How a Language Nerd Learns Languages (and Why Duolingo isn’t it)

TL;DR: it’s a lot of work and you need to be enthusiastic about the learning process. To build a solid foundation, plan on committing an hour a day to studying it for at least three months. I promise that if you’re genuinely committed, it is more than possible to become conversational in a new langauge no matter the perceived challenge of the language you’ve chosen. Also, if Duolingo works for you then that’s amazing and I don’t want to dimiss that. In short, my primary goal here is really just to show people more great methods out there that worked for people like me.

Introduction

I was raised as a monolingual English speaker and in my life I have studied the following foreign languages to varying degrees of success: American Sign Language 🧏, Eastern Armenian 🇦🇲, Brazilian Portuguese 🇧🇷, French 🇫🇷, Dutch 🇳🇱, German 🇩🇪, Japanese 🇯🇵, Korean 🇰🇷, Lithuanian 🇱🇹, Mandarin Chinese 🇨🇳, Norwegian 🇳🇴, Russian 🇷🇺, and Vietnamese 🇻🇳.

I studied 🇨🇳 for 9 years in school and learned nothing, today I only remember 你好 (ni hao) and 謝謝 (xie xie). Upon starting 🇫🇷 a few years later I was convinced that I was simply bad at learning languages, and that there was no hope for me. This led to me not retaining 🇫🇷 very well, something I had to correct later in college. In 🇫🇷 class I told myself that languages were something meant for smarter, more gifted people, though I couldn’t have been more incorrect. Today, I truly believe that any person can find success in learning a language. I am highly skeptical of claims that some people’s brains are better than others for this, and I believe that any person given a high level of drive and a good study plan can be immensely effective.

For this guide, I will be using the now standard globally Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) level system. If you haven’t heard of this framework before, I recommend familiarizing yourself with it as many employeers, institutions, and learning learning resources utilize it. For the sake of transparency, I will say that I am not fluent in all the aforementioned languages, currently I can speak at the following levels: 🇧🇷B1, 🇱🇹B1, 🇫🇷B2, 🇷🇺C1. However, to my credit I am only 22 years old and have only just begun my language learning journey. I will be updating this article regularly with my progress in my languages.

Only now living in Vilnius studying 🇱🇹 have I been able to finally master the following language learning method. In just one month I was able to reach a B1 level in 🇱🇹, something that normally requires one to two years of classroom study, especially for one of the world’s most complicated languages (check out the Wikipedia page on Lithuanian grammar if you’re curious about what makes 🇱🇹 so special 😊).

This guide will outline step-by-step what I have found to be the most efficient way to learn a new language from studying 10 different languages over the course of my 22 years. However, your success in learning a new language at the end of the day comes down to a single question: are you genuinely enthusiastic about learning this language? It does not matter if you’re a native English speaker learning Arabic or Esperanto, a more enthusiastic student of Arabic will have infinitely better results after three months days than an uninspired Esperanto learner. What enthusiasm means in this case is that you get excited about expanding your vocabularly (e.g. learning and using new words), are prepared to memorize challenging grammar rules, and are willing to practice the language as much as possible (especially in vulnerable public scenarios that might be embarrassing like forgetting the word for “glass” when ordering a drink–something I myself have done more than once!).

This guide has the following structure:

1. Getting Started
2. Studying Tricks
3. Why Duolingo Doesn’t Work and Other Apps that Do
4. Commonly Asked Questions

1. Getting Started

Anki

If a language is a sandwich, then the vocab makes up the cheese, lettuce, and protein. It is where all the flavor is coming from and I would argue deserves 95% of your attention. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is download Anki. Anki is an entirely free, open-source tool that works on all devices and is used by all sorts of learners ranging from medical students to your wannabe polyglot. The way Anki works is through employing proven memorization research methodology. Every day Anki will feed you a select number of new cards to review in addition to cards from previous days to review. This might seem intimidating at first, but if you’ll be pleasantly surprised how well your brain after a few days of review is able to recall a new word. For learning a language in three months, the bare minimum daily input you should use is 30, with 40 being the ideal amount.

You can find complete and useful vocab decks for nearly every language online (Anki deck library), but I find it helps more with memorization when I have to make the cards myself. When adding Anki cards to your deck always put your native language vocab on the front and and your target one on the back. You also must include a voice recording of yourself saying the word (Anki has a recording feature). If you are uncertain the pronunciation, then I recommend using Forvo. When studying, you need to say the word out loud, maybe even spell it out. Your brain needs the audio stimulus to help speed up memorization.

Grammar

This is where I recommend finding a good textbook. In addition to providing a lot of vocab in context, they often break down complicated grammar concepts into piecemeal chunks easy to digest. Textbooks are expensive though so make sure you read as much as you can about which suits your needs best. If you are a solo learner, then I do not recommend finding a textbook designed for immersive classroom learning.

