Okay, so I think that this blog post is looooong overdue, but also slightly premature? If that can even be possible? Haha.
Anyway, in about May/June I started learning German on Duolingo! For years, and years, and YEAAARS I considered buying Rosetta Stone to learn French - but then I hesitated and thought that I should buy it in Spanish instead - and then I realized that spending that much money on something I was flip-flopping on constantly was not a good idea, haha. So I looked up free learning resources and came across Duolingo! Like I said, years ago I kept flip-flopping on what language to learn and I just generally wasn't that interested or motivated in being COMMITTED to learning a new language, so I clicked around Duolingo for like, a day and then completely disregarded it for months after that.
Anyway, fast forward a year or so and I decided that I was going to make it a GOAL to get a 7 day streak on Duolingo - and then it just grew from there! I decided to learn Portuguese seriously because my ex boyfriends dad was from there and we were all talking about planning a trip to Portugal to visit their family! Anyway, needless to say I do NOT need to learn Portuguese anymore, haha. So I decided to go for something totally different and new - GERMAN!

Okay, so for the first two months I went hard in the paint when it came to learning German, haha. I did like 300+ XP a day and I was writing notes and practicing religiously. But then I started working again and that all fell through. I still do my minimum 20 XP a day, but there is a HUGE difference in comfort and confidence. When I was doing 300 XP a day I was like "okay, I got this in the BAG" and now I'm struggling between fem/mas/neuter forms of "the".

I got to 60% fluent in like 3 months. OBVIOUSLY, there is something wrong with the stats on Duolingo and I know I'm no where near half fluent in German, but that was my motivation! I can almost easily read out sentences and decipher what words could mean - but listening to German is a whole new ball game.

So here are my PROS for Duolingo:
+ it's FREE.
+ it's easy and aesthetically simple and pleasing.
+ it's almost a child-like app/website: its bright and fun and you just click buttons to answer questions.
+ there is an additional app for flashcards compiled from people all around the world which is AWESOME.
+ it lets you set how much "XP" you'd like to do a day, and shows you your streaks, and gives you a nifty % each time you get more "fluent".

And my CONS...:
+ OBVIOUSLY not as good as having a teacher or an all inclusive app/website.
+ all inclusive meaning having various listening and speaking activities...
+ you can OPT OUT of speaking (which I did) which means that although I can read through words and understand what they mean, I more than likely can't pronounce it.
+ the way grammar is taught is also kind of confusing?
+ The organization, I'm sure, has a rhyme and reason that just happens to be unbeknownst to me - but if you learn, let's say weather - there can be several modules meaning weather 1 could be merely about rain/snow/thunder/whatever and then you can go through like 5 other modules and get to weather 2 that talks about sunshine/umbrellas/whatever. I WISH it could all be together and in one go - but then again I have no idea the best way people in general learn a language so MAYBE its beneficial?

In conclusion, I think duolingo is great and I HIGHLY recommend it! Of course it has it's downsides, but it's free and fun and teaches you a LOT as far as free apps/websites go! So give it a try and let me know what you guys think about it too!

Thanks for reading! xo, me.