I spend some time most days scrolling through Facebook to see what my friends have been up to and check into some of the pages I follow in our local community. One such time I noticed a post that a friend from High School made about an app called duolingo. She said she is learning Spanish and her husband is learning Japanese. I decided I was going to check it out. I grabbed my phone and looked for the app in google play. Turns out I didn't have enough memory for it on my phone (surprise, surprise), so I grabbed my iPad and found it in the app store. I've found since then that you can also log in on the computer too! I was so excited! I lived in Germany for a little bit growing up and I took Spanish for many years in school. I wanted to brush up on those languages and then maybe dabble in some others. I find languages quite fascinating. So, I started playing. I have to admit I am a bit hooked.
They give you the option when you start a course to take a placement test if you're not a beginner in the language. Turns out my grammar stinks, so I started at the beginning. The free version (you can also pay for it if you want) has quite a few pop up ads, but they didn't really bother me that much. Your play time is dictated by your health. Every time you get an answer wrong you lose some health. If you have enough gems you can buy more health and keep going. There are also times that you can earn more gems or health by looking at an ad--take advantage of those! If you can't get more health, you just need to wait until the next day (or spend a little money). The only glitch that I've come across so far that is a bit annoying is that there have been times I have gotten the answer correct, but they've counted it as wrong. You can report when a mistake has been made in the app, but your health isn't replaced. It hasn't happened since the first day though, so maybe they've worked some of the glitches out. One of my favorite parts of the program in the app (I haven't found it yet in the computer version of the program) is the ability to have conversations with bots. Each one is a different scenario like helping someone in a modeling agency or visiting a restaurant. It gives you a chance to practice the language at a conversational level. You can type or use your microphone to speak your responses. The program will rate your response and give you a suggestion if there is a better, more appropriate way to respond or say what you were trying to say. Go check this app/program out! There are so many languages to choose from. It is a great way for adults or children who can read/spell confidently to work on learning and/or practicing languages. I'm excited to be learning and practicing languages again! I hope you find some fun in it too!
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Digital Conversion?!!Technology has taken the world by storm. It has changed the way we do EVERYTHING no matter what hat we are wearing. Archives
January 2018
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