I started learning Italian last October on YouTube, and while YouTube is a great supplementary tool,  I needed something more structured to help me along my journey. When I downloaded Duolingo, I began to practice more regularly. While it is becoming more difficult to reserve time during my days of learning, working, and routine, the systematic approach to the lessons allows me to continue progressing. Starting my journey of learning Italian on YouTube felt like I was floundering in a sea of information. I didn’t know where to find what I needed to know and found myself avoiding it altogether instead of becoming overwhelmed. When I finally found a routine that worked for me I started to learn quickly, and the information made sense.

I have not found the grammatical aspects to be too difficult to learn so far, but this is because I already know French, and there are more similarities between Italian and the French sentence structure than English. I find that because both languages share Latin roots, in the lessons I can make educated guesses and make sentences easily or understand sentences. I’m no wizard, though; there is often a word pool that users can pick from which makes the process much more manageable. While this feature could be seen as allowing learners to be less engaged, keywords are repeated and carry over to subsequent lessons to be used repeatedly. While I sometimes doubt this style, I have found myself retaining vocabulary despite it.

Duolingo is not conducive to learning an entire language, but it provides a means to a foundation. Even if one is not entirely self-motivated, Duolingo provides incentives and makes lessons game-like for learners. It also has a leaderboard, adding a competitive aspect, which some people find discouraging, but others are motivated by. I generally ignore this feature, as I do not have enough time to obsess over my position in relation to others’. I think this is a good strategy, though as many people enjoy competing with people in other apps. This game aspect makes Duolingo fun, while providing education. Although I am not a “gamer”, I enjoy the lesson designs and the way I can learn and study while feeling like I am taking a break.

While I will eventually finish Duolingo and have to set some more self-guided goals, my current study routine is manageable and effective despite the fact that I do not have much extra time to put into planning my own lessons. I am happy with my progress as I know much more Italian than I did 2 months ago and will continue on this steady track to learning my third language.

Ciao,

Kiya