Wikipedia is also a brilliant resource that often provides comprensive grammar explanations, and if you want more details, you can always check the Wikipedia page’s citations. Lastly, for most languages if you simply search online “X grammar concept” then there will be plenty of resources explaining it–I recommend reading multiple sources to get a holistic understanding.

Speaking practice

Ideally, you should find a tutor or class. Tutors (good ones) know how to speak the language at varying degrees of complexity and are literally being paid to be patient with you. The same applies for classes. I routinely find success with italki when looking for a tutor.

While friends or strangers can be helpful, they often will get frustrated or disinterested in speaking with you, and then just switch to English (unless you’re already conversational or find someone extremely patient). The exception to this is language exchange, which can be structured in a way where each party gets 50/50 practice speaking. Common language exchange apps include HelloTalk and Tandem. If you live in a major city you also can often find language exchange meet-ups on Facebook.

Vocab

This might sound absurd, but the method I have found most effective method to be looking online for a list of the required vocab needed for each CEFR level and going word-by-word making flashcards from the list. What this systematic method does is it makes sure you have no gaps in your understanding before progressing to more advanced terms. The CEFR levels are structured in a way to confirm a baseline proficiency at each degree. Other methods I enjoy are mentioned below in section 3.

2. Studying Tricks

Using Anki more effectively

Sure you can study your flashcards in bed, but if you really want to use your time most effectively I implore you to sit down as a table with pen and paper. Writing down every word you forget significantly boosts your recall ability. When writing I like to split the word by either its components (prefix, root, suffix) or syllable. This not only makes the word less intimidating, but also helps you better understand the language’s word structure patterns in general. If you know you’re a highly visual learner, then I also recommend adding photos to your flashcards.

Grammar flashcards and guides

For the majority of students, grammar is the most difficult and annoying aspect of learning a new language. This is because grammar is taught as large scary charts, not digestible bites. The trick to learning grammar is to turn it into vocab. What I mean by this is instead of writing out a conjugation table 100X, just make one of your Anki flashcards you review in your deck to list the six conjugation endings for être. For example, the front would say “être conjugation,” and the back “suis, es, est, sommes, êtes, sont.” You can apply this to case-based languages as well.

An example from 🇱🇹:

Front: “kėdė declension” Back: “kėdė, kėdės, kėdei, kėdę, kėde, kėdėje, kėde”

Another, and maybe more involved method is to make your own grammar guides. There’s no better way to learn something than to teach it, so write yourself a guidebook (and have fun with it, use emojis 🤡). You can find one of my example’s here for Norwegian.

Making studying fun

Every person is going to enjoy a different approach, all that matters is that you enjoy whatever method you’re using to engage with the language. Some people, like myself, really enjoy literature so we find a book in the language and translate every unknown word on the page. Others might enjoy watching a TV show in the language, or perhaps creative writing. There are websites and apps that can help you figure out your preferred way of learning (see below). If you get true pleasure out of the process then not only will you more readily engage with the language, but also retain it better. If possible, I also highly recommend finding other students of your language willing to practice with you. It can be very intimidating (sometimes discouraging) to practice with a native speaker, but these worries are diluted when practicing with another learner (after all, most us of learn languages to speak them, no?).

3. Why Duolingo Doesn’t Work and Other Apps that Do

TL;DR: Duolingo doesn’t work because it’s a business that makes money off your attention, not your progress. Their goal is to convince you that you are making meaningful progress through manipulating serotonin pathways with badges and sound effects in order to show you ads, and if they’re luckily, get you to make an in-app purchase. The vast majority of Duolingo users never a) learn the fundamentals of a language (i.e. how the grammar works), and b) commit vocab to long-term memory through involved review. Therefore, many will greatly struggle to actually speak their target language when put to the task despite maybe dozens of hours logged in the app.

Duolingo is the world’s most popular language learning app, often ranking in the top 100 in the Apple App Store. The idea of a language learning app is practically synonymous with Duolingo at this point. In truth, it is a really wonderful premise that for free you can learn 19 different languages and even have fun doing it for just 10 minutes a day! The colorful green owl and fun sound effects lead to a genuinely pleasurable experience in which you directly are told that your labor (i.e. memorizing vocab and grammar) is paying off. Unfortunately though, languages exist in more places than just Duolingo. It makes what is pleasurable about learning a language the badges and sounds instead of the beauty and magic of the language itself. Instead of learning a bunch of vocab and reviewing it regularly, Duolingo opts to have truncated vocab lessons alongside optional, non-comprehensive grammar guides (because that’s not exciting for lots of users). Unless the user is proactive in utilizing all of Duolingo’s features, this ends up leaving huge gaps in someone’s understanding of a language, especially the fundamental aspects while allow a speaker to feel confident in crafting their own unique sentences.

