As part of the preparation to walk the “Camino Portuguese“, which goes from Portugal to Spain, my husband chose to brush up on and study Spanish using Duolingo. As you may know, Duolingo is the number one app for learning languages. It’s a simple intuitive way to tackle the four aspects of language learning — listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As an English as a Second Language Instructor for much of my career and with dozens of hours of Speech and Language Pathology coursework under my belt, you could say I know a little something about second language acquisition. I also love languages!
So, after about a week of hearing “mi esposo” speak Spanish, as well as hearing Duolingo’s reinforcing double chirps chiming throughout the house for each of his correct responses, I decided I should try it, too.
Spanish
My Spanish lessons on the app went fine. I was already pretty familiar with Spanish, so that part seemed solid as far as the Duolingo app’s accuracy. I was especially impressed with the variety of speakers on the app. It’s important to hear different people talking to get your ear attuned and for your own pronunciation to improve. There is also a slow-motion capability that plays back sentences one word at a time. A great feature!
French
Because French is my second language, I decided to give that language a try on Duolingo also. There is a nice option to “test out” of levels, so I was able to start French at level six. I found it to be mostly quite good although a bit limited in how one can express something. The app is programmed for only one set way to express anything, whereas the more you advance in a language there are often different ways to convey the same thing. Still, it was good fun to brush up on my intermediate French skills and learn even more.
Portuguese
After a time I thought, why not try Portuguese as we are going to be walking in Portugal for half of the Camino? The language seems tricky to pronounce because you cannot simply look at a word and guess the pronunciation in a great many cases. This is very unlike Spanish where vowel pronunciation is quite consistent from word to word and each vowel in a word is spoken. For example the word for “congratulations” in Portuguese is “parabens”. Pronunciation is roughly pah-duh-BNTS.
Though I struggled a bit with pronunciation, I studied Portuguese with zeal via Duolingo. I learned that “good day” or “bom día” is pronounced bum-JEE-uh. The “d” is taught to be said as a “j” sound. Therefore, “good afternoon” or “boa tarde” is pronounced bo-TAR-jay. J sound for D. This is reinforced in the speaking exercises. I was happy to have these basic phrases (and others) in my arsenal.
Fastforward to Portugal on the first part of our trip, where we found that no one in fact says Ds like Js. It’s a little frustrating as these daily greetings are fairly critical to being friendly on the trail and in town. We adapted of course. There are other examples of Portuguese pronunciation inaccuracies that I won’t list here.
Overall
In sum, though not tops, Duolingo earns a pretty great review from me. It is easy-to-use, helpful generally and especially good with Spanish. However, the pronunciation — a key element of a language! — seems a bit off with Portuguese, and with French, the app does not account for varying ways of expression as one advances past the basic level. Em suma, um grande obrigado, Duolingo! (Overall, a big thank you, Duolingo!)
to English speakers.
Update for 2023: Italian
Now we are preparing to walk from northern Italy to Rome as part of the famed Via Francigena, and we decided to learn a little Italian! This time around we are supplementing Duolingo with the classic Usborne’s First 1000 Words in Italian as well as the delightful free Beginner Italian course on YouTube by Manu Venditti. Duolingo changed its user interface to be more streamlined over the summer, and it does seem less cluttered. I know am greatly enjoying making my way through the engaging lessons. Mille grazie Duolingo, e buon apprendimento delle lingue a tutti! (Thank you very much Duolingo, and happy language learning everyone!)