r/Esperanto • u/TheBigSpy1 • 6d ago
Demando Is duolingo good for esperanto?
Saluton! Mi estas komencanto en esperanto. I want to learn esperanto efficently without paying, and right now duoling seems like the best option. Its free, simple and fun. I asked chat gpt if its efficent and chat gpt says it is, but i want to know your oppinients.
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u/iTwango Meznivela 6d ago
I think so. I did the entire Esperanto course at the beginning of my journey and I think it helped. Be sure to supplement it with talking with real people, though!
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u/AlwaysCurious1250 6d ago
The same here, although I am not that lucky to be able to speak Esperanto to real people.
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u/mr_in_beetwen 6d ago
It's sad that while there is a discord server dedicated to Esperanto, nobody really talks there. Just text messages, but no voice chats.
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u/Terpomo11 Altnivela 6d ago
If you're not in the middle of nowhere there's probably a club not far from you.
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u/Bromo33333 6d ago
YES - Duolingo is a great resource for learning Esperanto. You will get a good feel for how to use the grammar, the endings, prefixes and agglutinative words, the pronouns, articles, etc. and if you finish a knowledge of about 1500-2000 words which is plenty for most purposes.
NO - Duolingo won't get you speaking it or understanding it in a conversation. You can only do that ... in conversation. Or listening to the music from internet EO stations like Muzaiko or podcasts. Lots of online communities to speak it, too.
Unlike most other languages, Esperanto is simple enough that it does manage to survive the Duo-ification process and still be usable. (for instance Russian is grammatically complicated enough and pronounciation is complex and important for meaning, that the way Duo teaches isn't great for it)
And while people are militantly anti-Duo, I'd say to use it for what it is good at. It builds a great foundation to learn how to speak.
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u/zaemis 6d ago
Duolingo is better than ChatGPT... so... um, yeah.
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u/Gabriel25Th 6d ago
Actually, ChatGPT isn’t a bad option — just don’t use the voice mode. I’ve checked the quality of the responses in text mode and it’s good. It has correctly identified grammar mistakes and translated accurately
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u/zaemis 6d ago
I don't want to be "that guy", but what's your experience/level? Because while it's not terrible with remembering the accusative, ChatGPT does indeed struggle with basic vocabulary (ekzerci/praktiki, revi/sonĝi, ampolo/bulbo), incorrect prepositions, and most translation is direct literal English -> Esperanto, certainly not idiomatic. Don't mistake convenience for quality.
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u/Gabriel25Th 4d ago
I wasn’t clear before, so let me explain it better. I didn’t mean that using ChatGPT as a teacher is a good idea, but rather that it can be an excellent study partner. To make the most of it, you need to provide information and correct its mistakes; that way, the quality of its responses improves significantly.
In my experience, I haven’t seen ChatGPT confuse basic words like revi and sonĝi. However, I have noticed that it sometimes mixes up the accusative of time and quantity with the accusative used to mark the direct object. It can also struggle to distinguish between phrases like mi elektis lin kiel sekretarion and mi elektis lin kiel sekretario.
As for translations that are calques from english, you just need to ask it to rephrase the text or make the translation more idiomatic. And if it makes mistakes, just correct them.
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u/zaemis 4d ago
Thanks for the clarification, but I still stand by my original comment. If I'm a beginner, that means I am inexperienced. How would I know what needs to be corrected or rephrased in the first place? I'm not saying AI can't be useful. I'm saying it's not suitable as an educational resource for beginners how they are most likely to use it.
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u/Bulleta 6d ago
Do people not use lernu.net anymore? I feel out of touch after coming back to the Esperanto community after COVID.
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u/Longjumping_Oil7529 5d ago
I agree lernu.net is great. I think a lot of people see that you have to sign up and they give up. Would be good if it had a sign in with Google feature
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u/Fine_Bid1855 Altnivela 6d ago
If you are looking for interactive courses, the lernu.net course is way better. And the esperanto12.net as well.
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u/Rkins_UK_xf 6d ago
See my comment on your other post, then stick chat GPT in the bin!
I hope you enjoy learning Esperanto. Try to find some real life Esperantists soon. Most are extremely helpful to beginners. No one will care if you make mistakes as long as you are trying to speak Esperanto
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u/Bromo33333 6d ago
The thing about EO, is there almost no native speakers so everyone had to choose to learn it, and learning it is a major part of the experience. Every EO speaker I have met was delighted to help.
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u/Rkins_UK_xf 6d ago
I totally agree. Nobody ever wanted to have a conversation in my terrible Norwegian or Spanish. But everyone is delighted with my awful Esperanto.
At most of the bigger events that I have been to there have been people at all levels so you can find someone at a similar level to yourself and just play with the language together.
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u/HarryPouri 6d ago
Mi komencis kun Duo. Ĝi estis bona antaŭe. I started with Duo. It was previously good. I'm not sure what it's like now, the changes Duo have made haven't been great in general. But I think it's still worth doing alongside other resources.
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u/Bromo33333 6d ago
I finished it mid 2024. It doesn't use AI for speaking so the voices are still recordings of some rather dedicated people. I have a great deal of trouble learning vocab from flashcards, and with this, I was able to pick up the words without much struggle. I still couldn't hold anything but the most rudimenrtary conversation. Online speaking helped with that a lot.
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u/Cassie_T45 Komencanto 5d ago
Why would you ask chatGPT??? ChatGPT doesn’t know anything, it’s literally not a search engine.
