Happiness, Hopes, Hoops and Hurdles on Duolingo

I am so happy learning languages on Duolingo. The website got me started on learning languages every day, which is becoming an obsession.

Happiness
I have made a start on the Cyrillic (Russian and Bulgarian) alphabets. I have learned a few words of Portuguese. I have gone back to the half-learned Hebrew and Greek alphabets. I have found out why my Chinese pupils have trouble using 'a' and 'the' - neither exist in their language.

Hopes
I have hopes of learning a language a year, knowing ten languages by the end of ten years.

Hoops and Hurdles
Hurdles. Simple things, such as switching from one language you are learning to another.

I sent the Duolingo Ambassador, Rico, this message:

Just to let you know I have written a blog post promoting Reading, the tapestry and your Esperanto events. Thanks so much for the interesting information.

I am learning several languages on Duolingo but find it had to swap from one language to another to do five minutes of both of two languages each morning. The site doesn't make it clear.

The phrase 'switch languages' is ambiguous and therefore scary. It should read 'switch language you are learning'.

The reader might think/fear it means switch into another language (for those who are bilingual).  Like switch keyboard language. You would be stuck with the learn English for a speaker of Spanish, instead of the other way around.

Useful Websites:
duolingo.com
Languages available (2019 June):
English (for speakers of other languages)
Esperanto
Chinese (Mandarin)
French
German
Hebrew
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish

See my other posts on learning languages.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and teacher of languages. Contact me if you would like a business workshop on learning languages.