct)?
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 09:42 (one year ago) Permalink
oh right that makes sense yes
― mark s, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 09:43 (one year ago) Permalink
That was really it? Some of the answers in some of the courses are messed up so that it will tell you about an alternate answer or typo which seems to be dependent on some punctuation, or even some other “invisible punctuation.” There seem to even be cases where it is supposed to accept some letters from say, a standard English alphabet, without certain diacritical and just tell you to “mind the accents” but it gets into some looking glass world where it doesn’t accept the correct foreign alphabet letter. Feel like I️ saw this happen in Turkish, with the non-dotted i, the ı.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 09:56 (one year ago) Permalink
i haven't gone back in and checked but yes, it's quite likely tha:, since i realised when i read yr post that i was listening to DL's pronunciation of Iau and thinking "wow the initial i sound in front of those vowels is really like an L isn't it?" -- based on assuming my grasp of welsh pronunciation is actually worse than it is
(the pronunciation i learnt as a kid IS different to the version they're using: spoken welsh has surprisingly strong regional variation: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/13474058/Dialects-much-more-than-a-simple-north-south-divide)
(but it's not really the consonants that vary)
― mark s, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:04 (one year ago) Permalink
Ah, some weird keyboard autocorrect is now putting something strange when I type the letter capital “eye” I.Speaking of which, at some point iOS seems to have added a Welsh keyboard, which may um, assist you in your answers.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:04 (one year ago) Permalink
"wow the initial i sound in front of those vowels is really like an L isn't it?"
or maybe the other way round, anyway i was struck by how different their pronunciation was than mine would be -- which is because i was misreading the letter
― mark s, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:06 (one year ago) Permalink
Sometimes wonder if the Welsh as taught is just some sort of approximation standard that is in fact spoken by no one at all, like Bokmål/Nynorsk, I️ think.How is your pronunciation of the letter double el?
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:12 (one year ago) Permalink
Ach, still the weird “ego problem” or “ego trip” with the capital eye. Think I️ need to delete my autocorrect dictionary.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:13 (one year ago) Permalink
Tom, delete ILX all my bookmarks my autocorrect dictionary now!
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:15 (one year ago) Permalink
Ah, that didn’t seem to work. I’m stymied.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:16 (one year ago) Permalink
my double ll pronunciation is p good i think! the nearest large town to where we went on family holidays when i was a kid is machynlleth and i know how ppl who live in it say it
this was before welsh was actually taught in schools -- indeed, it was actively discouraged in schools back then, and i know someone who was made to leave school at 16 because he preferred to speak welsh (as did his entire family, of hill farmers)
(he became a mechanic and a builder, and is now very comfortably off and owns half the town)
― mark s, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:18 (one year ago) Permalink
Ah. I have never been in the presence of a Welsh speaker as far as I know, apart from John Cale at an instore.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:25 (one year ago) Permalink
I against I against I
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:27 (one year ago) Permalink
(Had to chose the *RONG* spelling for each of those eyes to get the correct one)Seems to me the pronunciation of Welsh, especially the “ll,” involves a lot more spittle than, say, English.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:30 (one year ago) Permalink
At one point I was having some problems with the days of the week with when to put the word for day in there, such as “dydd Iau.” Seem to have sorted it, can’t remember what the problem really was.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:39 (one year ago) Permalink
The other thing to remember of course about the “i” is that the word for Thursday starts with j for Jupiter-or Jove! do u see?! in most Romance languages.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:47 (one year ago) Permalink
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/14295031/Dydd-Mercher-a-Dydd-Iau
yes i haven't worked out when not to use Dydd yet!
(tho i also haven't yet been marked wrong on either, and have been assuming -- perhaps wrongly -- that they are effectively interchangeable, at least in this limited context)
ooh handy steer on the root of the day names, i'd spotted they were "a bit like French" but hadn't taken it any further
― mark s, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 10:50 (one year ago) Permalink
To throw a spanner in your welsh works - Memrise has a course in Belter Cant.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 11:01 (one year ago) Permalink
Sut mae, Marc? Sut dych chi?
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 November 2017 01:13 (one year ago) Permalink
Dych chi eisiau coffi?
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 November 2017 01:17 (one year ago) Permalink
Learning Dutch thru this atm and I like it.
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 9 November 2017 01:17 (one year ago) Permalink
Hartelijk gefeliciteerd!
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 November 2017 01:25 (one year ago) Permalink
Both the Dutch and Welsh courses have been spruced up in the past few months, so you guys are on the cutting edge.
