I started learning German after I sent my daughter to the International German School (IGS) in the final year of kindergarten. She has a school year to be proficient enough in German to start Primary at IGS. It was cool that over the first 5 months, my streak count on Duolingo was the number of days since my daughter enrolled in the German school.
When I told people I started on Duolingo, some laughed and said it wouldn’t work. I stopped my streak after 130 days, deciding that they were right. I took a break to reassess my motivation and commitment. I tried resuming on Duolingo, but I am convinced that two factors render me ineffective: the language content of Duolingo itself and the number of minutes I spend a day to count as a streak. I did not care about learning effectiveness but focused on the intention. My intention is still here, but my effectiveness has gone to zero. It’s time to build it back up.
My friend Till told me about the Glossika app. I tried it for a week. It is more serious and thus more boring. It is also clear that German is not Glossika’s best language, and it is very expensive compared to its competitors. As I decide whether to commit to learning on Glossika, I need to look a little harder to see if It is a great app to learn German on.
Then I found Seedlang. Here’s a biased but good 2022 review on Your Daily German. They claim that it’s a “Duolingo’s reckoning.” That’s something I can relate to. I’ll keep keeping notes on the differences.
Apps are great for the people who love instant-noodle learning. For now, I’m one of those. However, I am keen to explore slow learning. Learn from more in-depth resources. I’m impressed by the availability of great free sites to learn German. The DW, YourDailyGerman, EasyGerman, and so on. They are not the right choices for me at the moment because I will only have 15 to 30 minutes a day, but I can envision a time when I can take time off work and enjoy just learning.
I did not advertise that I learned on Duolingo, but I had to try it. It is a great app that makes learning fun. I had a fun time reviewing Mandarin and German on it. My daughter enjoys learning Music and Math on it, with limited screen time. However, it is time to move on: fun is not enough. I have to endure.
So here it is. I am ready to endure learning a foreign language, from zero to hero at this age. I probably need to read the “Life Begins at 40” book before I turn 40 next year; I imagine quoting it often. My wife still thinks it’s silly. She thinks I should learn finance and investment instead. She’s probably right. But my alter ego wants to spend time digging deep into AI. That’s probably right too. It is ironic that, as a polyglot herself, fluent in French and Chinese languages, my wife does not see much sense in me wanting to learn a European language. We first sent our daughter to a French school, but we are much happier with the German school.
I have Seedlang. I just set up a German keyboard set up on my laptop. Es ist Zeit, 15 Minuten Deutsch zu üben!
