Duolingo Vs LingQ: Which is better for learning languages?

hey guys i'm aaron from phantom languages and this video is going to be a comparison between duolingo and link and it's going to be a discussion about which one is better for learning languages now right up front if you don't have time for any of the details of this video i'm just going to tell you link is better but of course it's not that simple because there is a place for duolingo and there are some things that duolingo does better than link and really it's hard to even make a comparison between these two platforms because they're so different they don't even try to do the same thing so in this video i'm going to try to give you a clear idea of how to use both of these language learning platforms to maximize your language learning efficiency so if you're learning a language and you want to see more videos on how to learn a language effectively be sure to subscribe to this channel and click the little bell icon to get more videos about language learning every week and if you're not already familiar with duolingo or link you can watch the videos that i made explaining these two platforms individually so from this point i'll just assume that you already know what link and duolingo are and the reason that i'm saying link is better is because you can use link to actually learn a language duolingo is only designed to teach you how to translate a set of prefabricated phrases from your native language into your target language many of which are often oddly specific to situations you'll probably never run into organically in a conversation with a native speaker just do a google search for strange duolingo sentences and you'll see now the strangeness of the sentences in duolingo doesn't bother me that much my main concern is that the whole focus of duolingo is translating from your native language i don't love that approach because you really don't want to be filtering your target language through your native language every time you have a conversation you can end up saying some really strange things that way of course you'll probably use translations from your native language on link too i certainly do i guess you could theoretically just create links using definitions in only your target language but i don't see any need to do that the big difference here is that translating from your native language is the main focus of duolingo while on link it exists but it's just a gateway to getting you to read and listen to authentic content solely in your target language so your native language is like training wheels and as you progress through link you learn to rely on it less and less to their credit duolingo has started adding some simple stories and podcasts to their platform as side lessons and i think this is even more interesting and helpful than the main lessons because it does rely solely on the target language unfortunately these stories only exist in four languages right now but hopefully they'll keep expanding and increasing this portion of their app because that will make it a lot more useful and who knows maybe if they keep going in this direction someday i'll think duolingo is better than link another reason i think link is better is because it's scalable while duolingo currently is not what i mean by that is when you reach the end of your duolingo tree there's nothing else you can do you're done and by now you're probably bored of translating all these dumb sentences and you definitely are not fluent in your target language at least not if duolingo is the only method you've been using to learn link on the other hand is something you'll never grow out of you can always find new books articles and podcasts in your target language and you'll never get bored because you can look for content that interests you i really like reading fantasy novels in spanish but if you prefer history books fashion blogs cookbooks song lyrics or news articles you'll be able to find something to import into link that will be able to hold your interest and it doesn't feel like studying so now that i'm done beating up all over duolingo there are some ways that duolingo outshines link although right now the only way i think this is true is if you're a fairly new beginner to your language say it may be an a1 or a2 you can see on my own duolingo accounts that i have never reached more than 7000 xp in any language i've studied why is that because i quit using it once i've learned enough to practice my language in more effective ways but during those first few months when i don't know enough to say anything duolingo can be a really useful primer it helps me dip my toes in the language in a way that's not intimidating it's fun it builds off things that i've already learned and i can commit to doing three or four lessons a day without feeling overburdened it's really accessible and it lets you jump right into starting your new language right away link is less accessible up front it looks a little bit intimidating to the absolute beginner and the interface isn't quite as simple as duolingo there's a number of features you might not understand and at first you're swimming in a sea of blue unknown words even if you start with the level one mini stories but that's why i think duolingo and link complement each other so well right around the time where duolingo starts to get boring and useless that's when you're getting to the level where a link isn't quite as intimidating by that time you know most of the words that you're going to encounter on link and duolingo has already exposed you to a lot of grammatical structures that looked so foreign at first so that's when you make the switch from translating strange sentences on duolingo like my hovercraft is full of eels to reading short books that you actually enjoy on link now both link and duolingo have a few additional features that i want to mention like their message boards and the ability to ask an expert about something you're encountering in your lessons i don't use these features a ton but if you like that then it's a bonus both of these apps make use of what we call gamification which uses your competitive nature in order to motivate you to study a little bit more often duolingo has basically structured their whole platform around this and in my opinion it works decently well to motivate me to study a little bit every day the competition of earning more xp and advancing to the next league and wanting to stay ahead of your friends is enough to at least remind me to use duolingo every day even when i don't feel like it but it doesn't get in the way or make me forget that the actual goal is to improve in my target language link also incorporates some gamification and challenges in their platform but i've never really found myself paying too much attention to it so that aspect of link is just sort of a non-issue that i don't really see as a huge positive or negative now as far as extra features that i think are actually really important there's three things i want to talk about and in my opinion all three of these give link a slight advantage over duolingo and those three things are the tutoring system the srs system and the playlist function the playlist function on link is really nice because i can use passive study time to review what i've actively studied so after going through a lesson in detail i can review it again while i'm driving in the car or doing dishes by listening to the audio duolingo has nothing comparable to this as far as tutoring i've always used italki so i can't talk too much about the link tutoring system but i imagine the two are pretty comparable and my experience on italki has always been really helpful now if you're not familiar with srs that stands for spaced repetition system and it's normally some form of online flashcards that remind you of a word that you're studying right around the time that you would usually forget it i actually prefer anki or memrise over link's srs system but the one thing i really like about lynx srs is that it automatically connects with the words you're already encountering in your lessons on link and that makes it really valuable to me because i'm coming into contact with these words systematically in the srs and also in context when i run into them in my reading and listening lessons duolingo also had a space repetition system called tiny cards but that's going away and there's no guarantee they'll replace it with anything although they have hinted that they might incorporate some of its functionality directly into duolingo itself and if that's done right it could be a huge plus for duolingo because again if duolingo keeps heading in the right direction they could eventually become my favorite language learning platform now duolingo and link both have free and paid versions and i find them to be polar opposites of each other the free version of duolingo has everything i need it for and the free version of link sucks but paying for duolingo is just throwing away your money while paying for a link is an investment in your language learning future they also both have a website and a mobile app and i've used all four of those and i don't really see a huge difference between the mobile or the web-based versions of link but i find the mobile version to be a little bit more convenient for me because i can take it more places and i can listen to the playlist while i'm in the car i do prefer the website version of duolingo because it doesn't use their heart system and they have some grammar notes on the website that they don't have on the app which can be nice but again the mobile app is just more convenient so i use that quite a bit too and finally if you're already thinking you might want to subscribe to link you can follow the url here for a discount if you subscribe using that link you'll save 35 and a small portion will come back to support my channel so i hope this video has helped you figure out how you can fit link and duolingo into your language learning repertoire thanks for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: Fingtam Languages

Views: 9,462

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Id: jkiWMI2Vjho

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020