[Poll] Have you ever stopped learning a language on Duolingo?

[Explorer]

I've always loved learning languages since I was a child. Languages from all continents and even from other times such as Latin, Classical Greek or Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. When I discovered Duolingo, well... I felt like going back to childhood again. So many languages, so many ways to meet different people and to understand new cultures. But sooner or later, reality hits you in the face. One day I realized that I would need several lifetimes to learn everything I would like to learn. I had to give up on several courses I was really enjoying.

So my question is, have you ever dropped a language on Duolingo? And why?

[IceVajal]

I haven't really dropped a language, but felt that the Russian course was right for me at that time. So I used other resources and get back to Duolingo last December and started again. Some stuff I already knew, but doing one more time the basics don't hurt.
I just felt that at a certain point my brain stops processing Russian and it wouldn't do any good to continue that day, so I picked up Dutch a few weeks ago.

[HeavenBender]

I've always stuck with Spanish and Portuguese, but yes, I have stopped learning Italian, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian. Just look at how many languages that is. I stopped to ask myself: will I ever be fluent in any of them? The reason that I thought that was because I've heard from some Duolingo users on the forum that it's really not a good idea to learn more than one language simultaneously. However, I think I will come back to them someday. I started them all because I wanted to become a polyglot.

[pawndemic]

Yes, technically I had dropped languages in Duolingo. Every now and then I like to dabble into other languages. So I started for example Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Vietnamese and Arabic, which are all quite interesting languages. No questions about this. But at the end of the day you have to be honest with yourself. Learning this languages needs dedication and time. And at the moment I don't see me learning this languages any time soon. Therefore I dropped them. Beside this, at that time I didn't like the Japanese course very much. Maybe now the course is better.
And with French I have an on-off relationship. I don't consider it as dropped, it is only the off-phase

[Kelikaku]

Yes, and there's a pretty clear reason.

The most difficult was Hindi, but this also would apply to Chinese, Japanese, Greek and other languages which use a different character set (alphabet).

That said, Greek, any of the Cyrillic languages and most European languages are close enough to English to adapt to the standard keyboard. There are a few ways to circumvent it, but especially with Hindi, the main difficulty was not just learning the spelling and lithography, but also finding a good way to implement it with the standard computer keyboard.

Great topic.

[EranBarLev]

I haven't completely stopped learning a language, but I have changed my priorities. I do several languages on DL, some of them for practice only, these are lower priority for me so I do them only on weekends. I used to do Arabic more frequently, but now I only do it on weekends because I want more time for Portuguese.

Update: After I answered this poll, Duo made some change in the website, and now nothing works for me anymore except the forum, the podcast and the events. So now I focus on the languages that have free events - Spanish, Portuguese and French, and I abandoned Russian and Arabic, at least for now, until Duo fixes the problem or until I find a solution to this problem. I can't change my selection in the poll though.

Update 2: I bought a new computer, and everything works on it, so I'm back to my original schedule. I still do events as well.

[AdrianC602]

I started on DL with Spanish, prior to a trip to Cuba in Feb/Mar 2019. I got part-way through the course, and learnt a bunch of things about how not to use DL in the process... <glares at testing-out>

When we returned, I just never took it up again. When I did start to look at DL again, a few months later, I went back to French (rusty from school, lots of trips) and Italian (fell in love with language and culture on previous trips).

I've never done any more with the Spanish course since, and what I did do is so ill-remembered that if I do go back to it, I'll want to start from zero. If we need it for future travels, OH is back to plugging away at it after a reasonable break following that trip.

Also - I dabbled in Swedish (OH is fluent, and has family there). I never got very far into it, and - again - have forgotten it all. I think once I've finished the French course, I might try and return to it, again from zero as revision.

Both Spanish and Swedish trees are now deleted from my account.

I have no intention or capacity to become a multi-language polyglot. Keeping French and Italian cemented in place may be too much for me, without a third, very different language.

[SweNedGuy]

Since summer 2020, I have continuously learnt Swedish on Duolingo. But the tree is now golden. There are legendary challenges left to do once in a while, but those are not really a priority any more. In order to continue with Swedish, I will need other resources, formal or informal.

I have added a few other courses along the way: Italian and German. Though I have never been fluent at them, I had a beginner knowledge which helped advancing well and jumping ahead through placement and castle tests. About once a week I continue with each of these courses.

Portuguese I started from scratch, but I quickly opted out of the course from English and continue laddering from Spanish. Portuguese will be the next priority. First DL target (the owl) and first real life target (understanding Galician) were not too difficult. Cranking up my level will nevertheless take me till 2023.

[Ariel]

The Latin course is short. I've got all 22 skills to the legendary level. I've moved on to other Latin resources. (I've come back to Duolingo for other languages, but unless they update the Latin course I've gotten all I can out of it.)

[Corinnebelle]

I think it depends on time and circumstances. At the moment using all my focus on one, but would like to dabble again when I get there.

