DuoLingo

[Mom27kidz]

I've been using this for French and it's been great.

Reminds me of Rosetta Stone but way better. All as app download on the iPad. I watch for proper conversations during the "Bots" sections to judge how well things are progressing.

Anyone else using DuoLingo??

[mumto2]

My dd used/uses Duolingo for several languages. It's great.

[goldenecho]

I love Duolingo!   We use it for Spanish.  I also like memrise...it's similar.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

We love it, both my big kids use it in addition to their German lessons.  

[Fare il mio Meglio]

I took 5 years of Spanish in school and started using DuoLingo as a refresher a couple years ago. DH had never taken any foreign language and he started using it shortly after I did, and --honestly-- I didn't think he was actually learning anything judging by how often I had to help him. However, after a year of using it, Spanish came up in our conversation and he knew a word I didn't! Color me impressed!

 

A couple of months ago DS finished his Latin book and I gave him the choice of continuing Latin or moving to a different language; he decided to do something different so he's using DuoLingo to learn "Irish". 

[winterbaby]

I wanted to love Duolingo for Irish (not sure why that's in scare quotes?) but its content for Irish was apparently sourced by volunteers and it has serious problems with things like word frequency - I got thoroughly sick of being drilled on the words for elephant and butterfly a thousand times before many high frequency words were introduced. Also, Irish is grammatically much more different from English than are French, Spanish, German, etc., and the sentence structure is hard to pick up through that implicit approach. I'm sure Duolingo is lovely for more accessible languages but given the special challenges of Irish a small investment in something professionally produced, like Gaeilge Gan Stró ("Irish without stress," by a major educational organization in Ireland) would go far.

[freesia]

I wanted to love Duolingo for Irish (not sure why that's in scare quotes?) but its content for Irish was apparently sourced by volunteers and it has serious problems with things like word frequency - I got thoroughly sick of being drilled on the words for elephant and butterfly a thousand times before many high frequency words were introduced. Also, Irish is grammatically much more different from English than are French, Spanish, German, etc., and the sentence structure is hard to pick up through that implicit approach. I'm sure Duolingo is lovely for more accessible languages but given the special challenges of Irish a small investment in something professionally produced, like Gaeilge Gan Stró ("Irish without stress," by a major educational organization in Ireland) would go far.

 

I took Irish when I did my Jr. year in Ireland.  Despite 8 years combined of Spanish and French, I didn't last more than one semester with a real live teacher in Ireland.  That language is just plain HARD!

[winterbaby]

I took Irish when I did my Jr. year in Ireland.  Despite 8 years combined of Spanish and French, I didn't last more than one semester with a real live teacher in Ireland.  That language is just plain HARD!

 

It is hard. But it's also been plagued for decades by unhelpful resources and teaching methods. That's starting to change. For budget reasons, I was forced to use the old Now You're Talking program from the '90s because that's what my local library had, but Gaeilge Gan Stró gets consistent high marks on language learning blogs and groups and I wish I could have been able to afford it. But Now You're Talking is also brilliant and I recently saw a copy of Colloquial Irish which also looks very good. And as with any difficult subject, the more perspectives the better.

 

It can be done, but it takes a lot of effort. My experience was a long period of seemingly zero progress, and then suddenly I started getting it. I think one would have to be pretty invested in Irish culture to work through that early zone of frustration. I've been studying for about a year and a half and I can now read news stories, put in a light comment or two on Irish language Facebook groups, and understand most of what they're saying on the radio/TV. The availability of media online has made a major difference too, compared to my unsuccessful earlier attempts.

[Fare il mio Meglio]

I wanted to love Duolingo for Irish (not sure why that's in scare quotes?) but its content for Irish was apparently sourced by volunteers and it has serious problems with things like word frequency - I got thoroughly sick of being drilled on the words for elephant and butterfly a thousand times before many high frequency words were introduced. Also, Irish is grammatically much more different from English than are French, Spanish, German, etc., and the sentence structure is hard to pick up through that implicit approach. I'm sure Duolingo is lovely for more accessible languages but given the special challenges of Irish a small investment in something professionally produced, like Gaeilge Gan Stró ("Irish without stress," by a major educational organization in Ireland) would go far.

I put Irish in quotes because I question whether it's truly Irish or more Gaelic. Since I've never encountered a native speaker, and I barely know the difference myself, I'm not putting much stock into him actually learning Irish.... Like you said, nuances and whatnot are difficult to pick up from a computer program. 

 

But he enjoys it, so I let him.

[winterbaby]

I put Irish in quotes because I question whether it's truly Irish or more Gaelic. Since I've never encountered a native speaker, and I barely know the difference myself, I'm not putting much stock into him actually learning Irish.... Like you said, nuances and whatnot are difficult to pick up from a computer program. 

 

But he enjoys it, so I let him.

Irish and Gaelic are two words for the same thing, but "Irish" is preferred for several reasons, including the fact that "Gaelic" also refers to Scottish Gaelic, a different but very closely related language.