Jump to content

Menu

Duolingo offers Latin


Recommended Posts

It's been in production forever, and every time they hit their estimated date it gets pushed back another 6 months to a year.  

That being said I only know that because I've been watching it the past few years hoping it's actually going to be finished!  So I do hope you are right.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
8 hours ago, arliemaria said:

It's been live more than a week now. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks. My son has an 8-day streak now. 


I have been testing it on two kids, middle school and elementary.
Kid A: has done half of GSWL and 3 weeks' lessons in LFC A.  He is truly a beginner.
Kid B: did the entire GSWL, Cambridge Latin 1, FFL and is working through LFC.

Kid A is struggling a bit with the grammar.  He's taking his time, but the lessons in LFC A are really helping him figure it out.  Kid B is doing well with some of the unfamiliar/less familiar words that he hasn't practiced in a while because those endings were so drilled into him in FFL.
Both kids are enjoying it quite a bit and ask to do it as soon as they're done with their work.  My only caution would be about using it without a program on the side to really give kids the breakdown of the grammar that they need.  It would not be fair.  Duolingo just doesn't have enough explanation for most people.
I was going to pay for Headventureland, but I think this is going to keep them going for a while. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been trying to keep my mouth shut on this but how in the world is Duolingo going to effectively teach Latin?  Latin is not a spoken language and Duolingo is all based upon the spoken language.  I love Duolingo.  Have one kid doing French and one kid doing Spanish with is but the purpose of studying Latin is to learn the discipline of the grammar and the vocabulary.  Ok, I can see Duolingo succeeding at the vocabulary but the grammar? 

Anyone else have doubts about this approach?  I probably should get on and play with it before I judge it . . . 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, JanOH said:

I've been trying to keep my mouth shut on this but how in the world is Duolingo going to effectively teach Latin?  Latin is not a spoken language and Duolingo is all based upon the spoken language.  I love Duolingo.  Have one kid doing French and one kid doing Spanish with is but the purpose of studying Latin is to learn the discipline of the grammar and the vocabulary.  Ok, I can see Duolingo succeeding at the vocabulary but the grammar? 

Anyone else have doubts about this approach?  I probably should get on and play with it before I judge it . . . 

I don't see it as a much different approach than Rosetta Stone, Lingua Latina or Cambridge, where the grammar is mostly integrated with some small lessons on the side to break it down.  And I do mean small.  There's a different end goal than say, First Form Latin, where grammar is a highlighted component of the program.  For the others, fluency and understanding in context is the main goal.

I don't use Duolingo as a main program for any language, but I'm not sure I would say it is entirely ineffective in its own goals.  It's just a lot more work for my own kids that way.   If I was doing it for myself it would be a different story. I've studied enough in the way of languages that the grammar is mostly automatic in my own studies.  I can figure it out a whole lot easier and find the patterns a whole lot quicker than a 9yo can.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

I don't see it as a much different approach than Rosetta Stone, Lingua Latina or Cambridge, where the grammar is mostly integrated with some small lessons on the side to break it down.  And I do mean small.  There's a different end goal than say, First Form Latin, where grammar is a highlighted component of the program.  For the others, fluency and understanding in context is the main goal.

 

 

I can see that.  I have Lingua Latina on my shelf but could never get going on it but we use First Form Latin 🙂   I have one kidlet doing  Latin but the two youngest love Greek.  I've been trying to get them interested in starting Latin.  Maybe Duolingo will spark their interest (and get them off Minecraft).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dd, my linguistically talented child who actually did teach herself French mainly using Duo and testing well.......and I were talking about the Latin on Duo and her opinion is a text of some sort will be needed to truly get very far because of the inflections.  She compared it to Cambridge which is also hard without a teacher leading you through the program.  She is very curious how far her mother will get before she pulls out one of the textbooks (Dd self taught Latin after Ds quit)  so I stopped when the going got tough......like 8 years ago.......and have forgotten most.

I cannot understand most of the spoken Latin on Duo which is already becoming an issue for me.  The speakers are just not clear enough and the slow button is not there.  I occasionally hit the slow in the other languages. That may prove to be the reason I eventually quit the Latin.   I do Duo every day for both French and German and have for years.......my skills are not extensive but It allows me to maintain what I know and perhaps learn a couple new things every week.......I do the 30 second timed option for both every day.  I have added Latin as a third.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are about 50 lessons into Getting Started With Latin.  My son has does well with it.  For a time I was adding all of the practice sentences/vocabulary into Anki App on my phone for him to use.  We haven't used the Anki deck as much as I'd like.  I forget about it, honestly. Our routine at the moment is my husband who took 4 years of Latin in high school teaches our ds on Monday evenings 4-5 new lessons.  Then he makes flashcards to review the grammar/vocabulary throughout the week.  Since my husband started making the flashcards to review I think our Anki has fallen out of use.  Now I am behind on adding stuff to his Anki deck.  I guess his DuoLingo practice is just for more exposure.  It only adds a few minutes to his day.  My husband is frustrated it is in Classical vs. Ecclesiastical pronunciation, but it's not enough of a hinderance at this point to avoid the program.  I have looked at Picta Dicta for added vocabulary practice as well, but never took the plunge to purchase it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...