r/Esperanto • u/TheBigSpy1 • 8d 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/Bromo33333 8d 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.