Why and how do I learn langauges with Duolingo
I am ready with my English-German language course on Duolingo
(Scroll down for the topic content of the language tree)
I am very happy because I’ve successfully completed the English-German language tree on Duolingo. ’Language tree’ means the whole online language course. It is called a tree because of
the visual resemblance.
the visual resemblance.
As you’ll see at the end of my short home selfie video, once it is complete and revision and refreshing the lessons is done properly, the whole language tree will have a beautiful golden color. I find these little golden circles representing the different language topics very motivating and pleasant to my eyes. This is true to all language courses on Duolingo.
What motivated me to start my English-German studies on Duolingo?
When I started learning on Duolingo about one and a half years ago, my first language was German. My motivation came indirectly from one of my students. At the time of writing this YouTube video description I am still - but hopefully not for a long time - a teacher of English language at a primary school in Hejőkeresztúr village in Hungary. (That is me in the ninth picture, LOL) The school, the children and my colleagues are great, but I have other plans.
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| Duolingo is a very user-friendly online language learning program. |
My 14-year-old student had a better German accent and pronunciation than me
So this student of mine, at that time 14 years old spent a few years in Germany with her family. And guess what, she had a great German accent! Better than mine at the age of 41 now. Get it, a 14-year-old Hungarian girl has a better pronunciation of German and almost sounding like a native speaker to me! I am very happy for her, but it kinda kicked me in the butt. I was lazy enough to stop learning German after secondary school, foolish enough to only complete the written part of the intermediate-level state language examination (type B). I was lazy and stupid to complete the A type, the oral part of the intermediate-state German exam when I was in the practice, right after secondary school. I did not really care about this for many years, and honestly it is not really the lack of the certificate that is bothering me now either, but the crappy attitude I had back then.
So, being ashamed and angry of my younger self being such a dumbass, I told myself: ’No way I am going to take this that a 14-year-old student of mine can speak better German after about 2 years than me after about 5 years and having a certificate!’ :D Okay, I was not really angry, I rather wanted to show myself that I could also get better. :)
I registered myself on Duolingo, this wonderful, free online language learning programme we used in the English classes at school as well. I started with one tiny lesson a day, taking about 5 minutes to complete. I did so to make sure I do it every day because this amount of learning did not put too much pressure on me. It would not take away much of my freetime in which I am selling mushroom coffee online to be able to achieve passive income and quit the everyday ratrace and improve my standard of living both financially and the quality and quantity of my spare time.
How many points and lessons do I comlete a day?
Over time I became more motivated and started to increase the number of lessons to complete in Duolingo German course. I have been doing 11 lessons a day for quite a while. First I was doing it on my computer with the desktop version of Duolingo. This version gave 10 XPs (points) for each completed lesson. 11 lessons means 110 XPs on the PC.
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| I do 11 of these golden beauties every day. |
How do the Duolingo points (XP) motivate me?
I set my goal to 110 XPs because I told myself that it is like achieving 110% and it makes me feel a really cool guy, LOL! :) But seriously, to me it is a good motivation to see I am achieving more than 100%. It is a psychological hack I find very good.
What is the advantage of the desktop version of Duolingo?
Learning on the desktop version of Duolingo helped me to learn typing without looking at the keyboard. I intentionally trained and forced myself to type ’blindly’ when I was learning German. I did this at first only when I used Duolingo, again to avoid too much pressure and obligation, this way avoiding or reducing the possibility of quitting.
What is the disadvantage of using Duolingo app on a smartphone?
After a while I tried the Android app of Duolingo on my smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. It was great no to be bound by my PC and being able to do my English-German course even when I was not home. This is the point in having a smartphone, right? It also saved my a lot of time for my acitivities and Ganoderma coffee business work at home.
I was really doing Duolingo hardcore by then. I took on more languages. This means that now my studies take about 2 hours a day. Imagine, staring, focusing on the tiny screen of my smartphone for such a long time! I started to feel that if I kept on doing this, my eyesight would deteriorate soon for sure. I had to change for a bigger screen, to a tablet.
