The ’Duolingo-madness’
My Russian-German tree is complete
Some insights and my way of learning using Duolingo, this wonderful, free language learning program
The Russian-German language tree can be considered a ’reverse-tree’ in my case, as I am more familiar with German language as I am with Russian. The term ’language tree’ is used because of the way the Duolingo lessons look like: they resemble a tree in a way.
We use the term ’reverse-tree’ when we set our mother tongue (or the language know better) as the target language and we set the language we want to be more proficient in as the mother tongue. Duolingo asks at the beginning of choosing a course like: ’I am a speaker of …..’ , and that is where you can choose your mother tongue or pretend to be the native speaker, he-he.
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| Choose language course on Duolingo in Russian |
Using some hacks to save time to be more effective in Duolingo
After a while, not just in case of Duolingo, but basically when one uses the computer a lot on a daily basis, the need for saving time arises with keyboard shortcuts, making files easier to access, using bookmarks and so on.
(You might consider reading ’The four-hour workweek’ from Tim Ferris as he discusses time saving methods and tools well, along with dozens of useful things. The booktitle might sound like scam at first, but believe me, it is worth reading. I also decided to read it as I though: this must be total bullshit or something groundbreaking, at the latter has proven to be true.)
(You might consider reading ’The four-hour workweek’ from Tim Ferris as he discusses time saving methods and tools well, along with dozens of useful things. The booktitle might sound like scam at first, but believe me, it is worth reading. I also decided to read it as I though: this must be total bullshit or something groundbreaking, at the latter has proven to be true.)
Cheating is allowed here to spare time from typing
When I get a sentence wrong, I type the correct solution right after making the mistake. This is good because I still have the corrected sentence in front of me in red letters. I copy it and when I get the same sentence again, paste it.
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| My copy-paste time saving-hack in Duolingo |
This copy-paste method can be dangerous if not used correctly. In my case, if I am in a hurry and just want to get my lessons done quickly to go be able to go about my daily routine, I tend to just ’slam’ the copied answer there. Instead of this I focus on the following:
I make sure to always read the correct sentence again when I paste it.
This way, although time is saved from typing, I still learn because I expose myself to the foreign language sentence again. Typing and writing is very useful by the way: we input the most amount of information in our brains with our hands. This I have learnt from my psychology teacher at the University of Miskolc while attending the English teacher training. So, if you are not as lazy as me, just type those words, it is extremely useful, he-he.
Blind-typing is a way to be more effective on Duolingo
To contradict myself a bit in my previously mentioned anti-typing point of view, at the beginning of my Duolingo studies I consiously focused on learning to type without looking at the keyboard. I did this blind-typing practice only when I was completing my Duolingo lessons at first, because it drained a lot of my energy. Slowly getting used to not looling at the keyboard it became less of a challenge. I also have to type a lot building my online Ganoderma medicinal mushroom coffee Network Marketing business. This is why I decided to reduce the time spent with ’punching’ the keyboard where I can avoid it.
Greetings again if you have clicked here from reading my YouTube video description. This is the short detour from learning with Duolingo I was writing about there:
The time and energy saved somewhere can be used in another area
This is true to almost everything, that the time and energy I save when doing something I can use elsewhere effectively. Seconds add up to minutes, and minutes add up to hours and slowly to days. If I only use those extra hours for sleeping, I am doing something well. Here is an example from my life as guy who lives with 3 dogs in an apartment:
The value of time
Having to walk my 3 dogs exactly the same time in any weather every day can make my go crazy and there are days where I waste - yes, it is very cruel to say ’waste’, but that is the truth – my last drop of energy at 10 PM to go out in the cold darkness of the night. I am exactly in this state of mind now when blogging this, and I am really fed up. When I get home at about 22:45, feed them and take their bowls after they ate, at about 11 PM many times I am too awake to go to bed, and this means nowadays staying up until 1-1:30 AM, and getting only about 4 hours of sleep. This is not healthy, I know.
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| My way of effective dog walking: riding my bike with them 3 times a day |
I want to increase my value in the workforce market by improving my skills To break out of this rotten circle, I have to grow my knowledge and learning languages with Duolingo is one way for me to get smarter. If I want to earn more money, namely passive income, I have to make myself more valuable. This is true if I wanted to get another job as well, although that is not my goal. If I earn little money and complain about it, I consider, that this is because I am (the value of my knowledge and skills) worth only as much in the workforce-market.
Why I learn languages with Duolingo?
As I am doing an international business, languages are of key importance to me. As I have written previously in another blog of mine, my motivation for learning languages with Duolingo could be summarized in two points:
1.: I want to understand movies and music better.
This might sound trivial, but hey, everyone has his own issues, right? :) Spanish and Russian in action, maffia, superhero or any kind of movies sound pretty cool, not to speak of Spanish in rap music, which is a real delicacy for me.
This might sound trivial, but hey, everyone has his own issues, right? :) Spanish and Russian in action, maffia, superhero or any kind of movies sound pretty cool, not to speak of Spanish in rap music, which is a real delicacy for me.
2.: International mushroom coffee business
I want to be able to serve my customers and business partners from all parts of the world better. If they are satisfied and successful, I am satisfied and successful, this is the beauty of Multi-level Marketing business.
I want to be able to serve my customers and business partners from all parts of the world better. If they are satisfied and successful, I am satisfied and successful, this is the beauty of Multi-level Marketing business.
Saving time with ’speech-to-text input’ method
My goal is to be more effective by saving time from typing. This can also be achieved using ’speech-to-text input’ method, which I have recently discovered. I will show this to you too in another video soon. Read more about me here.
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| All Duolingo courses come in the form of 'language trees' |
Lesson list of Duolingo
Russian-German language tree:
Навыки Немецкий:
Основы 1
Основы 2
Общие
фразы
Еда
Животные
Множественное число
Притяжательная форма
Глаголы: Настоящее
Одежда
Местоимения: Именительный
Семья
Местоимения: Винительный
Союзы
Домашнее хозяйство
Вопросы
Дательный падеж
Числа
Местоимения: Дательный
Отрицания
Люди
Поездки
Цвета
Формальное вы
Профессии
Сравнения
Определители
Прилагательные: Предикат 2
Предлоги
Медицина
Глаголы: Настоящее 2
Даты и Время
Чувства
Наречия 1
Частота
Глаголы: Модальные
Природа
Родительный падеж
Прилагательные: Именительный 1
Прилагательные: Винительный
Места
Прилагательные: Дательный
Прилагательные: Именительный 2
Наречия 2
Глаголы: Претерит
Глаголы: Настоящее совершённое
Глаголы: Прошедшее совершённое
Предметы
Общение
Глаголы: Будущее время 1
Учёба
Наука
Глаголы: Будущее совершённое
Возвратные глаголы
Бизнес
Язык
Абстракции 1
Глаголы: Настоящее 3
Глаголы: Будущее время 2
Глаголы: Условное наклонение
Абстракции 2
Глаголы: Условное совершённое
Бизнес 2
Спорт
Духовность
Искусство
Страдательный Залог
Глаголы: Повелительное наклонение
Политика
Абстракции 3
Абстракции 4
Глаголы: Условное наклонение 2
Глаголы: Настоящее