Duolingo is a business and knows that their target market is not serious language learners who are prepared to memorize a grammatical case table, but rather people who think it would be cool to speak Turkish, but might not have the time or willpower to learn the aorist tense. Lastly, the study technique of Duolingo (i.e. clicking buttons) in which you do very little writing and speaking is incompatible with how most people effectively learn complicated information. My frustration isn’t with a game that can make language learning fun and easy (I think it’s an amazing thing), my issue is that many users focus too much on Duolingo’s gamification techniques instead of the learning. Duolingo utilizes daily streaks and leaderboards to track progress and keep users engaged, but if the goal is to be on top of a leaderboard, then the average user will slack on actual acquisition.

In my opinion, the following tools are much better for increasing one’s acquisition and long-term memory:

1. LingQ (30+ languages): this is my favorite way to memorize vocab, improving reading skills. LingQ features an incredible powerful language library tool where every new word can be logged as either “known” or as a “lingq.” Lingqs are the words you have seen, but don’t yet have memorized. They are highlighted in yellow in future texts and the repeated exposure to them through reading allows for a very fluid learning process. Like with Anki, you also can take all your lingqs at any time and study them with automatically generated flashcards. LingQ features texts from absolute beginner to near native levels that often include audio files to listen to while reading. Users can also import their own texts to read such as a news article on a topic that interests them. The only downside of LingQ’s content is the lack of good grammar guides. It also is free to use for logging up to 20 lingqs, but to log more lingqs and insert your own texts you need to subscribe to the premium version.
2. Glossika (60+ languages): this is the tool many people use to improve their listening comprehension (the thing I struggle with the most). Glossika has an astounding collection of audio file sentences (in context!) from native speakers to practice with. In short, Glossika takes Duolingo’s best features and uses them more effectively. You can do a 7-day free trial, but afterwards it will cost you $30.99 a month so I wouldn’t recommend this for long-term study.
3. 3ears (🇺🇦🇷🇴 🇷🇺🇵🇱🇨🇿🇭🇺): similar to LingQ in that you have a vocab library, but the medium is videos (movies, TV programs, YouTube clips). Oh also it’s free!
4. Tatoeba (all languages?): this is the most barebones/intimidating of the options, but nonetheless a very powerful tool. In short, this is a tool to learn how sentences in your target language are written. You can insert any word and find countless sentences that feature it to get a better sense of how native speakers employ it. It’s also free!
5. Do your own research! Many of the commonly studied languages have their own individual apps and websites with similar or entirely unique features. Don’t be afraid to start a free trial if it means you might discover your new favorite method :)!

4. Commonly Asked Questions

• Can I study two, or even three languages at once effectively? Yes, but you’ll have the double or triple your daily time commitment if you plan to learn them at the same time. I generally recommend against this as you might get burnt out quicker. Focus on a language for three months then then pick up a new one once you’re able to casually practice the previous language with news articles and speaking with friends.
• What if I miss a day of studying? Don’t beat yourself up! We all live busy, dynamic lives and things come up. Just try your best to make it up the next day. Needless the say, if language learning is putting unnecessarily stress on your life then think about your goals.
• How do I learn pronunciation? First, ask a native speaker if you know one. Second, try Forvo.com. This is an entirely free public library of audio files for nearly every language that even differentiates based on accents. Your flashcards should always have your correct pronunciation so you learn pronunciation simultaneously. Third, take advantage of YouTube. Many languages have a pretty standard set of pronunciation rules that are explained in short videos available to all.
• Should I sign up for a course? That depends. Some courses are very helpful, especially for speaking practice, but the pace typically revolves around the slowest student in the class, so keep in mind your timeline goals with learning the language when making your decision. Many places will offer an intensive 2- or 4-week daily course that could help bump you from low B1 or high B1 faster than almost any independant studying.
• Should I work with a tutor? If it is not a financial burden on you and you will come prepared to your lessons, then yes. Make sure that your tutor understands your goals early on so that they can adapt their teaching to most effectively meet your needs and nobody’s time or money is wasted.
• What’s your favorite online translator? The dictionary! Kidding, but also not. Looking up a word in a physical dictionary can introduce you to incredibly interesting, language specific vocab like the word žaižarakis in 🇱🇹 which means “a person with sparkling eyes.” Many comprehensive dictionaries will also provide different contexts the word can be used in, as well as its part of speech. Concerning online resources I have yet to find any translator more powerful than DeepL, which uses incredibly complicated AI technology to provide scary accurate translations. I also highly recommended the more obscure Multitran which uses user inputs to produce a wildly rich library great for both literary and professional translation.