For several months I was making slow progress in Chinese on Duolingo. Then I found out what I was doing wrong.
I would look at four angular sets of squiggles, asked to guess which one was a particular sound, pick one at random and turn on to the next page.
Then I would be presented with a set of squiggles and the sounds to match. I would pick a sound and pick a squiggle at random.
It all seemed such nonsense. Random. Pointless. Useless. I was not learning eanyting.
Why not start with two word sentence which means something and learn the sound and the picture?
To add to the annoyance, the international phonetic script bears no relation to English. I recently found out why. It is supposed to be understood without confusion by people who read languages other than English.
Finally, the three of four different tones are shown by teeny lettersot or numbers, not in black but a paler contrast colour, too small, hard to read on a phone in daylight, impossible in bed at night with a table lamp.
Finally I found the solution, the two things I was doing wrong.
1 On the first page, with four large random signs, guess which sound they are, whether your answer is wrong, or right by good luck, look at the sign and learn it. Keep presssing on the microphone button to repeat the sound. Look for a horizontal line and find a way of remembering the sign.
Do not go onto the next page until you have learned that sign.
On the next page, immediately look for the sign you learned on the previous page, whilst it is still in your memory.
Now, here's the vital part. Duolingo does not seem to have any instructions. I was clicking on Chinese symbols and the arabic or roman alphabet translations at random.
But when you click on the symbol first it plays the sound. You can then attempt to match the sound you hear to the written version.
Even if I have only learned one or two of the symbols in a session, that is a whole lot better than learning nothing.
Duolingo Language Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo
learncool.sg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/
For chats to other users of Duolingo you can go to the forum on the language which you are leanring. You can opt to be sent updates by the system
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Hello@duolingo.com
I would look at four angular sets of squiggles, asked to guess which one was a particular sound, pick one at random and turn on to the next page.
Then I would be presented with a set of squiggles and the sounds to match. I would pick a sound and pick a squiggle at random.
It all seemed such nonsense. Random. Pointless. Useless. I was not learning eanyting.
Why not start with two word sentence which means something and learn the sound and the picture?
To add to the annoyance, the international phonetic script bears no relation to English. I recently found out why. It is supposed to be understood without confusion by people who read languages other than English.
Finally, the three of four different tones are shown by teeny lettersot or numbers, not in black but a paler contrast colour, too small, hard to read on a phone in daylight, impossible in bed at night with a table lamp.
Finally I found the solution, the two things I was doing wrong.
1 On the first page, with four large random signs, guess which sound they are, whether your answer is wrong, or right by good luck, look at the sign and learn it. Keep presssing on the microphone button to repeat the sound. Look for a horizontal line and find a way of remembering the sign.
Do not go onto the next page until you have learned that sign.
On the next page, immediately look for the sign you learned on the previous page, whilst it is still in your memory.
Now, here's the vital part. Duolingo does not seem to have any instructions. I was clicking on Chinese symbols and the arabic or roman alphabet translations at random.
But when you click on the symbol first it plays the sound. You can then attempt to match the sound you hear to the written version.
Even if I have only learned one or two of the symbols in a session, that is a whole lot better than learning nothing.
Duolingo Language Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.
Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian. We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.
I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app
Or quicker to type and easier to remember:
Useful Websites
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
translate.google.com
duolingo.com
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Hello@duolingo.com
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