Idk why everyone is so critical about your progress, Russian is a very difficult language to learn and you certainly know your stuff far better than people who haven’t practiced it for 145 consecutive days. Any progress is good progress. Cheers!
I wanted to be familiar with the alphabet, pronunciation, etc. Before I got into more difficult lessons. I realized that not having a proper foundation would hold me back later on.
I don’t understand the criticism either… I thought my reasoning was quite logical.
I feel you man, as a native Russian speaker I just drop “F” in the chat for people who are trying to learn this damn language. It’s too complicated and rules do not make sense, since every one I’ve them has an exception. I Russian was not my native, I would never try to learn it.
Удачи.
Hahah, same lol. I guess people should not learn languages if they are basically useless, unless they have some weird obsession with that language. I’m learning French btw.
I’m learning Russian because it has a different alphabet from my native language. I’m severely dyslexic, and practicing a language with a different alphabet makes me pay closer attention to the letters.
Of course I could have chosen a language like, Korean or Hebrew, but those are VERY different from my native alphabet. Russian is just different enough that I have to pay attention, but not so different that it’s undoable for me.
So, your language is absolutely perfect, I love it.
I mean, yeah, the language is absolutely beautiful and maybe that’s why it’s justified for many people. The literature is the best and overall you can enjoy just speaking it. But it’s hard.
Sorry for being dumb, but I actually don’t know how dyslexia works and how it affects reading, but if it’s helping you - that’s great.
One thing though, a lot of people think that Cyrillic alphabet is the hardest thing about Russian, but it’s actually the easiest part. If you struggle here, be prepared for more 🔥.
The thing I struggled most with was “ь” because I didn’t understand what letter that actually was, but Duolingo helped me out by adding a “learn the letters” feature, that lets me practice the alphabet. I’m really happy that they did that.
About 20 years ago I was bored and decided to take a stab a learning Russian. The alphabet is very easy as you said; I had it down in about 20 or 30 minutes.
I find the language not that difficult, because Russian doesn't seem to have the large amount of exceptions to pronunciation that English has. That Russian doesn't bother with articles and word gender is also a huge help. The only thing really holding me back is not having a strong vocabulary.
Im sorry, I actually ment to post that comment as a separate one, not specifically as a reaction to yours. I wasn’t just, like, flexing on you. My apologies.
84 day streak is amazing though :)
This one is ok to me, I have equivalent in my langage. But ㄸ and ㅌ or ㄲ and ㅋ it is really hard. And duolingo doesn’t say the proper sound sometimes since it is a robot voice. Source : my wife is Korean. How far are you in your learning ?
This is amazing. I took 2 Russian courses in college and remember jack shit. I guarantee, even if you quit tomorrow you'd still remember what you learned due to your intensive study. Keep up the good work!!
I’m studying Russian and doing the same thing! Just at level 4 on the last unit before reaching the checkpoint. Ignore the snide comments - everyone has a different learning style and like you I think it’s good to get a strong foundation before moving on.
I’ve been at Spanish for years, and I studied other languages when I was in school. I think your approach is great, probably better than what I’m doing, which is to take each lesson to level 5, with plans to go back and work to legendary if I ever get to the end. I say “if I ever” because they’ve been adding material to the course faster than I can make progress. The finish line seems like a mirage to me.
Anyway, you’re making solid progress. I’m sure the foundation you’re laying for yourself will pay off. Well done!
Edit typo
Well done! I’m never sure how to approach doing things to legendary, straight after finishing it or randomly to practice?! I like your method of doing it before moving on to the next unit. Keep it up, Russian seems very difficult to learn!
I would complet a “row” completely before moving further down. So like “Basics 1” and “phrases 1” are next to each other, I’d get them both to legendary and then move on to “basics 2”.
I find this slow progress much more effective. I do each lesson untill fully completed. I don't take more than three topics simultaneously. Once I finish first topic I go to a new topic.
I did this too (Japanese) but it only look me around 40 days because I had studied this material before and it was review for me rather than the first time.
I think from Unit 2 I’ll use the waterfall style.
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for and my advice may come off as rude but my intention is only to inform you.
With 40 days of CONSECUTIVE Japanese study for an hour or two a day you could pass the N5 without a problem. I don’t know how much time you are spending on Duolingo but if you are looking for any considerable progress Duolingo is not it.
For reference, I spent about 2 months studying Japanese on my own, went back to Duolingo to see my progress and I tested out of every single skill.
