[hardwaregeek]

The problem is that language learning is inherently about putting your brain in tricky, slightly painful situations. You have to decipher confusing sentences, handle unfamiliar words and wrestle your brain into thinking in a different language.

You can't really make a fun game that does this. Therefore Duolingo makes a game that focuses on translating the foreign language to your native one. That's great for starting out, but eventually you gotta start composing sentences and ideas in the foreign language.

[okwubodu]

> The problem is that language learning is inherently about putting your brain in tricky, slightly painful situations

Immersion is the only way you’ll ever truly learn a language. All the classes, flash cards, etc., in the world can’t teach you how to clear up a misunderstanding with the manager at hotel in Spanish.

I remember at some point we did Duolingo in Spanish, and the Spanish speaking kids were shocked how fast we (black) tested out of topics and progressed. The reason was pretty obvious; we’re around y’all a lot lol.

My recommendation is even if you don’t have many people speaking the language you want to learn near you, immerse yourself. Read popular modern authors in the language, listen to podcasts in the language, join a game server and practice in-game interaction in the language (hard mode).

Maybe it is useless. But you may find that those encounters take place on a foundation built by some little green bird named Duo.

[okwubodu]

Also, native languages are weird. The last sentence above, for instance. If I had said “green little bird” or even “little cute green bird” you would have clocked it as wrong immediately. Apps alone aren’t sufficient to learn these nuances; every language has tons.

[N00bN00b]

>The problem is that language learning is inherently about putting your brain in tricky, slightly painful situations.

I think that's a really good description of learning in general.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Growth in general really. Stretching and building muscle, for instance, or training endurance.