Duolingo

Kamelåså!!!!

Originally Posted by Eye
Ehhh right. I THOUGHT Danish was easy, but after reading the comments of you two, @a pibbur and @TomRon…
Yes, I have noticed that there is hardly any difference when hearing ‘æble’ and ‘aeblet’, and ‘vand’. and ‘vandet’. They swallow the ‘t’.

In Norwegian we also do not pronounce the terminal 't' in the determined form of neuter nouns like "eplet" (the apple). So you will not hear the difference between the indetermined form "eple" and "eplet". However it's usually evident from the context what we mean: "jeg spiser et eple" (I eat an apple, but not a particular one), "jeg spiser eplet" (I eat the apple (the particular one that the wife saved for lunch)). Usually it's evident. When it''s not - well, languages can be confusing.

….The latter, ‘bogen’, is a bit confusing, because ‘bogen’ looks like our plural ‘boeken’.
When reading a word like ‘kvinden’ I tend to think of ‘women’ (‘vrouwen’) and not ‘the woman’, ‘manden’ I think of ‘men’ (‘mannen’), not of ‘the man’. But I hope that is just a matter of practice, the more I’ll practise the easier it will become.

Been there, done that - yes you will get used to it.

a pibbur who knew about 3 dutch words before this thread. And who wants to be clear that when he considered himself masculine, it was obviously in the grammatical sense

PS. The Norwegian word for "speed" is "fart". Especially americans find that funny. DS.

Originally Posted by a pibbur
PS. The Norwegian word for "speed" is "fart". Especially americans find that funny. DS.

I laughed for a good 15 seconds. I'm american.

Which language(s) did you try?

I started to use duolingo learning Spanish some years ago. It was quite fun and I learned. Then the children came and I stopped.

Would be a good time to start again now, so thanks for the thread.

However I know myself well enough that I forget things quickly when I don't use them in practice (not only languages).
And apart from holidays in Italy I don't escape my German/English bubble. Are there any movies/series originally produced in Spanish or Italian that anyone could recommend?

La casa del papel is very good.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Yeah, La casa del papel is very popular.

Some Spanish series that are on my to-watch list:
Contratiempo
Gran hotel
Frontera verde

Then there is (not on my list):
Las Chicas del Cable
Elite
Velvet

All of the above are on Netflix, afaik.

I have watched El Ministerio del Tiempo, a most imaginative story about time travel, but that one became boring in the last season.

Edit
O and I recently watched the Mexican series ‘Juana Inés’, but that one is no longer on Netflix.
Imdb:
“Juana Inés de la Cruz, a renowned writer, nun and influential political figure in 17th-century Mexico” Lesbian as well.
It was interesting to learn about this impressive woman, but the quality of the series was so so: 6/10.

Edit 2
Just learned La Catedral del Mar and the series Vis a Vis are on Netflix, I added those to my list just now.
Fariña gets a high score.

Edit 3
O and as for movies, director Pedro Almodóvar is world famous.

Edit 4
I remember having watched the movie El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth, director: Guillermo del Toro), weird movie, got 3 Oscars iirc.

Originally Posted by Eye
Edit 3
O and as for movies, director Pedro Almodóvar is world famous.

Alex de la Iglesia also is very good if you like very dark (almost misanthropist) comedy.
I'd recommend La Communidad and Crimen Ferpecto. Mucho bueno!

NOT RECOMMENDED if movie violence turns you off, though.

Thread hijacked?

Okay then. One by one mentioned, my thoughts.
Casa papel - I ditched it fast and won't continue, regardless of it's popularity I find it too mediocre
Contratiempo - is a mustwatch timeloop movie, not series
Gran hotel - is on my to watch list for years but can't find the time for it
Frontera verde - a friend said it's boring style over substance, didn't try it myself
Las Chicas del Cable - not interested a single bit (plain drama)
Elite - a mustwatch modern young adults show that doesn't shy away from any topic
Velvet - never heard before, checked on imdb, doesn't strike me as something I'd like
El Ministerio del Tiempo - didn't watch the third season, love the first two
Juana Inés - biography+history=get off my property
La Catedral del Mar - same as above
Vis a Vis - a soap pretending not to be, IMO fun but not for everyone so try a few eps
Fariña - drug trafficking, I'm kinda tired of that topic so skipped, could be good though
Almodóvar - an oddball of a director who shomehow manages to present utterly boring stories in nonboring ways, watch any of his titles (aka if you hate plain dramas like me, pick any of his - you won't hate it)
El laberinto del fauno - the ultimate no_romance fantasy movie and I'd easily put it on some 10 best movies ever made list
La Communidad - absolutely crazy comedy about human nature, a mustwatch
Crimen Ferpecto - stinking for ages on my to watch list, couldn't find time for it so far

Instead of adding more titles I'll suggest googling for spanish thrillers. Not all results will be from Spain only, but will be on spanish language. There are many in past two decades, each one better than another.

