I have tried a lot of language learning sites, but this one is hands down my favorite. It’s free with no advertisements, and the trade off is that as you’re learning a new language, you’re helping translate that language into your own.
For an in-depth explanation of why you get this much awesome for free, check out the video on the main page by clicking the This is How We Do It link.
You can sign up with F-connect through Facebook or you can use your e-mail address. I used the F-connect option. But for the e-mail form you’ll select what language you want to learn from the drop down box, provide your e-mail address and then create a username and password for the site.
Once you’re logged in, the site will take you on a tour. Click the Start Tour button to begin and I highly recommend you do it, because it is interactive and really teaches you how the site works.
Once you’ve made it through the tour, you’ll land on your Skill Tree where you’ll see that you have access to Basics 1 which is where you’ll start out. Click that to begin. As you work your way through the lessons and exercises you’ll be awarded points and if you miss answers you’ll lose hearts.
When you’re all out of hearts, you can start the lesson over or go do another lesson you have unlocked. For example, if I fail the Basics 2 level I can go try the Phrases level instead. As you progress through the lesson, for each correct answer you’ll earn points towards the next level which will unlock more content for you to use.
When I was an academic coach we always encouraged our students to have pocket work (either notecards or an app that would let you study quickly if you had a few minutes of down time), and Duo Lingo provides ample opportunity for you to reinforce your language acquisitions through pocket work too in the form of their mobile app. It’s available from Apple’s AppStore for iProducts and Google Play for Android devices.
Best of all, the entire site and the apps are free. So what excuse do you have not to learn a new language?
~Amanda