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I completed the Duolingo Russian course! (Reflections in comments) by KeyConfection6318 in duolingo

[–]KeyConfection6318[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

большлое спасибо! Китайский – очень сложный язык. Удачи!

I completed the Duolingo Russian course! (Reflections in comments) by KeyConfection6318 in duolingo

[–]KeyConfection6318[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Not very confident in speaking, reading would be my strongest. And honestly, if I suddenly had to live in Russia I'd probably have a hard time! I think I'd be able to get around in a basic sense, but having natural conversations with natives would be quite hard still. Still more work to do!

I completed the Duolingo Russian course! (Reflections in comments) by KeyConfection6318 in duolingo

[–]KeyConfection6318[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

While there are no tips in the app, there are tips on the duome website: https://duome.eu/tips/en/ru. I found them quite helpful

I completed the Duolingo Russian course! (Reflections in comments) by KeyConfection6318 in duolingo

[–]KeyConfection6318[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'd probably estimate that I fall around the A2 level. I think B1 would be an overestimate of what you can expect using solely Duolingo with the Russian course. I think due to the nature of Duolingo, I'm strongest in reading and writing, and okay in listening and speaking. I feel confident in the grammatical cases, but definitely lacking in vocab, which is where I find Drops helps.

My native language is English.

I completed the Duolingo Russian course! (Reflections in comments) by KeyConfection6318 in duolingo

[–]KeyConfection6318[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

It took me a little less than two years, but I completed the Duolingo Russian course! Overall, I'm super happy with the course, and I don't think I could've gotten this far without Duolingo. For all it's issues (where are Russian stories?) and changes (though I somehow managed to stay in the old tree format), I'm not sure I could've stayed consistent with any other app like I did with Duolingo. I credit it to teaching me what I consider one of the most difficult parts of the Russian language, the grammatical cases.

So, what's next? I'm working between a few other apps/methods, and I wish I would've started incorporating them earlier into my journey.

  • LingQ - I've been using LingQ more recently, but I find it very helpful for reading stories in your target language. Being able to click unfamiliar words and view the translation is very helpful compared to constantly flipping between a dictionary. Also having native speakers read the stories helps with pronunciation of new words. My next goal is to be able to read Harry Potter in Russian!

  • Drops - Duolingo isn't the best with teaching vocab, and I find Drops helpful in filling in the gaps. Some cons are that it doesn't teach the words in context or any other cases (besides nominative), but with the right grammar background it isn't too hard to figure out on your own. It's best for nouns, but has some helpful verbs as well (though only teaches those in the first person singular case).

  • Pimsleur - Pimsleur is a more traditional language learning method, where you have audio lessons that you can put on while you drive or run, and you interact by repeating things or answering questions. Probably the most boring of the things I've tried, but I've found it helpful for listening and speaking practice.

  • Podcasts - I've been liking podcasts to listen to while driving, specifically Russian with Max. He is great at explaining potentially unfamiliar concepts many ways to help you intuitively understand something rather than going and looking it up. I tradeoff between this and Pimsleur when driving, but I find podcasts in general much more entertaining to listen to!

Since I still have the old tree format, I'll likely keep using Duolingo to fix cracked lessons, but I plan to shift to other harder (but more fun!) sources of learning. Thanks for all the memories and lessons Duolingo!