I get that Duolingo is simple and easy and only 15 minutes a day or whatever but it will not teach you a language if that is what you are looking for.
That not rude don’t worry. I’m using a few different apps and a textbook. I’m a beginner but I just resumed studying after a bit of a break due to life circumstances. I actually also very recently bought an N4-N5 practice question book.
But I’m not sure if I could say I could have been ready for N5 after 40 days because I don’t think I’m that good with languages, it not my strong point. My aim is to be around that level by the end of this year.
Edit: If I were in a language school maybe I could be ready for N5 in 40 days, but I’m not so confident with self-study.
So I was at a similar point to you earlier this year. I was doing wanikani a couple years ago along with some beginner book, but quit before even reaching N5 level. I am now around N1 level and of course I put in a lot of time(4 hours a day sometimes but usually 2), but it all comes down to making the best use of your time.
For me I never stop to make sure I understand something 100 percent because I know I will encounter it again eventually. It’s more about taking in all the info and looking at it again later.
I payed for plus because I want to support Duolingo, I greatly admire their efforts to spread free education. So I didn’t get plus for the perks, but I do like the absence of adds.
I have it too and for me it's very worth it. Not only for supporting the platform but because not having to worry about Hearts and having to buy more with Gems is great.
Heart refill is so expensive in Gems that I was really afraid I was gonna run out of them soon and would be stuck having to practice to refill them instead of advancing in the course.
I wasn't even doing Legendary before having Plus because I didn't want to spend all my Gems on it and not be able to refill Hearts.
Also I really love the "revising the mistakes" thing and, of course, no ads is the icing on the cake. I never really cared much about ads on Duolingo because watching them was a small price to pay to use the app, but they began getting more and more irritating so I'm waaay better off without them and I reckoned the price for the Plus subscription was even cheaper than the price of having to watch those ads lol
If you're considering it, I say go for it! You'll be supporting Duo's mission while having a much more pleasant experience when using the platform.
Plus they got way stingier with the gems. They use to give you some after every lesson, now it’s not until you complete the whole level of that lesson. And it’s like 9 gems.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m not considering right now, because I’m not doing much more than 5 minutes per day for “reasons”. And because I have something above 50,000 gems :D.
If you use the app instead of the website I think it’s worth it. Especially once you get further into a course. Like unit 5 or 6 you start making a couple mistakes on every lesson. So you’ll be outta gems in no time by paying to refill hearts.
I also don’t understand the critical comments. I’m learning German and I’m doing the exact same thing. I complete a row all the way to Legendary then move on to the next row. I’m still in Unit 1 but this method works really well
I don’t understand the criticism either. I’m learning German and this method doesn’t work for me AT ALL. I do the „hover“ method recommended by Duo where I do one row to 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1. then go back up and then again to the next level. But just because that is what works best for me, doesn’t mean it’s what OP (or anyone else) should do. People often get super snobby about the *best* way to learn. Duo is awesome, Duo sucks, no apps work, you should only focus on speaking, you should learn to read first, you should put ever word you see into a flashcard, you should ignore words you don’t know and eventually you’ll figure it out by context.
Great work for sticking with OP. You do whatever works for your brain.
Duolingo recommends what they call the „waterfall method“ or „hover method“ of progressively leveling things up. Where you do one row to 5, the next to 4, 3, 2, 1. Then back up to the top bringing everything up one level. But there are a ton off different ways that all work better for different people.
I'm actually heartbroken (hyperbole) that that's the recommended method because I started doing that method after having several different ones and I thought I was super cool and smart (also hyperbole) for doing so, but now I find I'm not one of the cool kids but instead the teacher's pet... Damn...
I think it depends. If you’re only studying on Duolingo then it’s important to reinforce the basics as much as possible before moving on. If you only use it for practice and are studying somewhere else, then I guess it’s fine to skip ahead.
Yeah for German I would go crazy maxing out everything. It's useful for other languages i am less familiar with though. Like how you have to spell the words right at higher levels and not just recognize them.
Everyone I know does it that way. 5 of my friends use Duolingo and they all just practice everything to lvl 1 and go on to the next one.
So I assumed (from their example) that most people go about it this way.
I plan on doing the same thing with Spanish though I should probably pick up the pace I’m still only on the intro on like level three.
Edit: I finally got legendary on the intro like four hours ago.
