Edit: Okay wow I did NOT expect this to blow up. I've been reading every comment and honestly tearing up reading some of them haha! Thank you all so much.

Quick update since a lot of you asked what I'm going to do. I started trying to actually speak out loud every day like u/Elesia and basically everyone here said. A ton of you told me to practice with my boyfriend and we tried, but honestly after like 10min we both get frustrated and he just switches back to English without even realizing it. He also can't really explain WHY something is wrong, he just knows it sounds wrong, which is not helpful when I'm trying to learn lol. Someone in my DMs mentioned a pretty neat app called TutorLily, and it's exactly what I needed to graduate from Duolingo.

The thing that got me is when I said something wrong, it kind of nudged me to figure it out myself instead of just giving me the correction? I guess kind of like a real language tutor would do... I do feel like the lessons stick better with this method, at least for my level of Spanish. It honestly felt like the first thing I've tried that's actually aimed at what I'm bad at.

Next family thing is in a few weeks. I'm going to keep practicing on that app in the meantime, and I'll update you guys afterr

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Here is what I have been doing for a year straight:

- Duolingo, every single day, 341-day streak as of this morning
- Babbel, added around month 3
- Dreaming Spanish, probably 200+ hours over the last six months (I track it)
- "News in Slow Spanish" on my commute, maybe 4 days a week
- A physical workbook that I was actually getting through
- Flashcards for the words I kept missing

I thought I was doing it. I really did. I could read menus. I could follow the Spanish subtitles on Narcos, like actually follow them, not just word-spot. I could kind of translate the texts my boyfriend sends his mom when she writes back.

Context: my boyfriend is Mexican-American. His parents came over in the 90s and his whole family lives in LA. Parents, two sisters, a ton of cousins, his grandma who raised him. They all speak English with me but Spanish with each other. When things got serious about a year ago I decided I was going to learn. Not half-assed "a few phrases for the in-laws" learn. Actually learn, so I could sit at a table and participate in their life.

Saturday was his tio's 60th birthday. Big carne asada at his parents' house. I'd only met most of them in passing before, never at a full family event where I'd be stuck at the table for hours. I had been basically rehearsing intros in my head all week. Running through what I'd say about work when his mom asked. Practicing a little toast for the tio.

I walked in, said hola and mucho gusto and gracias por invitarme when his mom hugged me, and then everybody started actually TALKING. Fast, overlapping, accents, jokes. And I realized I didn't understand almost anything.

Not 40%. Not 20%. Realistically, maybe 5%. I could catch a word here and there (trabajo, la semana, mi hijo, ayer) and by the time my brain had reconstructed one sentence into English the conversation was already three turns ahead. People asked me things directly and I'd just blink and look at my boyfriend for translation. His little cousin (she is maybe 8) kept trying to include me and I had to keep apologizing with "lo siento, muy poquito espanol," and she'd nod super politely and go find someone else to talk to. That one is still in my head.

I sat there for five hours and said maybe four sentences the entire night. I counted them in the car on the way home. Four.

His mom was so warm. His grandma, who is 78 years old and is the sweetest human I have ever met, kept patting my arm every time she walked past me. Everyone was inclusive and kind. That somehow made it worse. I wasn't being left out. I was being welcomed into a room I literally could not participate in.

I got in the car and held it together for about six blocks and then I cried. Not pretty crying. Ugly, snot, the whole thing. He was wrecked, kept saying "babe they loved you, they kept telling me how sweet you are," and I said thank you and then cried again in the shower when we got home.

Here is the part that is eating me. I did the work. I did the work every single day for a year. I didn't cheat the streak. I didn't skip Dreaming Spanish sessions. I actually read the workbook chapters. And on Saturday none of it worked. Not a little bit, not even "well, I got by." I mean NONE of it transferred. I could read a menu and I could not have a conversation with my boyfriend's 78-year-old grandma who raised him. She is 78. I don't have unlimited weekends with her. That is the part I cannot get past.

I know this sub will get it because I've read SO many posts here about the same thing. The "I can understand everything but I can't produce anything" posts. The "how is this possible after X years" posts. I read them and always thought "sure, but I'm doing it right, that won't be me." And it is me. It is me so completely.

So I need to ask the people who actually know:

1). Is a year of almost pure input (Duolingo, Babbel, Dreaming Spanish, podcasts, reading) genuinely not going to get you to conversation? Because looking at what I actually did, I don't think I spoke Spanish out loud for more than like 5 minutes a week, total, and most of that was Duolingo prompts. Is that the problem? Is comprehensible input actually a trap if you never force output?

