I want to effortlessly learn a new language.

[Gendarme]

I'd love to learn Greek, but I don't have the time and energy to study it formally. I know that I should and that it's the proper way, but I'm quite lazy, not to mention that if wasn't lazy I'd have other things to do that are of higher priority than learning a new language. Learning a completely new language is so tedious; the basics take so long to memorize and it requires a lot of mental energy.

It's a pity. I actually think I'm quite good at learning new languages. If I wasn't so damn lazy I could easily speak many a language fluently, and I'd probably enjoy that a lot. Well, well, I suppose it's going to remain a dream until I find the time and energy sometime in the future.

Click me

Do you recognize yourself in the above paragraph? Would you love to speak another language but tremble at the sheer thought of studying it? Is learning a new language quickly and properly without spending much time and effort possible? Or is it too good to be true? It certainly is not too good to be true!

I present to you: Duolingo

Learn a new language in no time with just a small sacrifice! Cut down your daily procrastination by a mere 20 minutes and engage in a short session of language-learning. You'll learn a new language before you have the time to shout Ώπα! That's right. The price is nothing but a short 20-minute session of mental engagement with moderate intensity!

The only real challenge is your commitment to the plan of the daily 20 minutes of mental engagement - with no excuses! But fear not, this is a one-time challenge; it simply requires you to make the decision.

I am learning German right now (sorry for the false hope @BrookG and @tedere12). I got introduced to Duolingo yesterday and tried it out for half an hour and it seems great so far. The information is very easy to process, and it forces you to engage and use the language which speeds up the learning process immensely. It is like learning HTML/CSS: you'll have your first proper website up in just a few days! Duolingo is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and of course the web browser, not leaving you any room to get out of your responsibilities(h).

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off for today's 20-minute session.

[Goodspeed]

You trolling? How is 20 min a day "effortless"?

[XeeleeFlower]

Duolingo is great, until you use the words you learned with a language snob who then proceeds to tell you that you are using them in the wrong context, there's a better word that better encapsulates what you're trying to convey, etc...then you get frustrated because it all felt pointless and foreign words begin to swim through your mind and you feel like you're drowning, and you feel like not even trying anymore, etc. @Goodspeed Yes, I'm bitter.

[Goodspeed]

Yikes

[j_t_kirk]

I am learning German right now

Good decision. It is very easy to learn german. Especially for lasy people.
Viel Erfolg

[tedere12]

Ive been using duolingo for 1 month now to learn some Portuguese. It's an easy way to get a basic knowledge of language imo and it works

[tedere12]

There is a similar website for chess learning called chessable btw. I think you might be interested in it

[Gendarme]

You trolling? How is 20 min a day "effortless"?

The time has nothing to do with the effort. The short timespan of 20 minutes combined with the low-intensity studying (i.e. practically effortless) is what makes it great. It's both short and effortless.

I don't know about you. Perhaps you're a highly efficient person who never mindlessly procrastinates and don't have a 20-minute window to easily sacrifice, but most people aren't. I personally spend waste an hour a day just pressing F5 on this website, and an additional several hours a day on YouTube and Discord.

@XeeleeFlower I wish people continuously did that to me, at least in Swedish and English. I'm rapidly getting tired of being inadequately able to express myself in my main languages. Your nightmare sounds like a dream to me. (I actually used to be a grammar-nazi, but I quickly found out that most people don't appreciate it. Lol)

[lemmings121]

Ive been using duolingo for 1 month now to learn some Portuguese. It's an easy way to get a basic knowledge of language imo and it works

legal, boa sorte.

duolingo is a good base that might replace a conventional teacher, but imo you need to practice with the real world language, what taught me english wasnt the teacher saying 'I AM, YOU ARE...", it was a crapload of hours watching american tv shows and reading in the internet.

[Gendarme]

Ive been using duolingo for 1 month now to learn some Portuguese. It's an easy way to get a basic knowledge of language imo and it works

legal, boa sorte.

duolingo is a good base that might replace a conventional teacher, but imo you need to practice with the real world language, what taught me english wasnt the teacher saying 'I AM, YOU ARE...", it was a crapload of hours watching american tv shows and reading in the internet.

Precisely. The hard part of learning a new language is the beginning, though. After you understand the basic grammar and learn the basic words you can venture into the abyss on your own and just revisit the grammar book once in a while.

[P i k i l i c]

I got the basics of the Garjian Italian language with Duolingo and it was not hard. Jetzt will ich auch mein Deutsch verbessern
The good thing with Duolingo is that you practice regularly and this is a key to learn new languages

[jesus3]

I'd love to learn Greek, but I don't have the time and energy to study it formally. I know that I should and that it's the proper way, but I'm quite lazy, not to mention that if wasn't lazy I'd have other things to do that are of higher priority than learning a new language. Learning a completely new language is so tedious; the basics take so long to memorize and it requires a lot of mental energy.

It's a pity. I actually think I'm quite good at learning new languages. If I wasn't so damn lazy I could easily speak many a language fluently, and I'd probably enjoy that a lot. Well, well, I suppose it's going to remain a dream until I find the time and energy sometime in the future.

Click me

Do you recognize yourself in the above paragraph? Would you love to speak another language but tremble at the sheer thought of studying it? Is learning a new language quickly and properly without spending much time and effort possible? Or is it too good to be true? It certainly is not too good to be true!

I present to you: Duolingo

Learn a new language in no time with just a small sacrifice! Cut down your daily procrastination by a mere 20 minutes and engage in a short session of language-learning. You'll learn a new language before you have the time to shout Ώπα! That's right. The price is nothing but a short 20-minute session of mental engagement with moderate intensity!

The only real challenge is your commitment to the plan of the daily 20 minutes of mental engagement - with no excuses! But fear not, this is a one-time challenge; it simply requires you to make the decision.