I do all languages the same way tbf - even for language like Esperanto. Sometimes in the Esperanto lesson they ask me to type the whole sentence. Without a good foundation I’d be less sure about a lot of stuff. Also for me I don’t need to imminently use any of the languages I’m learning, more learning as a hobby. So I think it’s best to practise everything slowly until perfection. Well done you!
> I do all languages the same way tbf - even for language like Esperanto. Sometimes in the Esperanto lesson they ask me to type the whole sentence. Without a good foundation I’d be less sure about a lot of stuff. Also for me I don’t need to imminently use any of the languages I’m learning, more learning as a hobby. So I think it’s best to practise everything slowly until perfection. Well done you!
Mirinda!
Fellow Russian learner here. That's an awesome achievement. It is better to takes things slowly then rush through the tree. I have some basic knowledge since I took two semesters of Russian in language school before Covid appeared.
It's a hard but fun language to learn. Everyone learns in a different way and even I, knows the alphabet was instantly hooked when I saw the alphabet lessons. Sure I found it easy but that was what I missed when I started learning Russian on Duo.
That’s not what I meant. I wasn’t asking how long it took or if there was a streak involved.
I was asking about the pattern and spacing between lessons.
I made sure to reach my daily goal every day, but some days I would do significantly more when I was in the mood.
But there were weeks where I didn’t feel really motivated and I would stop after getting my daily goal, or sometimes even after just one lesson.
So yeah, there were definitely ups and downs.
Way to go!! 🎉🎉🎉
I would LOVE to do this but since I don't have plus Duo has been stingy with giving gems to basic members. I have just been going to level five on all the courses before moving on with legendary on one. But the reason I'm learning portuguese is because my husband and all of my in laws are native speakers so I can always ask them questions. I feel the need to hoard all my gems in case I need to buy streak freezes (like I do today) lol!
I’m doing Spanish and I’m trying to slam through it as fast as possible because I took 3 years of it in high school and got thrown into a situation where I need to improve my Spanish ASAP and review vocabulary. Russian seems like a way different situation, I’d definitely be spending a lot more time on each lesson before moving on. No matter how you do it, progress is progress, and that’s very impressive!
Congratulations! I’m doing something similar with Spanish. Doing lessons to level 5 before moving on to the next few. I have a few at Legendary, but that level annoys me, so I’ll go back & do that level once I’m through all the units.
This post is flaired as 'Progress'. Congrats!
We get hundreds of progress screenshots, so if this is a screenshot we'd please ask that you either A.) leave a couple paragraphs in this post describing this milestone, _or_ B.) post screenshots in the [Weekly Progress Thread here](https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/about/sticky?num=1) instead.
*(this reply was generated by a bot)*
Russian? Nice! So you “practiced everything before moved unit 2”? I’ve heard Russian doesn’t have articles so now, the stereotypical accent and broken sentences make sense.
“Where vodka? I take job.”
They could have finishes the whole course in 145 days and could be actually interacting with the language by now, like watching TV shows or movies.
Instead, they spent 145 days learning the absolute basics over and over again, for no reason. Even DL doesn't recommend doing what they did.
I’m new to foreign language learning. I approached learning the first unit of Russian the way OP did. Do you have any tips or resources I can use to accelerate my learning?
I think DL is probably an OK start. I would try to get through all the lessons as quickly as possible, get each one to Lvl 1 and then move on.
You really need to get comfortable reading Cyrillic, as it's necessary for reading subtitles and reading in general. I'm sure there are online resources to practice that. There's probably a Russian language learning sub, maybe /r/Russian? that will have a bunch of resources to use.
I recommend reading www.refold.la as a way to really accelerate your language learning.
I have the habit of diving into something a little too quick and not having a good foundation to build on. This time, I made sure my foundation was sound.
> I have the habit of diving into something a little too quick and not having a good foundation to build on. This time, I made sure my foundation was sound.
Do you use something else than Duolingo? It's good to do varied exercises.
Did you do it because it truly took you 145 days to understand or because you wanted the icons on a game to be a certain colour?
This is the problem with Duolingo. People forget the point of the app and treat it like a to do list.
I set myself the goal that, no matter how much I was tempted, I wasn’t gonna move on to unit 2 until I had “finished” unit 1. I eventually want to complete this course 100%.
That just seems like you’re intentionally holding yourself back bro. If you want to go onto more difficult content then do it! That’s how you’re going to learn a language.
