To tell you the truth, I don’t rightly know. I’m in a spot right now where I’ve been learning Russian for about 2 months. I tried Busuu in 2016 to learn some basic German and Italian and really liked the approach, so I went back and it’s roughly the same (with some noticeable negative changes to user feedback). I learned quite a bit in a short period of time and I like how it explains things (though it could be better/more comprehensive).
However, now I’m in the position where the lessons are too long so I feel pulled more towards Duolingo due to its short lessons and gamification, but Duolingo’s approach doesn’t help me learn very well. I thought paying for Busuu premium would help, so I did that and got an 80% off discount for the new year, but it barely adds anything of value. I ended up refunding the purchase since they have a 14-day money back guarantee.
Things have stalled for me because I really dislike using Anki. I have a few different courses downloaded that each include a workbook and a ton of audio clips, but it’s a lot harder for me to sit down and do that kind of thing (I have ADHD). I really need to mix things up a bit, so I think I’m going to pull the trigger on listening to podcasts or maybe trying some YouTube lessons.
Learning Japanese due to work and I made a habit of taking at least an hour or two after work to learn a few kanji symbols. It ain’t easy but it sure feels satisfying to be able to understand what I’m reading every once in a while. I think I’m struggling more with grammar and sentence structuring due to how vastly different it is from English and Spanish. My goal is to pass the N5 test this year and I’m confident I’ll be able to at this pace.
What are you doing for conversation listening / speaking?
I’m on WaniKani which is fun, but I don’t feel close to being able to talk to someone.
I listen to Easy Japanese Podcast on YouTube, who release short conversations about any topic each day. I’ve been able to understand them better to the point I can tell you what they’re talking about and what they segway to.
I am not yet able to make conversation, but I’m aware that it’s not a quick process. I began less than a year ago and I think learning the sentence structuring is harder than learning kanji, lol. But that is only my opinion.
For grammar, words, and lexicon, I would recommend Human Japanese, which is a phone/windows app that uses the Genki textbook as it’s basis. They have a demo for the first 3 chapters
Been learning Italian for over a year now and it’s going super well.
My strategy involves:
Daily Duolingo (335 day steak and I try to at least do the daily challenges and stay in their obsidian league), Anki for vocab and other things, Italian music (rap and their version of folk/americana), translating La Divina Commedia to English (slowly), Italian films, and my phone has been in Italian for a long time.
I also like to read SCPs in Italian because the format makes it easy to guess if I don’t know what’s going on.
I’m going on a trip to Italy in August as well!
I’m mostly off the wagon TBH. I get a bit of practice just because it comes up, but I haven’t touched proper study materials in a while.
Learning Esperanto. 9 days straight of studying so far!
I’m trying to browse materials in the languages that I wish to learn, and use a translator when I don’t understand them. Feels like cheating…
It’s not cheating when you’re learning for yourself👍
I really like C# so far. Im excited to avoid java and expand away from python at the same time.
But C# and java are very similar. I actually dont mind java but i also dont like python all that much.
Hating Java is kind of a pastime for me
I started learning German🌱
mostly just trying to remember basic phrases🤗
Super! Viel glück! :)
das dankeschön🤗
I’m hesitant to say “it’s going well”.
I’m keeping up with duolingo but have completely ignored grammar and haven’t studied properly in a long time.
How about finding friends for learning the same language?
Either way best of luck you can do it!🌻✨
I’ve tried, but I find it increasingly difficult to find new friends as I age. Tried going to some meetups (not language specific, but I currently live in the country of the target language) and met nice people, but just didn’t connect.
I’ll definitely keep trying though. Thanks for the positive comment! Best of luck to you as well :)
Hey, what language are you trying to learn? I’m interested in learning Spanish, but find myself losing interest after a while. If that’s one of the languages you’re interested in, we can try this.
Either way, I wish you the best of luck!
I have the same problem: get occasionally really into it and then lose interest again.
I’m trying to learn German and sadly don’t speak Spanish at all :( but thanks for the offer and wish you best of the luck as well! Let us prove the world (slowly) that we can do this!
Haha, deal!