I am learning German right now (sorry for the false hope @BrookG and @tedere12). I got introduced to Duolingo yesterday and tried it out for half an hour and it seems great so far. The information is very easy to process, and it forces you to engage and use the language which speeds up the learning process immensely. It is like learning HTML/CSS: you'll have your first proper website up in just a few days! Duolingo is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and of course the web browser, not leaving you any room to get out of your responsibilities(h).

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off for today's 20-minute session.

Sehr gute Wahl!

And I agree with Llama boy, submersion into the media in your language of choice is what helps you more at a certain point of theoretical knowledge. Nothing beats being there and speaking the language itself, but that's the next best thing you can do from your couch.

[momuuu]

This is a sellout.

[jesus3]

@Gendarme btw I want to learn Japanese but all it offers me is English, French and Spanish. Rigged!

[Gendarme]

@Gendarme btw I want to learn Japanese but all it offers me is English, French and Spanish. Rigged!

I see Japanese. Are you saying that the phone-app is bugged?

[jesus3]

@Gendarme btw I want to learn Japanese but all it offers me is English, French and Spanish. Rigged!

I see Japanese. Are you saying that the phone-app is bugged?

I see, my mistake was to run the whole thing in german. In english everything is available.

[Aizamk]

I find this kind of thing to only really be useful for learning the basics. Granted, to some that might qualify as having learned "enough" of the language, so that's good enough. Giving you bite-sized chunks of information is a great way of getting people to try learning something they wouldn't have otherwise due to a lack of motivation. And lack of motivation is often what makes people eventually suspend their study of a language. That or lack of time. But really, if you're motivated, you'll make the time for it anyway.

That's why it's helpful to have a bigger goal in mind when learning the language. For example, you might be learning Japanese in order to communicate with piroshiki and tell him what a great fan of his you are, or to earn the right to play team games in locked 3v3 game rooms. Or perhaps less important reasons such as wanting to be able to understand the culture (historical or pop).

@jesus3 for basics I'd recommend Japanesepod101 videos on youtube. A lot of free videos there to get you started. You should also train yourself to learn to read and write Hiragana. From there a LOT of options open up. I wouldn't advise starting paying for anything until you're sure you're motivated enough to follow through, though.

The duolingo thing is a bit iffy for learning Japanese, from what I've heard.

For example, 中 might be spelled as "chuu" when the recording of the native speaker will say "naka" instead. This is due to the system being so computerized. There's not much context. In fact both pronunciations are correct, but are used in different situations.

Similarly there's cases where "は" is pronounced as "wa" and not "ha", but the system fails to pick up on that.

To get you started, though:

1) これ　は　ぺん です。
2) ぴろしき　は　かみさま　です。

These are two of the most basic sentences that are essential to any Japanese language learner. Since は　is used as a particle to mark the subject of the sentence, it's pronounced "wa" here instead of "ha".

[jesus3]

I find this kind of thing to only really be useful for learning the basics. Granted, to some that might qualify as having learned "enough" of the language, so that's good enough. Giving you bite-sized chunks of information is a great way of getting people to try learning something they wouldn't have otherwise due to a lack of motivation. And lack of motivation is often what makes people eventually suspend their study of a language. That or lack of time. But really, if you're motivated, you'll make the time for it anyway.

That's why it's helpful to have a bigger goal in mind when learning the language. For example, you might be learning Japanese in order to communicate with piroshiki and tell him what a great fan of his you are, or to earn the right to play team games in locked 3v3 game rooms. Or perhaps less important reasons such as wanting to be able to understand the culture (historical or pop).

@jesus3 for basics I'd recommend Japanesepod101 videos on youtube. A lot of free videos there to get you started. You should also train yourself to learn to read and write Hiragana. From there a LOT of options open up. I wouldn't advise starting paying for anything until you're sure you're motivated enough to follow through, though.

The duolingo thing is a bit iffy for learning Japanese, from what I've heard.

For example, 中 might be spelled as "chuu" when the recording of the native speaker will say "naka" instead. This is due to the system being so computerized. There's not much context. In fact both pronunciations are correct, but are used in different situations.

Similarly there's cases where "は" is pronounced as "wa" and not "ha", but the system fails to pick up on that.

To get you started, though:

1) これ　は　ぺん です。
2) ぴろしき　は　かみさま　です。

These are two of the most basic sentences that are essential to any Japanese language learner. Since は　is used as a particle to mark the subject of the sentence, it's pronounced "wa" here instead of "ha".

Thank you very much, I'll check that out! Of course I won't count on duolingo to give me more than basics in chunks but for that it seems great. I might just combine japanesepod and duolingo

[Snuden]

If the past 15-20 years is any indication of how the world will look in 5-10 years, I would learn Chinese instead.

[Gendarme]

...or Arabic.

[zoom]

To effortlessly learn a new language, you need to be exceptionally talented at language.

[zoom]

Yikes

You fucking cunt snob, you.

[jesus3]

If the past 15-20 years is any indication of how the world will look in 5-10 years, I would learn Chinese instead.

But that's not where I'll be going if my application passes.

Also, it's at the very least disputable that Chinese will take a global role on par with English, It's a common misconception that economic rise also equals soft power influence as a consequence. Language spreads through culture and there are no attempts of the Chinese Government to open up culturally or anything like that (however, there is a regional geopolitical strategy on widening Chinese influence over southeast Asia) - much rather the opposite if you take the general line and policies into account.

[gibson]

I would never learn a language besides English, cause I'm American and we're the best!

[Snuden]

If you are going to Japan, Japanese is what you should learn. And what an excellent choice it is.

The Chinese are buying up businesses left and right, all over the world. For that reason it could become more valuable than Japanese, seen from a global career development point of view.