[David680268]

Yesterday I rage-deleted the Russian course from my Duolingo account, cutting down my accumlated "experience point" to about one third. From a practical point of view, I am not losing much because I already had completed the entire course up to the "legendary" levels, using only the keyboard - on which I had learned to type Cyrillic letters without looking - instead of the word bank. I thought I'd simply switch to French, but my heart is not "in it". I am not sure how I will feel about this in two weeks or so, but at the moment I feel like this is the end of it.

[Stasia]

Yesterday I rage-deleted the Russian course from my Duolingo account, cutting down my accumlated "experience point" to about one third. From a practical point of view, I am not losing much because I already had completed the entire course up to the "legendary" levels, using only the keyboard - on which I had learned to type Cyrillic letters without looking - instead of the word bank. I thought I'd simply switch to French, but my heart is not "in it". I am not sure how I will feel about this in two weeks or so, but at the moment I feel like this is the end of it.

Months ago I started the Russian course just to improve my Cyrillic reading skills (once I can decode the sounds, meanings sort of begin to make sense), but just a few days ago I started the Ukrainian one, and now my goal is to have more XP in Ukrainian than Russian. Incidentally, because Ukrainian is more similar to Polish than Russian, I'm actually making a much faster progress than I was doing in Russian.

[HeyMarlana]

On Duolingo itself, I've always been consistently learning the same language. However, in the past I learned French and dropped it as soon as it wasn't required to learn in school anymore. Then I learned German in nightschool and dropped it after I came back from Europe. I learned Spanish after that specifically for work, but dropped it once I quit my job. My target language today is very personal, so I keep it up for me, not for any reason such as travel or work.

I have added a couple of courses on Duolingo for practice, but dropped one as it was becoming distracting. The other has a bit of value for me, so I keep it there.

[David680268]

Months ago I started the Russian course just to improve my Cyrillic reading skills (once I can decode the sounds, meanings sort of begin to make sense), but just a few days ago I started the Ukrainian one, and now my goal is to have more XP in Ukrainian than Russian. Incidentally, because Ukrainian is more similar to Polish than Russian, I'm actually making a much faster progress than I was doing in Russian.

This kind of gives me a new idea - I could simply switch to Polish. I have started to like the Slavic languages with their declensions and conjugations. Many find that they are harsh sounding, but I have a bit of an acquired taste for Russian, so maybe I should simply try one of the related languages. But I have heard that it is fiendishly difficult, and I probably should be more rational and learn things that have a practical usefulness to me and are not just beautiful.

[Stasia]

This kind of gives me a new idea - I could simply switch to Polish. I have started to like the Slavic languages with their declensions and conjugations. Many find that they are harsh sounding, but I have a bit of an acquired taste for Russian, so maybe I should simply try one of the related languages. But I have heard that it is fiendishly difficult, and I probably should be more rational and learn things that have a practical usefulness to me and are not just beautiful.

Well, if you learned Russian, you would not find Polish to be outlandishly difficult - you would see a lot of similarities with Russian.

But if you want to go for the beauty of sound, I'd say that Russian and Ukrainian are more melodic than Polish.

[Heidi58]

Started German here in preparation for a short trip. Took the trip and didn't come back to Duolingo for several years.

Completed the (very short) Latin tree and have done nothing with it since.

Got almost halfway through the French tree, in preparation for a trip that was cancelled due to COVID. The trip will probably never happen now, and my daily French practice felt a bit like rubbing salt in a wound! So, in January I decided to take a break from French and focus on German once again.

I continue to listen to the Duo French podcasts, and I do a few review lessons here and there so I won't lose all of the French I've learned, but I dedicate most of my language learning time to German now. I know many can do it, but I've found that for me, it's too difficult to focus on two languages at once.

[David680268]

Well, if you learned Russian, you would not find Polish to be outlandishly difficult - you would see a lot of similarities with Russian.

But if you want to go for the beauty of sound, I'd say that Russian and Ukrainian are more melodic than Polish.

I have just given it a try on Duolingo. My very profound analysis after, ahem, two and a half lessons is this: Many words sound really similar. It is beyond, me though, how anyone could memorize the spelling of Polish words with all those crazy looking letters.

[Stasia]

I have just given it a try on Duolingo. My very profound analysis after, ahem, two and a half lessons is this: Many words sound really similar. It is beyond, me though, how anyone could memorize the spelling of Polish words with all those crazy looking letters.

You are the second English speaker who told me that. But, but, but: isn't it easier with Latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic? I know we have some crazy consonants, but at least we write them in Latin alphabet!

[IceVajal]

I have just given it a try on Duolingo. My very profound analysis after, ahem, two and a half lessons is this: Many words sound really similar. It is beyond, me though, how anyone could memorize the spelling of Polish words with all those crazy looking letters.

You are the second English speaker who told me that. But, but, but: isn't it easier with Latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic? I know we have some crazy consonants, but at least we write them in Latin alphabet!