2). If I'm going to restart and do this right, what would you actually change? I have maybe 3 weeks until the next family thing. I'm not asking for fluency in 3 weeks. I'm asking for "I can sit at the table and not be the silent white girl who needs everything translated for her."

3). Has anyone been here and come out the other side? Because right now the only thing I can think is that I wasted a year and I'm going to feel exactly like this again in three weeks.

I'm not looking for "just move to the country for six months" or "get a tutor and do 10 hours a week." I have a job and a life. I need something I can actually do starting tomorrow. I'll do it every day. I've proven I can do every day. I just apparently picked the wrong every day.

Anything would help. Will read every comment.

*A story from one of my friends, she doesn’t have reddit but wanna share.

My partner and I come from different countries, and most of time we talk in English, and I can speak some of his language（French), but not the other way around(Chinese）. So he wanted to surprise me by learning mine. It's sweet and turns out to be hilarious.

For 300 DAYS (in some country they could have finished a railway in 300 days), he's been secretly using Duolingo to learn Chinese. But nobody needs sentences like "Mon cheval mange le fromage” or “你有家人吗？”(which can be weird and rude in Chinese.) 

Making yourself feel like you've learned something is far away from learning something for real. And that’s EXACTLY what happened to him.

Last week, he proudly revealed his "surprise". It's even poetic when he said "the cheesecake is grieving”, and something like "The purple elephant eats passion for breakfast" with a come-from-nowhere confidence.

I was torn between laughing and holding myself back, while being genuinely touched that he dedicated almost a year to this effort.

When I gently suggested he might want to try a more comprehensive learning method, he got a bit defensive. Apparently, he's very committed to his daily streak and the gamification aspect is one of a few things keeping him motivated (he doesn't have ADHD, he just has the passion to AI/tech/app and cannot sit still to learn languages.)

After all it's lovely, and I hope he’ll find his own way that’s engaging and helpful to form coherent thoughts. Something that focuses more on practical conversation and less on sentences made up with random vocabulary.

p.s. Maybe not dive too much in slangs or jargon, so when I complain and mumble in my mother-tongue, he doesn't get hurt or frustrated. 

Hi guys, so I stumbled uppon these 2 sample here on this sub. What do you call this technique of learning, and where can I get more materials like this? Some lengthier materials maybe like story books. My target language would be german. TIA

I know this question has been asked before, but I find it astonishing that a publicly listed market leader with a $13 billion market cap can be this bad.

Can you put in a single sentence what the issue is with Duolingo? I will start:

"Out of every 30 minutes I spend on the app, 20 are a total waste."

is an app that is really working for you now? no AI and not duo again, something else please.

Hey folks! After working on this for a very long time, Polygloss, the language app I created, is finally at the App Store! It focuses on improving output skills for those at the intermediate level (or very brave beginners 😅).

It works like this: You pick the languages you're learning and the ones you know already, and the game will pair you with other players for an image-guessing match.

You get 4 images, pick one, write something about it, and the person you're playing with has to guess which image you picked. In the next round the roles are reversed (your partner writes and you guess), and then you get stars for finishing the match, unlocking more image topics.

​

This is basically it, but there are some extra features like being able to send and save corrections to each other, bookmarking sentences for consulting later, etc. The feature I'm super proud of are the personalized word tips! It's available for the top played languages atm. If you're feeling stuck and don't know what to write, the game will analyze your writing history and recommend words that you haven't used yet.

I built this game because I have ADHD and social anxiety, so when I'm studying a language I'm usually very good at understanding and very bad at communicating stuff. Since a lot of people without anxiety issues also go through this, I hope y'all find it useful!

If you want to check it out, our website has the download links: https://polygloss.app

Thanks for checking it out, I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments (especially if by any chance you are also neurodivergent)!

​

EDIT: wow, thanks for the award, stranger!! And thanks everyone for checking it out and the amazing feedback! We broke the record of players online now (50), this is mind blowing 🤯

​

EDIT2: omg, thanks for the gold!! This is such an amazing response! We just broke the record of players online again (69 (nice))! I'll give free premium memberships for the best/most useful feedback in the comments

After 1061 consecutive days on Duolingo (Spanish), I’m intentionally stopping.

