Hello! I’ve recently picked up learning Spanish because I work with a ton of dudes from Mexico. How much can I reasonably expect to learn from this app? I looked at their “curriculum” and it seems pretty short compared to what I think I’ll need. What are some resources beyond “talk to your coworkers”, that will put me on the right track?
I find duolingo extremely effective for recognising and recalling vocabulary. If you complete a course you learn around 2000 words on context with sample sentences.
Vocabulary is tedious and maybe 1/4 of what goes into learning a language, so I’ll go against the common opinion and say it’s quite solid. But it does nothing for the other 3/4, you’ll never be able to think in Spanish, produce sentences, or understand when you’re spoken to with duolingo alone.
It does help with vocabulary and I’ve used it successfully for French. But it also wastes a lot of time on needlessly specific grammar, I think at the start of your learning process it’s not relevant to learn the difference between a/au Brazil or le/la voiture. If you can put yourself to it, flash cards are way more time efficient. Then once you know at least some words (100-200) Clozemaster is a good addition to learn words in context.
But for me the most effective has always been emersion, make yourself a little uncomfortable and try to read easy books or watch simpler series in your target language. Then once in a while learn some grammar or vocabulary, in my experience this is way easier to pick up once you have a basic feel for the language using emersion.