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 November 2017 01:27 (one year ago) Permalink
/too much time on Duolingo
― Bazooka Jobim (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 November 2017 02:50 (one year ago) Permalink
"The grapheme k was also used more commonly than in the modern alphabet, particularly before front vowels.[3] The disuse of this letter is at least partly due to the publication of William Morgan's Welsh Bible, whose English printers, with type letter frequencies set for English and Latin, did not have enough k letters in their type cases to spell every /k/ sound as k, so the order went "C for K, because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth";[5] this was not liked at the time, but has become standard usage."
"why doesn't welsh have the letter k?""we ran out that one time and never restocked"
― mark s, Thursday, 9 November 2017 09:46 (one year ago) Permalink
grrrr i am just as bad now at grammatical gender in french as i was aged 13: le cheval but la souris whyyyyyyyyyyyy pourquooooooiii
― mark s, Friday, 10 November 2017 11:06 (one year ago) Permalink
some rules and patterns here (but of course no clue why le cheval but la souris): http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/le_or_la_in_french.shtml
― mark s, Friday, 10 November 2017 11:07 (one year ago) Permalink
my devoted year+ on duolingo french got me enough of the basics that I was able to get a civil servant job in France where I speak French full time. it helped that I was living in France most of that time and that I'd already spent a lot of time reading french (or trying to, with much dictionary use) and that I already spoke Spanish pretty well (son of a native speaker but didn't grow up speaking it, only learned it in school). so I am yay duolingo!
I spent some time on the japanese tree earlier this year as I learn that language next but I'm going to need more than just duolingo to do it because I don't have a great sense of the grammar whereas learning a second romance language, I already grokked the main structures, what I really needed was enough confidence in applying those structures to go ahead and speak it irl.
although I think the japanese accent is easier than the french accent, so duolingo may be ok in that regard (japanese mostly sounds like it looks, unlike french)
― droit au butt (Euler), Friday, 10 November 2017 15:55 (one year ago) Permalink
I'm doing German which I'm already sorta conversational in as my Dad is from there. I wasn't raised speaking it though and what I do know is only what I've picked up listening to him speak with friends and relatives and the times that I've spent there. I'm really enjoying it so far though and am excited to improve :).
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 10 November 2017 16:03 (one year ago) Permalink
i just discovered the chats-with-bots feature (after several days of just ignoring the you-have-mail signal): i like that it goes "excellent response!" after what is (in another, more accurate sense) a pretty basic not-actually-rude response
― mark s, Friday, 10 November 2017 16:14 (one year ago) Permalink
I can recommend the ‘Human Japanese’ App for this.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Friday, 10 November 2017 20:29 (one year ago) Permalink
I only have five so maybe you do have a newer course.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2019 13:25 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Es decir... ¡Qué emocionante!
Disculpe mi ortografía horrible en español, estoy muy cansado hoy... como siempre.
― brain (krakow), Thursday, 28 March 2019 13:33 (three weeks ago) Permalink
There's a "New course update!" banner at the top of my tree highlighting the change too. I don't use the app much lately as my phone is rubbish, so this is on the web version.
― brain (krakow), Thursday, 28 March 2019 13:38 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Je suis en train d'etudier le francais. Maintenant c'est une recapitulation de tout ce que j'ai appris dans l'ecole secondaire.
― nathom, Thursday, 28 March 2019 14:56 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Is er een traditioneel Nederlands restaurant in de buurt?
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 March 2019 12:48 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Hopelijk want Nederlandse gerechten zijn slecht. Ik hou meer van de Vlaamse keuken. Stoverij! Stoemp! Frieten! Gentse waterzooi.
― nathom, Saturday, 30 March 2019 13:05 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Hopelijk NIET
Ben ik verslaafd aan sociale media?
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 March 2019 13:12 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Ik ben heer voor zaken.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 March 2019 13:29 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Arrgh, hier
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 March 2019 13:30 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Er zijn weinig klanten vandaag.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 March 2019 13:45 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Hoe minder klantenHoe meer vreugde
― nathom, Saturday, 30 March 2019 15:39 (three weeks ago) Permalink
As you might be able to guess, I just finished the Society lessons and the started the Business lessons of the Dutch tree.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 March 2019 15:59 (three weeks ago) Permalink
Then started
Wandel met mij: never uttered by a belgian manager evah
― nathom, Saturday, 30 March 2019 16:32 (three weeks ago) Permalink
...or a Dutch one, for that matter. What’s supposed to be the context of that sentence?