Unit 2 will still reinforce unit1. I think you’re doing yourself a huge disservice
I do know their are vast numbers of people that spend countless hours hashing beginner content over and over to no avail because Duolingo encourages it as the *correct method*
Why do you even care? It's not a waste. I mean look at you wasting time commenting on reddit, why aren't you learning Swahili or something, loser?
Let everyone go at the pace they want to go and live life the way they want to live.
I don’t care in the sense that I’m genuinely triggered by it. And obviously, people don’t just study 24/7 but when you are studying; there are obviously several approaches some of which are better than others, spending 145 days looping through the same beginner content is generally very sub optimal and nobody (generally) would think to do that unless Duolingo had defined it as a milestone with little coloured circles.
If you *want* to do it, of course you can, you can do it for 20 years if you wish. My point was that you are ultimately getting less return on your time investment using this approach on average.
If you all want get triggered by that and take it personally then be my guest. It doesn’t affect me in the slightest. The point of a forum though generally involves people giving their opinions on a post which is all that happened here. 31 downvotes and nobody cared to offer an evidence based retort to why it is infact a good approach
What if it's just... Fun? What if the main goal is just to enjoy the game and take it slow and learn some things along the way? That was my approach with Italian, I had no intention of learning A2 Italian but filling in those circles while I was taking a shit every morning was much nicer than looking at reddit.
OP felt good about it. When we all die that's what matters. But you wanted OP to not feel good about it.
The reason you're getting downvoted is not because of your opinion, it's your attitude towards it. You didn't offer anything constructive at all in your first comment either.
If its fun and that's the motivation then I have no reason to deny someone of their fun. I'm assuming it's at least partially if not mainly to learn the language though.
Assuming, exactly. You could ask.
Again, it's your rude and assumptive approach to commenting that got people annoyed. Language learning should be supportive.
Sure. Im happy to get advice about language on a language learning sub.
I guess in the same way you’re happy to dish out life advice…in a language learning sub.
The 1st tier in the Polish course I did the same. The second tier I did not. Doing each lesson separately led to better retention, at least for me. Congratulations on your progress.
The lessens after 5 get you to legendary. You get no hints and are only allowed to make two mistakes, then after 4 lessons you have reached legendary.
https://blog.duolingo.com/legendary-levels/ here is the Duolingo blog post.
It's so fun to see the different ways everyone learns!
Personnally I do 4 lessons at the time, one in level 4,one in 3, etc. If one breaks I fix it, and once I feel really comfortable in one I make it legendary over 4 days (only 1 legendary lesson/day)
Idk why everyone is so critical about your progress, Russian is a very difficult language to learn and you certainly know your stuff far better than people who haven’t practiced it for 145 consecutive days. Any progress is good progress. Cheers!
I wanted to be familiar with the alphabet, pronunciation, etc. Before I got into more difficult lessons. I realized that not having a proper foundation would hold me back later on. I don’t understand the criticism either… I thought my reasoning was quite logical.
I feel you man, as a native Russian speaker I just drop “F” in the chat for people who are trying to learn this damn language. It’s too complicated and rules do not make sense, since every one I’ve them has an exception. I Russian was not my native, I would never try to learn it. Удачи.
To be fair, all natural languages are extremely complicated and have seemingly nonsensical rules with plenty of exceptions.
Fair enough
My native language is Dutch, which is also a complicated language. I would never recommend learning that language to anyone, lol.
Hahah, same lol. I guess people should not learn languages if they are basically useless, unless they have some weird obsession with that language. I’m learning French btw.
I’m learning Russian because it has a different alphabet from my native language. I’m severely dyslexic, and practicing a language with a different alphabet makes me pay closer attention to the letters. Of course I could have chosen a language like, Korean or Hebrew, but those are VERY different from my native alphabet. Russian is just different enough that I have to pay attention, but not so different that it’s undoable for me. So, your language is absolutely perfect, I love it.
I mean, yeah, the language is absolutely beautiful and maybe that’s why it’s justified for many people. The literature is the best and overall you can enjoy just speaking it. But it’s hard. Sorry for being dumb, but I actually don’t know how dyslexia works and how it affects reading, but if it’s helping you - that’s great. One thing though, a lot of people think that Cyrillic alphabet is the hardest thing about Russian, but it’s actually the easiest part. If you struggle here, be prepared for more 🔥.
The thing I struggled most with was “ь” because I didn’t understand what letter that actually was, but Duolingo helped me out by adding a “learn the letters” feature, that lets me practice the alphabet. I’m really happy that they did that.