Why did I need a tablet to learn on Duolingo when I already have a smartphone and a computer? I have already told you about the problem I had with my smartphone’s small screen. But hey, I could have continued to do my Duolingo courses on my PC, right? Yes, sure. But by then I have experienced the difference between the desktop and the Android version of Duolingo.
What is the advantage of the Android version of Duolingo?
I find Duoling Android application more effective.
I find the Android app version better. It allows me to see the words of the sentences and it is more faster, more effective to memorize everything this way than with the PC version. The other thing is that I became sick and tired of typing. I type a lot every day during my online work with my DXN business, so I wanted to decrease the time spent typing as well. Being more effective because seeing the words laid out in front of me was the main reason. Oh yeah, I definitely do not want to lose my eyesight because of focusing on a small smartphone screen, so it was as important as effectiveness.
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| The app version of Duolingo gives more XPs |
What is a reverse language tree? Why is a reversed Duolingo tree good?
For final words, I find it great to complete Duolingo tree in a reversed way. It is also referred to as
’reverse-tree’. This means that for example, in my case where my native tongue was set to English ( I am a Hungarian dude by the way) and the language I learnt was German, I switched my native language to German and started to learn English. I find some extra sentences and words every now and then when I do a reversed Duolingo tree. It is like re-doing the language course in a slightly different way. I definitely recommend this to you as well.
’reverse-tree’. This means that for example, in my case where my native tongue was set to English ( I am a Hungarian dude by the way) and the language I learnt was German, I switched my native language to German and started to learn English. I find some extra sentences and words every now and then when I do a reversed Duolingo tree. It is like re-doing the language course in a slightly different way. I definitely recommend this to you as well.
I wish you a lot of success in language learning! Remember: rather do a little every day, but really do this little every day instead of setting a very high daily goal that puts too much pressure on you! Beside being hard work, language learning should be fun! :)
Topics-list of Duolingo English-German language tree:
I collected the topics of
Duolingo’s English-German language course, in the exact order in which they
appear in the language tree:
Basics1
The
Basics 2
Phrases
Idioms
Flirting
Accusative case
Introduction
Food 1
Animals 1
Plurals
Adjectives: Predicative 1
Not
Question 1
Present 1
Clothing
Nature 1
Possessive pronouns
Nominative pronouns
Negatives
Adverbs 1
Places 1
Stuff
Accusative pronouns
House 1
Conjunctions
People 1
Questions 2
Family 1
Accusative prepositions
Numbers 1
Food 2
Dative case
Money
Dative pronouns
Family 2
Dative prepositions
Body 1
Formal You
Some-
Shopping
Travel
Numbers 2
Colors
Imperative
Occupations 1
Prepositions
Materials
Numbers 3
Comparison
Qualifiers
House
Dates 1
Adjectives: Predicative 2
Location
Adjectives: Predicative 3
Places 2
Medical
Present 2
Dates 2
People 2
Future 1
Feelings
Time
Frequency
Verbs: modal
Adverbs 2
Nature 2
Genitive case
Occupations 2
Perfect 1
Adjectives: nominative 1
Adjectives: accusative
Adjectives: dative
Direction
Adjectives: nominative 2
Adverbs 3
Preterite
Weather
Objects
Communication 1
Future 2
Internet
Verbs: past perfect
Education
Verbs: future perfect
Phrases 2
Science
Verbs: reflexive
Communication 2
Business 1
Language
Abstract objects 1
Animals 2
Present 3
Body 2
Future 3
Spiritual
Verbs: conditional
Math
Banking
Abstract objects 2
Verbs: conditional perfect
Business 2
Future 4
Sports
Perfect 2
Arts
Passive voice
Religion
Politics 1
Adverbs 4
Abstract objects 3
Verbs: conditional 2
Philosophy
Present 4
Fantasy
Abstract objects 4
Relative pronouns
Classical music
Politics 2
Culture
The World