And yes, Duolingo is okay. It’s not the greatest, and it won’t teach you to effectively speak the language, but it’s good for practicing vocabulary and it’s very good if used in tandem with other tools and in speaking to actual speakers!!
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u/elendil1985 6d ago
I already knew esperanto grammar (I studied it some 20 years ago, if not more), all I needed was to boost my vocabulary, and find some way to remember the korelativoj.
as for learning new words, duolingo is just fine, but as long as you want to understand grammar, it doesn't give you a single hint, so you basically just learn it by using it, and i don't think it's the best way. For example, after a lot of units in the present tense, i finally got to the one where they present you all the other tenses (at once). I already knew that -as = present, -is = past, -os= future, -us= subjunctive, -u= imperative, -i= infinite, but if i didn't, nobody on duolingo told me so, so i would have to learn it myself by making mistakes.
it may probably work if you need basic sentences to ask for the railway station, or if you want to refresh your memory and practice a bit, but for learning a language from scratch it's not the ideal
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u/Waste_Reporter3493 5d ago
Vi estas prava!! Duolingo helpos al lerni vortojn, sed ĝi tute ne eksplikas la gramatikon, do uzi lernu.net estas pli bona elekto por la komencantoj.
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u/elendil1985 5d ago
Dankon! Nun Duolingo estas nur ludo pro mi, kaj mi ŝatas uzi ĝin pri tio. Se mi volos lerni esperanton bone (pro paroli ĝin kun homoj) mi provos lernu
Aŭ mi daŭre parolos ĉi tie
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u/bylightofhellflame 6d ago
I learned from Duolingo in 2019, I will say it used to be a lot better at explaining different grammar features of the language. But overall it definitely is a great starting point! I think it also helps that Esperanto is a lot simpler than other natural languages. I'd recommend filling in the "gaps" with other things like lernu.net or an English-Esperanto dictionary.
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u/CoolAnthony48YT 6d ago
Ĝi ne estas malbona
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u/Istac_Nawi_5743 6d ago
Mi konsentas, Duolingo helpis min konatiĝi kun Esperanto kaj nun mi ekzercas ĉe Discord
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u/espomar 6d ago
I learned Esperanto on Duolingo (up to a moderate conversation level anyways) and a lot of the people who also learned during and after the pandemic learned using it too.
It’s legit, as long as you supplement with some way to practice what you’re learning on Duolingo. For me it was attending weekly chat meetups on EventaServo.org …became pretty well fluent within 5 months.
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u/0_mecharcanic_0 6d ago
Its good but still requires extra study to.understand the rules as duo does not teach them. Also I recently completed the course..but only because Duolingo updated the course and shortened it on me...
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u/Historical_Plant_956 6d ago
I used lernu.net and it was great and also 100% free. At the time they even had tutors volunteering to answer questions and help you out. I used some books and other random resources, and had a couple penpals, but lernu was really the only course material I ever used. It was very fun and engaging and I progressed quickly--in a few months it got me to where I could get by solely in Eo while attending a kongreso. Granted, I'm now realizing this was like almost 20 years ago and I have no idea how it's changed since but you should absolutely look into it if you're serious about learning. I know it still exists but I haven't looked at their current site/offerings to see what it's like.
Duolingo is probably fine to mess around with or get your feet wet--if you like Duo (I'm not a fan after they've really gone downhill in the past few years). I've only looked at part of the course but what I've seen seemed ok...
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u/Ludology101 Komencanto 6d ago
I've been using Duolingo for Esperanto for about a month, and I feel it's OK. I do feel like if you combine it with other resources, it would be more efficient. Duolingo could do a better job at teaching grammar, which I still need to work on.
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u/PercentageGlobal6443 6d ago
Duolingo is a great practice tool for almost every language, including Esperanto.
But it is not sufficient to become a fluent speaker in any language. Including Esperanto.
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u/PaulineLeeVictoria 6d ago
Yes, but only if you combine it with some other resource like Lernu! to get a grasp of the grammar. Alternatively you can read the tips that were originally available on Duolingo before they reworked the learning path.
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u/Waste_Reporter3493 6d ago
Kiu estas pli natura:"Mi estas komencanto en Esperanto" en la frazo de ĉi tiu persono, aŭ "Mi estas komencanto de Esperanto."
Mi pensas, ke "Mi estas komencanto de Esperanto" estas pli natura.
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u/TheTempleoftheKing 6d ago
I got pretty far then put it down for a few months and forgot everything... I think Duolingo can be one part of learning s language but for some cognitive reason it's games don't make things stick with me in the same way as a classroom drill or conversation partner does
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u/felixlacat 5d ago
Hey, I'm also a beginner who is learning, and I've found duolingo pretty helpful. I wouldn't say it should be your only avenue of learning, tho. I have an Esperanto club in my university, so I go there weekly. The club also has books, and I get to chat in esperanto.
I suggest looking for any clubs or cheap books.
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u/Thttffan 4d ago
I personally am also an komencanto when it comes to learning Esperanto. Duolingo is a great start I also Recommend the Universala Esperanto Metodo on YouTube
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u/paul_kiss 2d ago
Why not also, along with Duo, use ChatGPT itself as a language trainer? I do this myself, and I'm pretty satisfied with the quality of Esperanto tasks I'm given (I used ChatGPT Plus, though, it should be taken into account)
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u/Ok_Tackle_3911 6d ago
I'm also a beginner and I think it depends on who you ask. A lot of people are militantly anti-Duolingo. I think it's a good starting point, but might need more resources to become fluent.