Tried French a year ago then stopped… Now I'm trying again and it's going much better. I'm not turning off the pesky notifications since they seem to annoy you just enough to do an exercise a day in order to make it stop. What I do miss is more writing exercises.

If you like Spanish series, Narcos might be something that strikes your fancy, especially season 1 and 2, which revolve around Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian druglord.

Season 3 loses a lot of its charisma, but it has good bits too.

Perfectos Desconocidos is also an interesting film, built around the premise of a group of friends that, on a dare, agree to read out loud each other's phone messages without filtering or skipping anything. Things start getting interesting as some of them begin receiving messages they weren't so comfortable with sharing.

Late to this thread but curious about Duolingo now. I speak Spanish somewhat fluently and I'm certified to use it for work. But there's definitely a lot to learn still and I've gotten rusty during the pandemic. I find a lot of programs don't have a lot of options for advanced users though, I'm not sure how Duolingo is for that. I used to use Rosetta Stone a lot and I definitely liked it, although you obviously won't get fluent with that alone.

I was always looking for good Spanish tv shows to help me practice. I never found any that really grabbed me though. They tend to be really obsessed with crime shows which aren't my thing. Money Heist was decent though, but even there I didn't like it as much as most people did.

Yes I have tried with french language course for three moths.

Update. I have stopped learning Danish.

Doing Spanish now. Much easier (after having been taught French for 10 years as a teen).

Originally Posted by Eye
Doing Spanish now. Much easier (after having been taught French for 10 years as a teen).

I just started using Duolingo for Spanish. My GF is from Venezuela, and I want to develop at least a basic understanding of Spanish since some of her friends and family aren't fluent in English.

Are you doing it every day? How much time do you put into a session on average?

Yes, I am doing it every day. Most of the times two different lessons, rarely three, rarely one. So, ehm, 5-10 minutes a day?
I am at Unit 3 Stem Changes now. Usually I do the next lesson as well (in my case: Interests) but I can not start that one until I have completed all of 'Stem Changes'.

I wish Duolingo offered more exercises from English to Spanish, where you have to translate the entire sentence. I have the feeling I am learning in a passive way, understanding the language, as opposed to actively using the language yourself.

Which lesson(s) are you doing atm? And how often do you practise? Do you different lessons as well?

How often do you do the Duolingo stories?
I am at set 19, should do them more often but I somehow prefer the normal lessons.

I have still to complete the first lesson of the Audio lessons but 'Meeting People' Greetings was soooo easy and time consuming (ola, ola, ola, buenas dias, buenas dias, como estas).
You having a Venezualan girlfriend means you can skip those lessons and just listen to your girlfriend, her friends and family. Much nicer, much better.

I have tried to find a different app to learn Spanish, because I'd prefer to learn Spanish Spanish, instead of the Latin American version that Duo is offering.
I have tried Rosetta Stone, that one looked good and offered both versions, but I have to pay now. So I got back to Duolingo but I am thinking about starting with RosettaStone someday.

Lingvist offered the same, both versions of Spanish, but it gets very hard after a while. * Definitely not for real beginners like me.
Learning with Lingvist means learning really fast: you are learning much more in a shorter amount of time than with DuoLingo. Excellent app! It also offers a section where it explains the grammar and spelling rules in a very good way. I copied those sections just before the free lessons ended, because Duo fails as when it comes to explanation as you'll surely know.
I was willing to pay for that app, Lingvist, until the difficulty became a too big obstacle for me.

So I got back to Duo and might again start with Rosetta Stone later.

Edit
* Lingvist starts with different verb tenses early on. I'd have prefered staying with present tense a little longer. But Lingvist is great for improving your vocabulary.

I just started a couple day ago. Haven't done any stories yet. I'm beyond raw atm.

For me, it's much better that it's the Latin American version. There are a *lot* of people who speak that here, and I doubt I'll be going to Spain anytime soon. I can understand why you would want the Spanish version though. It makes more sense where you're at.

Never heard of Lingvist. Maybe I'll check that out once I've learned some basics.

Yes, of course, it would make absolutely no sense for you to study Spanish Spanish.
I'd do the same if I were you.

Nice to see you started learning Spanish. I am sure you'll do fine when in an environment where the language is spoken regularly. Even if you don't follow the conversations you always pick up individual words, the accent and the melody of the language, if you get my drift.

What I am missing in Duolingo is some explanations about why a certain word is used like that in the sentence. If I get lucky someone already asked that and there is an answer. What sometimes eludes me is why the word på in Norwegian is used at that specific spot. It appears to be used as a replacement for in, on, at, to, for and some other words, unless it is not, when in is just i and to is til and for is for, etc. Duolingo flags it as a failure when I use the wrong word. So instead of understanding it, I just have a Pavlovian reaction to certain sentences.