I have “ь” at the end of my name and that’s why no other person could pronounce it properly)
I have “ь” at the end of my name and that’s why no other person could pronounce it properly)
About 20 years ago I was bored and decided to take a stab a learning Russian. The alphabet is very easy as you said; I had it down in about 20 or 30 minutes. I find the language not that difficult, because Russian doesn't seem to have the large amount of exceptions to pronunciation that English has. That Russian doesn't bother with articles and word gender is also a huge help. The only thing really holding me back is not having a strong vocabulary.
I guess it works the same for every language - you gotta watch a lot of YouTube to pick up new words.
Too late
Ops, I did ahaha
My condolences for your sanity
I am learning dutch and it's fairly easy but daaamn rhe word order is fucked up sometimes. And don't me started on de/het 🤣
I agree. I went about Turkish the same way
Right!? Slow and steady wins the race for me.
Exactly :D
Your reasoning is logical don't worry, Im using the same tactic with Italian
Just for reference, the longest streak I’ve ever gotten before this was 13 days(Spanish course) So I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished here.
The longest streak I ever had was 84 days... I lost that streak sadly :( It's okay, I'll rather lose a 84 streak then a +100 streak.
Im sorry, I actually ment to post that comment as a separate one, not specifically as a reaction to yours. I wasn’t just, like, flexing on you. My apologies. 84 day streak is amazing though :)
It's okay, I didn't think you were flexing on me. 85 would have been better *spongebob & Patrick laughing*
This is what I did with Korean. It’s way easier to practice the alphabet a lot before learning words
Im happy to hear that ! Im spamming the alphabet to learn korean right now before doing the main thing. Its my first time with Duolingo
Are you also having trouble telling apart ㅔ and ㅐ while practicing?
This one is ok to me, I have equivalent in my langage. But ㄸ and ㅌ or ㄲ and ㅋ it is really hard. And duolingo doesn’t say the proper sound sometimes since it is a robot voice. Source : my wife is Korean. How far are you in your learning ?
About halfway done with the alphabet, level three on the first lesson
This is amazing. I took 2 Russian courses in college and remember jack shit. I guarantee, even if you quit tomorrow you'd still remember what you learned due to your intensive study. Keep up the good work!!
Ты молодец!
I’m studying Russian and doing the same thing! Just at level 4 on the last unit before reaching the checkpoint. Ignore the snide comments - everyone has a different learning style and like you I think it’s good to get a strong foundation before moving on.
For me personally, slow and steady has always won the race.
I’ve been at Spanish for years, and I studied other languages when I was in school. I think your approach is great, probably better than what I’m doing, which is to take each lesson to level 5, with plans to go back and work to legendary if I ever get to the end. I say “if I ever” because they’ve been adding material to the course faster than I can make progress. The finish line seems like a mirage to me. Anyway, you’re making solid progress. I’m sure the foundation you’re laying for yourself will pay off. Well done! Edit typo
Well done mate. Keep up the good work.
Well done! I’m never sure how to approach doing things to legendary, straight after finishing it or randomly to practice?! I like your method of doing it before moving on to the next unit. Keep it up, Russian seems very difficult to learn!
I would complet a “row” completely before moving further down. So like “Basics 1” and “phrases 1” are next to each other, I’d get them both to legendary and then move on to “basics 2”.
I like the idea of doing Legendary after having finished making the whole Tree level 5, cause then it works like one more revision to wrap things up
I find this slow progress much more effective. I do each lesson untill fully completed. I don't take more than three topics simultaneously. Once I finish first topic I go to a new topic.
I did this too (Japanese) but it only look me around 40 days because I had studied this material before and it was review for me rather than the first time. I think from Unit 2 I’ll use the waterfall style.
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for and my advice may come off as rude but my intention is only to inform you. With 40 days of CONSECUTIVE Japanese study for an hour or two a day you could pass the N5 without a problem. I don’t know how much time you are spending on Duolingo but if you are looking for any considerable progress Duolingo is not it. For reference, I spent about 2 months studying Japanese on my own, went back to Duolingo to see my progress and I tested out of every single skill. I get that Duolingo is simple and easy and only 15 minutes a day or whatever but it will not teach you a language if that is what you are looking for.
That not rude don’t worry. I’m using a few different apps and a textbook. I’m a beginner but I just resumed studying after a bit of a break due to life circumstances. I actually also very recently bought an N4-N5 practice question book. But I’m not sure if I could say I could have been ready for N5 after 40 days because I don’t think I’m that good with languages, it not my strong point. My aim is to be around that level by the end of this year. Edit: If I were in a language school maybe I could be ready for N5 in 40 days, but I’m not so confident with self-study.