If I'm allowed to join you, I actually thought that the Cyrillic alphabet is a challenge, but one to master. I don't think I'll go for Polish, but after learning Russian the "special alphabet" wouldn't stop me.

[David680268]

You are the second English speaker who told me that. But, but, but: isn't it easier with Latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic? I know we have some crazy consonants, but at least we write them in Latin alphabet!

The Cyrillic alphabet was not that difficult. I invested two days or so to learn how to type it without looking at my keyboard, and this has payed off. I can now type Russian sentences at a really fast pace. I am sure that the Polish special letters all have their purpose. I need a break from Russian for obvious reasons, I can't deal with it right now. So maybe it is time now to learn a few crazy letters.

[David680268]

If I'm allowed to join you, I actually thought that the Cyrillic alphabet is a challenge, but one to master. I don't think I'll go for Polish, but after learning Russian the "special alphabet" wouldn't stop me.

You are more than welcome to join in, I think it is good if this forum gets going.
Ok, I am going to bed now. Dobranoc! (if I recall that correctly )

[η γατα]

I haven't stopped learning a language once I've started learning it properly. I have done a few 'test' lessons in other languages though.

I started Spanish on Duolingo back in Feb 2020 because my eldest daughter started learning it at high school - I did it for GCSE (pretty well) and A level (not very well!) many years ago and thought it might be good to brush up on it so I could help her.

Recently I started to get a bit bored with it and wasn't feeling hugely motivated - I stuck with it, but dropped to just doing one lesson a day instead of three or four. I decided to try a new language, so I tried out a few different courses to see what I liked. In the end, I decided to go with Greek (my grandparents were Italian & Greek, I thought Italian might be a bit too similar to Spanish so I went with Greek) and so far I'm finding in tough but really loving it

So, I haven't stopped Spanish, I still do at least one lesson per day, but I have reduced it quite a lot in favour of Greek.

[Mackination]

I had different goals for each language.

I'll never stop learning Spanish, but for others, dabbling will do.

For Russian, for instance, I just wanted to familiarize myself with the Cyrillic alphabet and learn a few words.

[Chess]

I take about week breaks from my langue I'm learning (Greek) but I always come back

[GermanApple]

I haven't stopped learning a language on Duolingo, but I used to take Latin. I didn't have a lot of interest in the course, and my teacher was not the best. After I finish German or I remove one of my dabble languages, I might try Latin again.

[η γατα]

I take about week breaks from my langue I'm learning (Greek) but I always come back

It's nice to 'meet' someone else who is learning Greek - hello!

[homeskillet359]

Yes, I started with Russian so I could watch Russian youtubers. After about a year, I felt like I wasn't learning or retaining anyhting I learned previously. So, I switched to German thinking it was sorta similar to English and the same thing happened there. Then I went to French, because I had some French in highschool 30 years ago and it felt familliar to me, as well as I remember a few things. Then I read that if you learn Esperanto first you can learn other languages faster, so that's what I'm doing now. I still go back and practice some of the Russian stuff, Eventually I will go back to Russian, German, and French.

[HeyMarlana]

I sort of have a two-point answer. I have always been learning Ukrainian on Duolingo. (My 3-year Duoversary is this Friday.) I have consistently kept it up every day and maintained a streak. I haven't stopped learning on Duolingo, with my tutor, in a classroom setting, and from other courses online.

However, shortly after creating my account, I did take up German and French as refresher courses since I learned them many years ago. I find both were interfering with my Ukrainian learning, so I dropped German entirely, and decided to keep French for a get-away language as it's still useful to me as a Canadian.

At the beginning, I also picked up Polish, thinking it would be a good transition language from Ukrainian. I was wrong. Losing the Cyrillic alphabet was very confusing, and it was also not exactly as easy of a transition as I thought, so I dropped it after about Level 5 or 6. I did the same with Russian. I thought since I knew Cyrillic, maybe it might make sense to know Russian alongside my Ukrainian learning. It was interfering with my Ukrainian due to many similarities, that I was beginning to get things mixed up.

Since my focus was Ukrainian, and everything else was always getting in the way, I removed them all aside from French.

[g-heike]

Yes, a few years ago I started learning Italian with Duolingo, that was actually my main motivation.

Unfortunately, at that time Italian was not offered by my German mother tongue and so I tried the English Italian course.

It worked well at first and I had fun, but then the difficulties started especially with the prepositions. I realized that the problem was also related to the English language, which I also didn't have a good command of yet, especially the basics were not yet second nature to me and I had my problems with the prepositions there as well.

During this time, Duolingo was being completely restructured and new features were being added over the course of several weeks, which caused me additional stress. I think it is also somewhat due to my older age that I am no longer as flexible and I learn better in a "stable" learning environment.

So I finally gave up the Italian course and took a longer break, until I finally started again, this time with English.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[melodious33]

Yeah, there weren't enough opportunities to use Klingon.