Cèilidh Nam Freumhan

Tag: duolingo

  • Valar Dohaeris: What Three High Valyrian Lessons Taught Me About Duolingo

    A while ago, I wrote about why I think people misunderstand what Duolingo is actually good for. Apparently, I needed to start learning a fictional language to prove my own point.

    Three High Valyrian lessons in, Duolingo has already taught me two grammar rules without ever explicitly teaching me either of them.

    I wasn’t going to try learning this fictional language, since I am already learning two that don’t have a lot of native speakers (especially Gàidhlig). But I also don’t like to rely on captions to give me the correct translation. Hence the original reason for learning Gàidhlig: not trusting Outlander to tell me what that sneaky Dougal was communicating.

    Last night, we were watching House of the Dragon when the characters started speaking High Valyrian.

    My spouse asked, “How much of that did you understand?”

    “I’ve only had two lessons.”

    “Yeah, I know.”

    Fair.

    But two lessons had already been enough for me to start noticing patterns. I figured out that vala (man) becomes valar (men) when it changes from singular to plural. Then today, I encountered vali. Same noun, different ending—and this time, the change wasn’t about how many men there were. It was about the noun’s role in the sentence.

    Duolingo hadn’t stopped to explain either change to me. I figured them out by seeing the words used in context.

    I’ve never truly studied Latin. After taking years of French, the addition of declensions made my brain hurt, and I really should have learned Latin first so that French was easier. Lesson learned, I guess.

    High Valyrian seems to have a lot of declensions as well. So I will be writing down everything I can about word order, noun and verb endings, and whatever other patterns I start to notice.

    This whole endeavor reminds me of taking the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery) when I served. I only needed to score 100 to be able to study one of the more difficult languages, like Arabic or Mandarin. I ended up scoring a 137, but unfortunately, the recruiter I spoke with said I could reenlist “open contract” instead of promising me a job as an interpreter or translator.

    Nope.

    So I opted out.

    At any rate, the DLAB was a super fun test. It had two parts. In the first, you basically filled in words in a comic book using context clues from a made-up language. After that came a listening section, where you were given one grammar rule at a time, then listened to something and had to figure out the correct translation.

    There were seven total grammar rules, and they were cumulative. By the time you got to number seven, you’d best remember the six that came before it.

    Thus, learning a fictional language like High Valyrian isn’t entirely new to me.

    As I was gardening this morning, I finally made the connection between what I’m doing with High Valyrian and how much I loved taking the DLAB (nerd alert). I’m being given unfamiliar words, seeing and hearing them in different contexts, and figuring out the rules from the patterns.

    Which brings me right back to Duolingo.

    One of the complaints I see about Duolingo is that it doesn’t explicitly teach enough grammar. And that’s true: it often doesn’t sit you down, explain the rule, and then ask you to practice it.

    But that doesn’t mean you aren’t learning grammar.

    Sometimes it gives you enough examples that your brain starts asking, “Wait. Why did that word change?”

    And then you see it again.

    And eventually: Oh.

    There’s the rule.

    Three lessons into High Valyrian, I’ve already had that happen twice.

    Apparently, give me a made-up language and some context clues, and my brain is perfectly happy to do the rest.

  • Why Duolingo Frustrates Me as a Grammar Learner and Why I Still Think it Helps

    Why Duolingo Frustrates Me as a Grammar Learner and Why I Still Think it Helps

    screenshot of a lesson on Duolingo

    I have an aptitude for languages, but I’ve always struggled with how they’re taught. Most resources either focus on memorizing phrases or bury you in grammar explanations before you can actually use anything. Duolingo sits somewhere in the middle – it gives you enough exposure to start seeing patterns, but not enough explanation to confirm what you’re noticing.

    That’s where the frustration starts.

    I’ll recognize a structure, test it across a few sentences, and start forming a rule in my head. Instead of confirming it, Duolingo just moves onto the next exercise. The hints are often too simplified or even wrong, which makes it worse – I’m not just confused, I’m second-guessing something I already noticed.

    And yet, I keep using it.

    One of the other methods I use for learning languages is listening to podcasts in that language, like something from NRK (Norwegian news and whatnot). Because of Duolingo, I have picked up on vocabulary that I normally wouldn’t have learned in a textbook until much later in my studies. So it does have its purpose. I wish you could take yourself out of the “league” competitions, since I don’t treat it as a game, but you have to have a public profile to have friends; that’s a nice feature because you can root each other on. However, I can do without Eddy yelling YOU’RE READY FOR HARD MODE WOOOOOOOO but it’s a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.

    When learning a new language, you have to use multiple sources. You cannot depend on one particular app/book/whatever to get you to any kind of fluency. Speaking to a native is the best way to achieve your goals, but it can be hard to find a native speaker. If that is the case for you, just read out loud. Practice simple conversations with yourself so your mouth “remembers” what shape to form when you speak. The other day, I had a conversation in my head where I taught someone the French “-er” verb endings in Norwegian. Fun exercise!

    Duolingo isn’t perfect. The hints are questionable, the grammar is mostly implied, and Eddy is still yelling at me. But it’s useful in ways I didn’t expect – it gives me just enough input to start figuring things out for myself.

    And maybe that’s the point.

    It’s not the whole system. It’s just one part of it. And as long as I remember that, I’ll probably keep using it – whether I’m ready for hard mode or not.