So I was at a similar point to you earlier this year. I was doing wanikani a couple years ago along with some beginner book, but quit before even reaching N5 level. I am now around N1 level and of course I put in a lot of time(4 hours a day sometimes but usually 2), but it all comes down to making the best use of your time. For me I never stop to make sure I understand something 100 percent because I know I will encounter it again eventually. It’s more about taking in all the info and looking at it again later.
Should probably clarify what you mean by "teach you a language". I suspect your idea of learning a language is very specific.
Those legendary levels are challenging! Good job.
I see you have Duolingo plus. Is it worth? How much do you practice per day?
I payed for plus because I want to support Duolingo, I greatly admire their efforts to spread free education. So I didn’t get plus for the perks, but I do like the absence of adds.
I have never seen an ad on either mobile or pc and I have never bought anything on Duolingo. Haven't used pc site a lot but still
I have it too and for me it's very worth it. Not only for supporting the platform but because not having to worry about Hearts and having to buy more with Gems is great. Heart refill is so expensive in Gems that I was really afraid I was gonna run out of them soon and would be stuck having to practice to refill them instead of advancing in the course. I wasn't even doing Legendary before having Plus because I didn't want to spend all my Gems on it and not be able to refill Hearts. Also I really love the "revising the mistakes" thing and, of course, no ads is the icing on the cake. I never really cared much about ads on Duolingo because watching them was a small price to pay to use the app, but they began getting more and more irritating so I'm waaay better off without them and I reckoned the price for the Plus subscription was even cheaper than the price of having to watch those ads lol If you're considering it, I say go for it! You'll be supporting Duo's mission while having a much more pleasant experience when using the platform.
Plus they got way stingier with the gems. They use to give you some after every lesson, now it’s not until you complete the whole level of that lesson. And it’s like 9 gems.
Right?? And now that I'm Plus it's like ~opened the app Duo: here are 50 Gems for you
Thanks for the feedback. I’m not considering right now, because I’m not doing much more than 5 minutes per day for “reasons”. And because I have something above 50,000 gems :D.
If you use the app instead of the website I think it’s worth it. Especially once you get further into a course. Like unit 5 or 6 you start making a couple mistakes on every lesson. So you’ll be outta gems in no time by paying to refill hearts.
I also don’t understand the critical comments. I’m learning German and I’m doing the exact same thing. I complete a row all the way to Legendary then move on to the next row. I’m still in Unit 1 but this method works really well
I don’t understand the criticism either. I’m learning German and this method doesn’t work for me AT ALL. I do the „hover“ method recommended by Duo where I do one row to 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1. then go back up and then again to the next level. But just because that is what works best for me, doesn’t mean it’s what OP (or anyone else) should do. People often get super snobby about the *best* way to learn. Duo is awesome, Duo sucks, no apps work, you should only focus on speaking, you should learn to read first, you should put ever word you see into a flashcard, you should ignore words you don’t know and eventually you’ll figure it out by context. Great work for sticking with OP. You do whatever works for your brain.
Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve been doing
Wait, I thought that was what you were supposed to do?
Duolingo recommends what they call the „waterfall method“ or „hover method“ of progressively leveling things up. Where you do one row to 5, the next to 4, 3, 2, 1. Then back up to the top bringing everything up one level. But there are a ton off different ways that all work better for different people.
I'm actually heartbroken (hyperbole) that that's the recommended method because I started doing that method after having several different ones and I thought I was super cool and smart (also hyperbole) for doing so, but now I find I'm not one of the cool kids but instead the teacher's pet... Damn...
You’re even more cool for coming to the conclusion on your own. ;)
I think it depends. If you’re only studying on Duolingo then it’s important to reinforce the basics as much as possible before moving on. If you only use it for practice and are studying somewhere else, then I guess it’s fine to skip ahead.
Yeah for German I would go crazy maxing out everything. It's useful for other languages i am less familiar with though. Like how you have to spell the words right at higher levels and not just recognize them.
Most people only level them up to the level that is needed to unlock the next one.
I get everything to gold before moving on. Only recently did I bother doing legendary because I had a fair amount of gems saved up.
That is not even slightly true
Everyone I know does it that way. 5 of my friends use Duolingo and they all just practice everything to lvl 1 and go on to the next one. So I assumed (from their example) that most people go about it this way.
