Duolingo

Anyone love learning about new languages as much as I do? Or are you interested in learning a new language but cannot afford to travel abroad or purchase Rosetta Stone!?

I have your answer: Duolingo.

I actually ran across this site on Pinterest a little while back and finally had some time to mess around with it now that it is summa' time! 

And let me tell ya folks I am quite impressed for a freebie. I am hooked and have officially taken up learning some French this summer. 

So here is a little preview...you can utilize their website if you prefer....

You can see I am working on learning my animals right now ;)! There are so many skills on the skill tree (see the scroll bar....yea it scrolls down for what seems like forever with skills to learn!).

You can pick up on each lesson where you left off or if you feel like you still need more practice you can click on that blue button that says "Lesson Practice" and go back and continue to practice the skills you have already learned. The site will also monitor your progress including the strength in understanding/usage as well as how many words you have learned over time. See that little W in the blue circle - I have officially learned 107 words!

Here is an example of one of the lesson components:

In each lesson you are introduced to vocabulary with photos, given sentences to translate in each language, and introduced to new words through the context of sentences (you can see the blue highlighting the new word in this sentence....if you scroll over it, it will provide an explanation). You are also required to listen to the language and write what is said, as well as speak a variety of sentences. You can listen to a phrase at any time by clicking on the listening icon next to the sentence and in some instances they even have a turtle icon in which she speaks slower for you!

Now, if you get so excited about this this that you want to take it with you on summer road trips or you simply just prefer to work on your iPhone, iPad....THERE IS an APP for that!

Once again it is free for you to use! (claps). It is pretty much equal to the site in most respects with a few minor differences. 

I believe currently Duolingo offers instruction in the languages of French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese....also if you are a native speaker of these languages you can do the reverse and learn English. Therefore this may not only be a great way for you to learn a language but for some of your ELL parents to practice English in the comfort of their home, the library etc. as well for free!

All in all, as a language learner myself and as a dual teacher, I must say I am pretty impressed with this site and the way it goes about teaching language through the context of sentences and more of an immersion style versus just strictly through grammar and vocabulary drill and kill. It may not be perfect...but I am having fun with it. I told Ry we must take a trip to Paris once I have passed all the levels...how's that for incentive ;)!

Finally...just a reminder that today is the last day to enter in my "1000 Facebook Fan Giveaway" as well as take a moment to grab your "I Can Count to 1000" freebie counting book! Click on the image to take you to the post to enter! You have until midnight folks'!