How to learn a language quickly

The fastest way to learn a language is to read, write and think in the language as often as possible—you’ll considerably increase the number of hours you spend interacting with the language each week.

If you chose to learn a language through structured lessons, the minimum amount of time it will take you for the easiest rated languages on the FSI scale is 600 hours over the course of 6 months, and the hardest rated languages will take almost 2 years and 2200 hours to master.

Learning a new language is an inherently scary idea. With a busy work life, finding the time to commit to a new language can be a challenge in itself. But experts agree that it’s more than possible to make meaningful progress in just one hour a day.

The short answer is as much as possible.

Realistically, however, at least 20 minutes per day should be dedicated to learning a new language. The ideal amount of time to spend on daily study, if you can find the time, is an hour, but you don’t need to cram it all in at once.

The scope of duolingo is very limited. I think it’s well established that most courses get you to somewhere around A2, B1 at best, which is just enough to be a bit challenging, but not enough to make you able to expand your knowledge on your own.

Fluency takes a really long time and really isn’t necessary unless you plan to live or work in the target country or use the language daily. I would say proficiency is definitely possible with 30 minutes of effective practice per day and roughly 2 hours if you want to become fluent.

Duolingo will not make you fluent or a great speaking in your chosen language. It does not claim to do so either. Instead, Duolingo will teach the basics of a language, providing you with around 1500 words (about the same as a 6 year old) and acts as a great basis for further learning.

It’s a waste of time. In fact, it’s just as bad as the education system Von Ahn criticizes. Duolingo outsources its translation services, allowing for awkward sentences to slip in undetected. And translation (the core of its platform) is already widely known to be an ineffective way to learn a language.

Meme Culture

Duo has recently been used in memes to depict the reminders to practice in a humorous way, mostly in the amount of emails users receive. Duo has been known to call in ballistic missile-strikes on people who do not practice, or physically abuse them. The meme has become known as “Evil Duolingo Owl”.

The main differences between Babbel vs Duolingo are: Babbel is best for learnings looking to completely master a language, whereas Duolingo is better for sporadic learners who want to dabble. Babbel offers lessons with conversational practice and cultural immersion, whereas Duolingo offers adaptive learning lessons.

Those accounts should be banned from Duolingo forever since scripting and cheating is disallowed. The idea for the leagues has some merit in terms of progress, but when it is used to just accumulate lingots (?) at insane rates, it loses its original purpose. It is a shame that is being abused.

Duolingo plus costs $6.99 per month.

They offer a 7-day free trial and then charge you monthly. The cost of upgrading to Duolingo Plus for one year (or an annual subscription to Duolingo Plus) would be $83.88, which in my opinion is not worth it! By just using the Duolingo app, you have access to all the same lessons.

‍Busuu offers a language learning experience that compares to Duolingo. They have a structured curriculum that you can progress through involving audio, vocabulary, and other gamified experiences. However, unlike Duolingo, Busuu has a more limited free version as they have a premium subscription-based business model.

Duolingo is very safe and there is no need to worry. The Dulingo bird is not real and cannot make you beg for your life in Spanish. The email thing is most likely just so they are able to send you messages to remind you to continue your lessons.

So, in a nutshell, Duolingo is excellent for giving you some choice about your pace of learning; it can motivate you into regular study, and you can learn a lot of vocabulary and stock phrases. By itself, Duolingo is not a complete or foolproof way to learn a language, but it can be a very good starting point.