It’s day 9 of Blogvent, where I blog every day in December!

I have been trying to learn Korean lately, as well as improve my Spanish (as we teach my toddler the languages at the same time). I’ve realized that without immersion or dedicated learning time, I simply don’t retain them as much (and I’m often just confused).

The classic learning apps

I’ve tried Duolingo for a while, and also LingoDeer, but they simply haven’t worked very well for me.

I’ve realized that Duolingo (and related apps), while fun, is… not a language learning app. Not for me, anyway. It has occasionally provided me with some nice refreshers, but I almost never actually remember what I “learn” on the app. Wondering if I was alone in this, I asked my mom, who had a ~3 year streak on Duolingo, for a basic sentence in her language of choice, and she wasn’t confident in her eventual answer.

I think it’s a really well-done “streak” app that makes you feel good about self-improvement, without much… actual self-improvement.

So, I decided to try different routes.

New approaches

For Spanish, because I lived in Spain for a bit and know the language fairly well, I’ve mostly gone about keeping up my skills in the context of my own life. I’ve been watching shows in Spanish more, listening to more Spanish media in general, and speaking with friends who know the language.

I also found an audio course app called Language Transfer that I highly recommend! In the app, you listen to a new learner pick up the language (they have other language options too, by the way), and the teaching methods are so impressive. In the words of my husband, “I’ve learned more from 10 minutes with this app than I did for years on Duolingo!” I promise I’m not paid or anything by the app, I just genuinely think it’s wonderful.

On the Korean language side, I found out that Korean consulates in various cities offer free Korean language classes! I just finished the “101” version of the class a couple weeks ago and it was a really cool learning experience. They offer them both in-person and over Zoom, all over the world! Two friends of mine took the same courses in San Francisco and Budapest, and we’re all able to practice with classmates and ask an actual teacher questions about what we’re learning.

These approaches have required more dedicated learning time, which admittedly has been hard to come by (especially with a toddler at home), but the results speak for themselves.

Passive vs Active learning

I’ve written about passive learning in the past, and I think Duolingo (and related apps) are really good at that. You might not pick up a lot, but you might remember a word or phrase here and there with enough repetition. I think there’s merits to passive learning, still, for certain skills.

But, for actual language learning (or deeply learning any specific skill in general), there needs to be an active element. There are so many options for active learning, whether it’s a class, a focused listening time, or just a conversation, but if you want to learn, you have to put in the effort beyond maintaining a streak.

I promise this wasn’t a blog meant to bash Duolingo, or any particular learning style. This is a call out to you, out there, those who may want to learn a language: look into classes. Figure out how to put in a bit more effort. It’s worth it!

안녕히 가세요 y hasta mañana!