Moved from Duolingo to Babbel, I like it a lot when it works. However, it's full of bugs and hangs, especially on the speaking part, which is the bit I'm weakest on.

I'm looking for an app which is an all rounder, but does a good speaking section.

My naive language wasn't well developed as a child and I've been playing catch up since. Babbel has been helping. I don't want to subscribe for a year and find that most of it is wasted because the app doesn't work.

The web page seems to work well, but much prefer doing my French learning on my phone.

Would appreciate any help. Not sure Pimsleur would be a good fit, as it misses the general language grammar I'm weak on. I've ordered a book recommended by a Redditor: English Grammar for Students of French https://amzn.eu/d/6O0BjWM

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I don't feel like I'm making any progress despite the countless hours of studying.

[–] SamboT@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

I really like C# so far. Im excited to avoid java and expand away from python at the same time.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

I went on an international trip last year, to a Spanish speaking country. Felt incredibly good to be able to actually communicate with people who do not speak English! I didn't think I really could, as hard as it is to understand natural-speed speech. Turns out conversation w/ patient native speakers is much easier than just listening.

This year, I'm getting back into Japanese more. Caught up on my Anki and SRS stuff, getting back into the habit of watching videos, and starting to dig into the 2nd volume of the textbook.

I'd say it's going well!

[–] benjhm@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 hours ago

I checked out xiaohongshu ('rednote') since it was in the news, and reckon it might be good for re-learning chinese, since there are now bilingual comment threads (to facilitate this they added an option to translate each comment). I wish there were more multilingual threads here on Lemmy - language groups are too isolated.

[–] zfirerose@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Learning Japanese due to work and I made a habit of taking at least an hour or two after work to learn a few kanji symbols. It ain't easy but it sure feels satisfying to be able to understand what I'm reading every once in a while. I think I'm struggling more with grammar and sentence structuring due to how vastly different it is from English and Spanish. My goal is to pass the N5 test this year and I'm confident I'll be able to at this pace.

[–] bunkyprewster@startrek.website 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

What are you doing for conversation listening / speaking?

I'm on WaniKani which is fun, but I don't feel close to being able to talk to someone.

[–] zfirerose@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I listen to Easy Japanese Podcast on YouTube, who release short conversations about any topic each day. I've been able to understand them better to the point I can tell you what they're talking about and what they segway to.

I am not yet able to make conversation, but I'm aware that it's not a quick process. I began less than a year ago and I think learning the sentence structuring is harder than learning kanji, lol. But that is only my opinion.

For grammar, words, and lexicon, I would recommend Human Japanese, which is a phone/windows app that uses the Genki textbook as it's basis. They have a demo for the first 3 chapters

[–] Kalothar@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Been learning Italian for over a year now and it’s going super well.

My strategy involves:

Daily Duolingo (335 day steak and I try to at least do the daily challenges and stay in their obsidian league), Anki for vocab and other things, Italian music (rap and their version of folk/americana), translating La Divina Commedia to English (slowly), Italian films, and my phone has been in Italian for a long time.

I also like to read SCPs in Italian because the format makes it easy to guess if I don’t know what’s going on.

I’m going on a trip to Italy in August as well!

[–] Thrawne@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Feeling a drag. Like i have missed some concepts and need to go back. LearningFrench w/alexa is really good at explaining things in a way I can understand. Outling the rules (when applicable, it is french) and showing the conjugation’s. I get ads on YT for this “learn real french with french TV” and it looks like an interactive subtitle thing. They featured Lupin in the latest runs, which i enjoyed. I may have to look into the service. One foot forward everyday though.

[–] Pazintach@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

I'm trying to browse materials in the languages that I wish to learn, and use a translator when I don't understand them. Feels like cheating…

[–] Kalothar@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago

If you have access to the app DeepL (iOS App Store in the US for me), i really enjoy using it when I’m in a pinch!

[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 hours ago

It's not cheating when you're learning for yourself👍

[–] teft@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

I live in a country that doesn’t speak english. Trust me when i say it isn’t cheating using a translator. Until you’re conversationally fluent you’re going to confuse or not understand a lot of words/phrases. For me it was best to carry a translator or dictionary until i understood most of what was said. Now i figure stuff out by context or asking questions about the word i don’t know.

[–] amoistgrandpa@lemm.ee 1 points 9 hours ago

It's been going as well as it probably can for my situation. I'm a fresh university grad and all the other people in my German class are retirees, so I learn a lot faster than everyone else. But, even though the class is too slow for me, my teacher is doing what she can to make the class work for everyone, so I'm still having fun with it overall. I don't actively need German for anything, like it's just a hobby, so I'm not in any rush to learn quickly. Nonetheless, I hope to be able to pass my A2 exam by the end of the year, though I might have to switch to private tutoring or start a German class at my university to make that happen, instead of just attending the adults course that's hosted by the local German society for two hours a week like I've been doing.

[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I started learning German🌱

mostly just trying to remember basic phrases🤗

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Super! Viel glück! :)

[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 hours ago

das dankeschön🤗

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I'm hesitant to say "it's going well".

I'm keeping up with duolingo but have completely ignored grammar and haven't studied properly in a long time.

[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

How about finding friends for learning the same language?

Either way best of luck you can do it!🌻✨

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I've tried, but I find it increasingly difficult to find new friends as I age. Tried going to some meetups (not language specific, but I currently live in the country of the target language) and met nice people, but just didn't connect.

I'll definitely keep trying though. Thanks for the positive comment! Best of luck to you as well :)

[–] TisI@reddthat.com 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Hey, what language are you trying to learn? I'm interested in learning Spanish, but find myself losing interest after a while. If that's one of the languages you're interested in, we can try this.

Either way, I wish you the best of luck!

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 1 points 18 minutes ago

I have the same problem: get occasionally really into it and then lose interest again.

I'm trying to learn German and sadly don't speak Spanish at all :( but thanks for the offer and wish you best of the luck as well! Let us prove the world (slowly) that we can do this!