― breastcrawl, Sunday, 31 March 2019 02:34 (two weeks ago) Permalink
J started the business part of duolingo. :-)
― nathom, Sunday, 31 March 2019 17:08 (two weeks ago) Permalink
https://open.spotify.com/track/0aJnQLA2AEgiJkyNSbRaVp?si=4AiZtmerSpiDPg2l-rrFEw
― breastcrawl, Monday, 1 April 2019 00:37 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Lol
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 1 April 2019 00:47 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Verboden toegang :(
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 1 April 2019 00:49 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Jij weet het net zo min als ik.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 April 2019 11:12 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Bovenstaande zin neemt me minstens vijftig jaar terug in de tijd.
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 6 April 2019 11:50 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Nu zouden we zeggen: Jij weet het ook niet.
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 6 April 2019 12:01 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Of preciezer: Jij weet er net zo weinig van als ik.
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 6 April 2019 12:04 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Dat zin komt woord voor woord uit het woordenboek.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 April 2019 13:46 (two weeks ago) Permalink
mailto:redac✧✧✧@pri✧✧✧.n✧
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 April 2019 14:17 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Sure, it’s “correct”, just not casual in any way, shape or form. People will probably applaud you in admiration if you’d utter it!(het is “die zin” trouwens)
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 6 April 2019 14:31 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Ha, thanks was wondering about that.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 April 2019 14:49 (two weeks ago) Permalink
Houd het wisselgeld maar.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 7 April 2019 13:24 (one week ago) Permalink
A little on the new content added to the Spanish, French and English (for Spanish & Portuguese speakers) courses and how they align with CEFR levels, which is somewhat interesting though not very in depth: https://making.duolingo.com/how-are-duolingo-courses-evolving
Apparently these particular courses now cover to A2 level with the additional content. It says they aim to expand other languages to the same A2 level and to push the Spanish, French and English toward B1.
― brain (krakow), Sunday, 7 April 2019 14:21 (one week ago) Permalink
Please listen to Gorki. https://open.spotify.com/track/1AvAl5fj5mhoLHVo0to1xr?si=0h2Thu1fRJmBDcf-ivTEBgOne of the haunting songs in Belgian pop. The singer drank himself to death after his divorce.
― nathom, Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:11 (one week ago) Permalink
Grayed out, song unavailable :(
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:13 (one week ago) Permalink
Still doing french. Going more slowly. Mais ce n'est pas tellement difficile. The only prob: Don't know when to use en or à. :-(
― nathom, Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:13 (one week ago) Permalink
Gorki-Mia. It's so beautiful.
But it is on YouTube.
― Theorbo Goes Wild (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:14 (one week ago) Permalink
https://youtu.be/lgIcl5fS6g8
― nathom, Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:14 (one week ago) Permalink
Rare appelflap die je bent!
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 15:34 (three days ago) Permalink
Kroketten en frikadellen kan je tot aan de Spaanse kust bestellen.
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 15:35 (three days ago) Permalink
xpost nathom, on youtube Learn French With Alexa is useful for very specific things like that. The videos are short enough and very clear. There might be other good online videos, but I really like how she explains things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxlsIfvf3LEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHQPlvD1ypc
― Yerac, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 15:45 (three days ago) Permalink
Thanks! *merciekes* as we say in dialect. ;-)
― nathom, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 16:31 (three days ago) Permalink
Almost done with the Dutch tree -those last two sentences are from the NL lesson- so you won’t have to watch me mangle your language for much longer.
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 21:07 (three days ago) Permalink
Jammer!
― breastcrawl, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 21:35 (three days ago) Permalink
Ik ben niet veranderd.
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 23:33 (three days ago) Permalink
At the risk of getting all *huggles*, I have really enjoyed working through this Dutch tree. There is something extra about this language that seems to have gotten a hook in me.
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 18 April 2019 01:08 (two days ago) Permalink
Haven’t got to the advanced part of Dutch-language culture yet to understand the appropriate balance of huggles and distance/irony
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 18 April 2019 01:28 (two days ago) Permalink
Depends on where you live. We don't do huggles here in West Flanders. I do though. But then I feel an outsider/buitenstaander.
― nathom, Thursday, 18 April 2019 07:12 (two days ago) Permalink
A dialect word: muilen. (Lewd word for kissing. Mainly used in East Flanders)
― nathom, Saturday, 20 April 2019 10:38 (eight hours ago) Permalink
That would be our Dutch “bekken”, I guess. Kissing as in French kissing, right?
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 20 April 2019 11:12 (seven hours ago) Permalink
Wil jij dat ik gek word?
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 April 2019 11:17 (seven hours ago) Permalink
Sorry, that was the last sentence I got from Duo.
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 April 2019 11:24 (seven hours ago) Permalink