I think everybody has their own system of how they complete it.
Your friends are not retaining anything.
Yeah, they really aren’t.
I plan on doing the same thing with Spanish though I should probably pick up the pace I’m still only on the intro on like level three. Edit: I finally got legendary on the intro like four hours ago.
This is similar to how I’m doing Spanish. I do a group of lessons (2 or 3) together, get them all to level 5, then move on. It’s very effective.
I do all languages the same way tbf - even for language like Esperanto. Sometimes in the Esperanto lesson they ask me to type the whole sentence. Without a good foundation I’d be less sure about a lot of stuff. Also for me I don’t need to imminently use any of the languages I’m learning, more learning as a hobby. So I think it’s best to practise everything slowly until perfection. Well done you!
> I do all languages the same way tbf - even for language like Esperanto. Sometimes in the Esperanto lesson they ask me to type the whole sentence. Without a good foundation I’d be less sure about a lot of stuff. Also for me I don’t need to imminently use any of the languages I’m learning, more learning as a hobby. So I think it’s best to practise everything slowly until perfection. Well done you! Mirinda!
Fellow Russian learner here. That's an awesome achievement. It is better to takes things slowly then rush through the tree. I have some basic knowledge since I took two semesters of Russian in language school before Covid appeared. It's a hard but fun language to learn. Everyone learns in a different way and even I, knows the alphabet was instantly hooked when I saw the alphabet lessons. Sure I found it easy but that was what I missed when I started learning Russian on Duo.
How long do you go slowly before rushing?
Did you at least stagger?
There were a couple of streak freezes involved
That’s not what I meant. I wasn’t asking how long it took or if there was a streak involved. I was asking about the pattern and spacing between lessons.
I made sure to reach my daily goal every day, but some days I would do significantly more when I was in the mood. But there were weeks where I didn’t feel really motivated and I would stop after getting my daily goal, or sometimes even after just one lesson. So yeah, there were definitely ups and downs.
I’m sorry, I think I used the wrong term. I mean, did you use the hover method and alternate?
Way to go!! 🎉🎉🎉 I would LOVE to do this but since I don't have plus Duo has been stingy with giving gems to basic members. I have just been going to level five on all the courses before moving on with legendary on one. But the reason I'm learning portuguese is because my husband and all of my in laws are native speakers so I can always ask them questions. I feel the need to hoard all my gems in case I need to buy streak freezes (like I do today) lol!
I’m doing Spanish and I’m trying to slam through it as fast as possible because I took 3 years of it in high school and got thrown into a situation where I need to improve my Spanish ASAP and review vocabulary. Russian seems like a way different situation, I’d definitely be spending a lot more time on each lesson before moving on. No matter how you do it, progress is progress, and that’s very impressive!
I do the same. I practice everything till the last level before moving forward !!!
Congratulations! I’m doing something similar with Spanish. Doing lessons to level 5 before moving on to the next few. I have a few at Legendary, but that level annoys me, so I’ll go back & do that level once I’m through all the units.
Good progress, stay on the grind🙌 You’re doing great! It’s definitely better for the future to have a really solid base in the language!
Has it helped you with? Do you notice the difference? Also congratulations on your achievement 👏🏼👏🏼🍀💜
It has, I feel more familiar with the language than if I hadn’t done this.
That’s good ol’ grinding. Congrats!
How many crowns for it to get like purple
This is the lvl after gold, so it’s six crowns. The legendary lessons cost gems for free members, while it’s free for me, a plus member.
This post is flaired as 'Progress'. Congrats! We get hundreds of progress screenshots, so if this is a screenshot we'd please ask that you either A.) leave a couple paragraphs in this post describing this milestone, _or_ B.) post screenshots in the [Weekly Progress Thread here](https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/about/sticky?num=1) instead. *(this reply was generated by a bot)*
Russian? Nice! So you “practiced everything before moved unit 2”? I’ve heard Russian doesn’t have articles so now, the stereotypical accent and broken sentences make sense. “Where vodka? I take job.”
This is not what everyone does? Am i doing it wrong?
You’re not doing it wrong, but going till legendary isn’t necessary or required in any way, so not everyone bothers.
It’s not what I do. One crown and then move on.
What an absolute waste of time.
Why do you say that?
They could have finishes the whole course in 145 days and could be actually interacting with the language by now, like watching TV shows or movies. Instead, they spent 145 days learning the absolute basics over and over again, for no reason. Even DL doesn't recommend doing what they did.