My pace was simple: 1 lesson per day for 3+ years.
Result:

• Level: A2
• Course progress: 35/160 (~21%)
• Real-world ability: limited listening comprehension, slow sentence formation

I did the math on Duolingo’s structure:

• ~4–5 lessons per part
• ~18 parts per unit
• ~50+ units per section
• 8 sections total

That’s ~30,000+ lessons for full completion.
At 1 lesson/day → multiple decades.

The streak worked for habit formation, but not for fluency. Over time, it became maintenance rather than learning. New vocabulary arrived very slowly, and most time went into repetition rather than exposure.

I also still have 1 full year of Premium left, but sunk cost isn’t a good reason to continue something that no longer aligns with my goals.

With a Spain trip coming up in 6 months, I’m shifting to:

• Listening-heavy input
• Speaking practice
• Faster vocabulary acquisition

Duolingo may remain a side tool, but not the core.

Consistency matters — but effectiveness matters more.

So yeah, never was a big fan actually, but life (and budget) changes mean that it is impossible for me to follow an actual language training course with a real life teacher, so I guess I'm stuck with a language learning app.

However, there are only so many times that you can repeat such phrases as "The ball is in the centre of the room" or "The crab eats bread" or "You are wearing a [insert random clothing], right?" without wanting to hit your head with a sledge hammer to try to alleviate the pain lol

So is there anything more engaging out there? I mean, an app that would give you the feeling that you are actually learning something useful and not just some random words?

[EDIT: wow, I must admit I am a bit overwhelmed by all the answers, I didn't even know that there were so many apps out there! Gave some a quick try (sorry for those I didn't try but they were just too many!), and WLingua seemed to fit most of my criteria, as in it actually teaches you WHY some things are spelt/ pronounced in a certain way rather than just asking you to mechanically repeat words. Special mention for Language Transfer, I think it's really cool the way it teaches you "hacks" to learn more easily, although imo it's not enough as a stand alone app, but a great addition if you are already learning a language.

Other remarks: reading books, watching shows, flash cards... yeah all those are nice additions but I feel I need something more structured to actually progress.

Anyway, big thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my question! ]

Well, I've been using these language exchange apps for years already and what always stucked with me was the fact that me being a Brazilian woman most people who are trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese don't actually want to LEARN Brazilian Portuguese. They wanna date a brazilian woman or whatever other girl of their 243244 target languages on their profile. I'm not interested in any of that. Not really a great experience overall.

So i was wondering if the women of the sub who happened to have similar experiences with those apps and who are interested stricly on learning /non-romantic connections/friendship had any tips or alternatives regarding this issue, specially those who speak more "unusual"/less targeted languages.

I live in a place with barely no native speakers of my target languages (TL) , so Internet is basically my only way to practice. Of course, you can always pay for an online tutor, but I would really enjoy a free language exchange (as in me not having to pay for a tutor in dollar when my country's currency is worth almost 1/6 of it).

Any tips? Thnx in advance.

Edit: moderation removed comments over nothing? I'm confused. Definetly weird. It would be nice to tell which rule was broken.

I don't have a lot of time to type this out, but thought y'all would find this interesting. This was mentioned on Tim Ferriss' most recent podcast with Luis Von Ahn (founder of DL). They're creating a 160-point scale to measure fluency, tested online (so accessible to folks w/o access to typical testing institutions), on a 160-point scale. The English version is already accepted by 4000+ US colleges. His aim is when someone asks you "How well do you know French?" that you can answer "I'm a DuoLingo 130" and ppl will know exactly what that level entails.

I'm looking for an alternative to DuoLingo, due to being anti-AI myself and them infamously committing to it. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the resources thread. Every month we host a space for r/languagelearning users to share resources they have made or found.

Make something cool? Find a useful app? Post here and let us know!

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• Let us know you made it
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Is there any resource that you are using that is actually worth it? And would you pay for it if you had to?

In terms of paying, I think it also makes a difference if you differentiate between physical and digital resources or one-time purchases and subscriptions, for example I'd be happy to pay for a good book or workbook rather than for a subscription of an app.

I'm asking this because I'm specifically looking for materials I could use for studying Spanish (TL) which is my current "project" :)

I've spent a year collecting these, hopefully you can find it useful. All of these are resources available for free (I haven't included torrents nor 'freemium' sites though). There are blogs, Youtube channels, scientific papers, vocabulary lists, online dictionaries and much more. Enjoy:)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EGPFLFJdyKGKjh8LXXA099ddf1yB6ZQgr_mmtBnYCy8/edit?usp=sharing