A smartphone becomes a precious company in moments of waiting, when waiting for someone, in line at the post office or at the doctor or on the go. Instead of playing, however, that time that would still be lost, can be used productively even to learn a new foreign language .
This without tiring, without getting tired or bored, with an application that allows you to learn new languages as if you were playing Ruzzle or other word games.
This application is free, available both online as a web app, and for Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy, both for iPhone and is called DuoLingo .
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DuoLingo is an application based on riddles and quizzes that allows you to learn new words in a foreign language, to read and write correctly in that language.
You can learn English, Spanish or even German in time cuts in a truly effective way.
These are quizzes with increasing difficulty levels, with points and skill rankings.
As in puzzle video games, you have lives and to pass a level you have to make less than 5 mistakes otherwise you have to start over.
The quizzes are multiple-choice and graphic, supported by text, voice and photos that allow you to start learning even from scratch.
Each new lesson is a level that is unlocked by passing the previous one, as in online games.
The questions have a non-random sequence, they start from a few words to guess which are then inserted into contexts and sentences to learn how to use them correctly.
The learning levels are:
- Translate a text into the language you are learning.
- Translate the written text into the language you are learning in your language.
- Mark the correct translations in multiple choice questions.
- Guess the word translated into an image that you see on the screen.
- Guess the missing word.
- Listen and write in the language you are learning.
You can review the lessons you complete at any time, or select the option to practice what you have learned.
Duolingo, at the moment, allows you to learn Spanish, French, Italian, English, German and Portuguese .
To access the application you need to create an account via email or via Facebook.
Each level / lesson should take no more than 5 or 10 minutes to complete, which is ideal for time cuts and waiting times.
Duolingo is one of the best foreign language learning applications that can be found, both online and as applications for Android and iPhone .
The iPhone or Android application can be downloaded for free from the official stores, from the Duolingo Mobile page.
Even though Duolingo seems to focus more on vocabulary than grammar and obviously you will not end up mastering a language in the end, the game enriches our culture in a really important and useful way.
I remember, in another article, the free online courses to memorize words of a foreign language.
