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
