Duolingo: Do you use it?

in #learning5 days ago

I recently got gifted a super-Duolingo account that a family member has a family plan for so now I can use this pretty neat app without paying for it and never running out of stars or lives or whatever they are called. It's pretty great and I guess I am learning something.


src

Unfortunately the Thai language isn't one of the options so I just piddle around with other ones. Since I don't spend a great deal of time messing about with my phone and have very little to do with social media, i find that this is probably a better use of my time.

I studied Spanish in high school and it was pretty alarming to me that I remembered so little of it. They say if you don't use it, you lose it, and I totally agree with that. I have spoken nary a word of Spanish since moving to Asia and I suppose that is pretty normal. In USA it is quite easy to practice Spanish because so much of the population comes from Mexico and I'm from Texas so there are a LOT of latino people there. But just 5 or 6 years removed from it and I have forgotten most of it and am especially confused by the masculine and feminine nature of all the words.

Conjugation of verbs is especially tough in Spanish, because not only do you need to remember the various forms of the verb, but you also have to remember the masculine and feminine version of that verb and it can also change depending on whether the noun the verb is used with is masculine or feminine. Urgh! It makes my head hurt just thinking about it lol. I think that over time you just start to remember it without even thinking about the rules. I know that I am that way with English and often when Thai people ask me "why is it done that way?" I don't have an answer for them.


image.png

I don't remember all of the character's names but I do know that I dislike this person the most, I think her name is Sari. The reason why I hate her is because she talks so damn fast. They do this on purpose I guess to get you used to how actual people in actual life are going to speak fast, but it would be nice if they at least waited until a bit later before they hit you with rapid-fire talking.


image.png

My favorite character by far is Lily. She is an emo chick you just hates everyone and everything and is bored by anything that she is talking about. I have only done the lessons in a couple of languages and I wonder, are their attitudes the same with all languages? I hope so because I find the entertainment value of the lessons to be a very big part of why I continue to do them.


image.png

She hates the callers and also doesn't care very much for you!

I am currently level 21 in Spanish and while I get a lot of the lessons correct, I can't have more than the most basic conversation in the language.

I suppose as long as my family member keeps paying the monthly subscription fee I will continue to mess about with it. It is a lot better than endlessly scrolling FB posts where people think anyone else cares about their standpoint on politics, that's for sure.