Sixty-one days ago, I logged back into my Duolingo account for the first time in years where I rediscovered the Italian tree. Every lesson was leveled up to 2, but no further. I realized, a bit dumbly, that only leveling it up to 2 was barely scratching the surface of the language learning DL had to offer, and so quested myself with the only real option: gilding the Italian tree. Today, I have finished that quest. It has taken many hours to get here (and some choice curse words, not gonna lie) and I wanted to meditate on the experience. I’m sharing my thoughts here in case anyone else could possibly benefit from them.
First, DL deserves a lot more thanks than it gets. Their staff put tons of work into gameifying language learning and it’s FREE. FREE. Sure, I got ads for upgrading to Plus, but never hit a paywall. I have scoured the language section at the library I work at, and let me tell you, those dusty workbooks *do* help you learn, but the method is not nearly as fun as DL’s.
I’ve always been a gamer, and gaining EXP - whether in Pokémon, Fallout, Final Fantasy, or DL – works on the neurochemistry in my brain exactly as the developers intended it to. Leveling up in anything instantly incentivizes me to push a little harder, go a little deeper. In this way, it was much easier for me to stick with daily practice on DL compared to reviewing a workbook. Plus, it’s an addiction I don’t feel bad about. And it makes learning le gasp fun! THANK YOU, DUOLINGO!
Secondly, it was easy for me to take the gameification too seriously at times. I had to remind myself that DL never promised to get me to a level of fluency, or that they would provide in-depth lessons to explain nuances of the language I’m studying. My language learning journey is my responsibility, not anyone else’s, and not DL’s. It took me a minute to notice, but at some point I remembered I was doing these lessons on a computer that, if I took the time, could give me all the answers to any questions I had. I realized I was taking one giant open-book test and I could ask the internet when I was stuck (except using Google Translate - that would count as cheating! It’s not a very helpful resource for learning a language anyway). For instance, I struggle with differentiating the use of the various Italian prepositions. One quick search cleared up a lot of confusion!! DL is aware that it is not a one-stop shop for language learning, and it never claims to be. The internet is full of free lessons already – why would DL reinvent the wheel? Ultimately, it is up to me to help myself understand, not DL. Anyway, language learning is an adventure! I’m honestly having fun squirreling away non-DL resources! The world (and internet) is my oyster!
Sub-secondly, the forums were more fun when I assumed DL knew more than me, I didn’t downvote an exercise just because it was hard, and I took everything I read in the forums with a grain of salt. Sometimes, the ones who call themselves experts actually know the least. I should always do my own research if I’m stuck on something. There are some wonderful contributors dropping helpful tips in the forums (sandrabruck, Ake Marninger, and f.formica are some of the best in Italian – thank you!), but there are also users who think they know better than DL and take every chance they can get to rant about how DL is wrong. Yes, sometimes a translation is a bit off, and a native speaker will pipe up, but most of the time, it’s user error. I had no trouble downvoting and/or reporting someone who is almost abusively spouting erroneous information in the forums. Even if I get chewed out in response, the least I could do is drop a helpful link in the reply, as it might help another user who comes along and struggles with the same things I did. That is what DL forums are supposed to be for, not platforms for inconsiderate, arrogant tosspots to pontificate about how much more they think they know than DL and the rest of us.
Thirdly, learning was better when I slowed down and allowed myself to have fun. Yes, it’s possible, even when learning difficult material 😊 Because of the rush gaining XP gave me, I’d sometimes find myself racing through lessons and then getting frustrated when I’d make a dumb mistake (made a typo, forgot an obvious apostrophe, used the wrong verb because I was going too fast, etc.). That’s totally on me. Sometimes DL is a little harsher than I think is necessary about some typos (Italian has a lot of double letters, like in the words “addirittura” or “poliziotto,” and on some lessons I would put “polizzioto” because I was trying not to look at the hints, and that would be enough to mark the answer wrong. This is a little unfair, IMO). DL tries to give useful feedback on why my answer was incorrect, though it’s not always clear. It’s up to me to find out why. I began thinking of taking a few minutes to search the Google for an explanation like sharpening my language saw – I’m not earning any XP now by researching, but I knew if I put a good effort into understanding where I made the mistake, I would be sharper later, and those same lessons I had been struggling with became much easier in the long run. Sharpen your saw now so you can cut down the tree with more ease and confidence later!
Fourthly, before I complained on the forums, most of the time I tried figuring out if there was a way to resolve it. For example, I’ve seen a lot of people bellyaching about the Leagues, and it has frustrated the heck out of me because, y’all, it’s totally optional. If you go into your settings, you can turn off “make my profile public,” and that removes the Leagues altogether. You have the power to remove yourself from the competitions if it’s not your thing. And all it takes is a quick Google search to find out how to do this. In my experience, someone else on the Internet has already asked the same question. Complaining about something you can fix is one of the highest insults to our collective intelligence, IMO. The tools are often right there at your feet. If you’re not sure, then ask. But don’t complain.
Lastly, FREE. FREE, FREE, FREE. Second only to my local library and YouTube, where else can I learn something so extensively for free? DL is such a boon to the internet, ladies and gents and nonbinary friends! I am so grateful to DL. It has changed my life, truly. I’ve begun having dreams in Italian and have had great success translating some thoughts from English to Italian, all thanks to DL. Am I fluent? Not hardly! If I was dropped in Milan tomorrow morning with nothing more than the shirt on my back and a pocket dictionary, would I be able to survive? Absolutely! Language is kind of like math in that if you understand the equation and the variables that fit into it (e.g. subject – verb – direct object), you can usually get your point across at the very least.
Duolingo is the perfect language learning tool for me, hands down. The gameification makes it ridiculously fun, so much so that I won’t be stopping at Italian. I’m going to work on my Spanish tree next, then Japanese, and then…who knows?! I love languages just for the sounds and the feel of the words in my mouth. Will I ever use this knowledge in real-world conversation? Who knows?!? That’s not why I’m doing this. I simply love learning languages, and Duolingo has reignited this love. Thank you, DL. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Grazie, grazie mille~
No comments:
Post a Comment