Latin Duolingo

[seanjonesbw]

Hey look, they finally put Latin on Duolingo! https://www.duolingo.com/course/la/en/Learn-Latin

I'm going ab initio, so I'll report back on how it goes. I'm hoping I can get to the point where people on the Greek board stop telling me to learn Latin . I've used Duolingo before but I must admit I remain to be convinced when it comes to a highly-inflected language.

[seanjonesbw]

My geography's improving if nothing else.

[Barry Hofstetter]

The general consensus so far is that it's a fun supplement. I mean, where else do you get a psittacus ebrius?

The "placement test" asked me to write in Latin "Minerva is wise." I wrote "Minerva sapiens est." It marked me wrong and corrected "Minerva est sapiens." I also found the recordings at times practically incomprehensible, both the quality of the recording and the over-pronunciation of some of the speakers.

They could have adapted material from the colloquia for more realistic spoken Latin.

[seanjonesbw]

The general consensus so far is that it's a fun supplement. I mean, where else do you get a psittacus ebrius?

Ha! Yeah I did actually screenshot that at the time. There are fewer jokes than other courses though, which is disappointing, but the course is also quite short so they might sneak a few more in later on.

The "placement test" asked me to write in Latin "Minerva is wise." I wrote "Minerva sapiens est." It marked me wrong and corrected "Minerva est sapiens."

From what I've seen so far, there's a pretty consistent problem with some synonyms (it will sometimes accept market instead of forum, sometimes not) as well as English articles and word order in both languages, which is understandable. They hand correct these one by one (by adding in extra correct answers) so do use the Report function if you spot errors. There's surprisingly little automatic parsing of the English.

I also found the recordings at times practically incomprehensible, both the quality of the recording and the over-pronunciation of some of the speakers.

They could have adapted material from the colloquia for more realistic spoken Latin.

I think the reader with the Italian accent is Marco Romani Mistretta of the Paideia Institute, if that means anything to you. You're right about the recording quality - are there any audio resources you'd recommend for pronunciation?

[RandyGibbons]

You'll generally never get two people to agree on someone else's pronunciation of Latin or Greek, but for classically restored pronunciation of Latin I particularly like Evan Millner. Also, try Textkit's own Bedwere (for Latin and Greek).

[seanjonesbw]

Thanks Randy! I came for Evan Millner's Latin pronunciation but I stayed for his extensive collection of cravats.

[seanjonesbw]

A short review of the Duolingo Latin course for anyone who’s interested:

Duolingo’s co-founder, Luis von Ahn, said in 2014 that he wanted to get Latin and Greek on the site “eventually, but I don’t think it will be within the next 4 months.” Well, he was right. The delay is understandable - Duolingo has always been focused on language learning with an end to speaking rather than reading - but it’s a bit galling that Latin has appeared on the site after Klingon and High Valyrian.

More annoying is that, compared with other languages on Duolingo, the Latin course is extremely short. How short? Over the course of 22 topics, which you can easily complete in a couple of days, it doesn’t get beyond the present active indicative. Because it’s a Living Latin course, there are some useful detours to teach you how to use volō as an auxiliary and the construction of questions is covered extensively, but if you’re hoping to be able tell someone “The weasel went to the forum” (the course is big on weasels and parrots) then you’re out of luck.

The course does have some tricks up its sleeve, though. Duolingo never explains grammar and trusts you to use your intuition to work things out. Coming to the course with no Latin other than what you come across in English and Italian, I found myself picking up cases pretty quickly and if I were going to recommend the course to anyone it would be the kind of person who hates memorising tables of paradigms.

What can I read (and say) in Latin that I couldn’t three days ago?

The worried old man tastes that peacock. Stercus non est in cubiculo. Dirty weasels live in the bedroom. Uxorem callidam habeo (this is true). The drunk old men dance in the temple. Pupa saltat! Weasels don’t have togas.

Every sentence comes with a recording of a real person saying it (lots of the other courses have synthesised speech), which I found very useful even though, as Barry mentions above, the recordings sound a bit like a Skype call.

In its current state, I don’t think this course is going to change the world, but if they extend it to include other tenses, voices and moods I can see it becoming the standard entry point to Latin for a lot of people. As for me, I suppose I’ll go crawling to Ørberg begging forgiveness. At the very least, I've developed a taste for Latin (and peacock).

[paulus]

Hello,
After some years, buying some books, downloading others and trying to learn Latin, without success, I am back to textkit after having finished the Duolingo Latin tree, everything goldened. I must say that I am quite happy and already went back to "Latin for Beginners" of Benjamin L. Dooge, that I neves passed the tenth lesson.
I can explain that. I am quite busy and it is a drama to learn declesions and conjugations using the book and going to the answer key to see if they are correct. So I learn and forget and go back and after a while I give up.
This was changed with the very small Duolingo Latin Course.
Its vocabulary is kind of 1.000 words, in which each declension counts as a different word, so the vocabulary counts less than 400 different words. Very small indeed.
The grammar, that exists in the internet version (not in the mobile android app), is also very small, and I just read it after finishing the course.
The great advantage is that my ear learned the declensions (or is still learning, as far as I make some mistakes), because of the sound (we hear the good or bad pronounciations), the immediate corrections and the quick repetition, because I write on the app, or select words, or whatever, that allows me to answer to much more exercises that I would able to do using the book, pencil and paper.
Now, that I am maintaining the tree golden and making few errors, I am going back to the book, to improve vocabulary, to learn more detailed grammar, etc.
A lot of thanks to Duolingo.
...
About mistakes on the app
I do not know how is the software behind the app, but for sure they have to write all the possible correct answers. So if the English phrase is "I have a table", they must write "ego habeo mensam", "habeo mensam", "ego mensam habeo", etc. Sometimes they forget one and the students mark that a correct answer was not accepted and eventually they find time to add the missing correct answer. This happens for every language.
A really annoying problem is that now they accept minor errors so when i am not confident I have to go to the "debate" around the exercise to see the main correct answer. I already made my complain about that without any answer till now. This occurs in all courses.
...
I think the pros are very superior than the cons, so I am very glad that Duolingo delivered this very short Latin course that, for me, was a tremendous help.
I think that they receive a lot of criticism on their courses, but that is because the clear limitations of an automated course. My opinion is that Duolingo is the better tool for a beginner, much better that a class with roomates and teacher, so the student can grasp on his own, at his speed, with the basics of the language. After completing the tree the student should hire a personal teacher, or go to a school, to improve and master the language. The same for Latin, English, Spanish, Greek, whatever.
...
Now that I finished Duolingo Latin I am back to TextKit and probably in a short period I will return to the Forum with questions, as I did before, but now I think I will complete the Dooge.
My best regards for all.