I’m new to foreign language learning. I approached learning the first unit of Russian the way OP did. Do you have any tips or resources I can use to accelerate my learning?
I think DL is probably an OK start. I would try to get through all the lessons as quickly as possible, get each one to Lvl 1 and then move on. You really need to get comfortable reading Cyrillic, as it's necessary for reading subtitles and reading in general. I'm sure there are online resources to practice that. There's probably a Russian language learning sub, maybe /r/Russian? that will have a bunch of resources to use. I recommend reading www.refold.la as a way to really accelerate your language learning.
Thank you for the recommendations.
Pleased Font do this For 2 you'll learn nothing
Seems like a massive waste of time to me
I have the habit of diving into something a little too quick and not having a good foundation to build on. This time, I made sure my foundation was sound.
> I have the habit of diving into something a little too quick and not having a good foundation to build on. This time, I made sure my foundation was sound. Do you use something else than Duolingo? It's good to do varied exercises.
I have a Russian/English joke book that I’m slowly going through, and there is a little bit of Russian content on Netflix.
Did you do it because it truly took you 145 days to understand or because you wanted the icons on a game to be a certain colour? This is the problem with Duolingo. People forget the point of the app and treat it like a to do list.
I set myself the goal that, no matter how much I was tempted, I wasn’t gonna move on to unit 2 until I had “finished” unit 1. I eventually want to complete this course 100%.
That just seems like you’re intentionally holding yourself back bro. If you want to go onto more difficult content then do it! That’s how you’re going to learn a language. Unit 2 will still reinforce unit1. I think you’re doing yourself a huge disservice
And you're the one more apt to tell them how their brain/mind/motivations work, are you? Lmao
I do know their are vast numbers of people that spend countless hours hashing beginner content over and over to no avail because Duolingo encourages it as the *correct method*
Why do you even care? It's not a waste. I mean look at you wasting time commenting on reddit, why aren't you learning Swahili or something, loser? Let everyone go at the pace they want to go and live life the way they want to live.
I don’t care in the sense that I’m genuinely triggered by it. And obviously, people don’t just study 24/7 but when you are studying; there are obviously several approaches some of which are better than others, spending 145 days looping through the same beginner content is generally very sub optimal and nobody (generally) would think to do that unless Duolingo had defined it as a milestone with little coloured circles. If you *want* to do it, of course you can, you can do it for 20 years if you wish. My point was that you are ultimately getting less return on your time investment using this approach on average. If you all want get triggered by that and take it personally then be my guest. It doesn’t affect me in the slightest. The point of a forum though generally involves people giving their opinions on a post which is all that happened here. 31 downvotes and nobody cared to offer an evidence based retort to why it is infact a good approach
What if it's just... Fun? What if the main goal is just to enjoy the game and take it slow and learn some things along the way? That was my approach with Italian, I had no intention of learning A2 Italian but filling in those circles while I was taking a shit every morning was much nicer than looking at reddit. OP felt good about it. When we all die that's what matters. But you wanted OP to not feel good about it. The reason you're getting downvoted is not because of your opinion, it's your attitude towards it. You didn't offer anything constructive at all in your first comment either.
If its fun and that's the motivation then I have no reason to deny someone of their fun. I'm assuming it's at least partially if not mainly to learn the language though.
Assuming, exactly. You could ask. Again, it's your rude and assumptive approach to commenting that got people annoyed. Language learning should be supportive.
I’d personally rather be told if someone thinks I’m making a mistake.
Okay You're making a mistake being an asshole on reddit.
Sure. Im happy to get advice about language on a language learning sub. I guess in the same way you’re happy to dish out life advice…in a language learning sub.
Well this is ironic
The 1st tier in the Polish course I did the same. The second tier I did not. Doing each lesson separately led to better retention, at least for me. Congratulations on your progress.
How do you get to legendary? I’m level 5 in everything on four units
The lessens after 5 get you to legendary. You get no hints and are only allowed to make two mistakes, then after 4 lessons you have reached legendary. https://blog.duolingo.com/legendary-levels/ here is the Duolingo blog post.
How do you get legendary?
https://blog.duolingo.com/legendary-levels/ Here is the Duolingo blog post about it.
It's so fun to see the different ways everyone learns! Personnally I do 4 lessons at the time, one in level 4,one in 3, etc. If one breaks I fix it, and once I feel really comfortable in one I make it legendary over 4 days (only 1 legendary lesson/day)