Sebastian Onciu
It has been about ten months since I have been using the language learning platform Duolingo almost every day to study Spanish, and in this process I also had, and still have, quite a good time thanks to the funny or thought-provoking sentences I encountered on this exciting linguistic adventure, so I decided to take screenshots whenever I stumbled upon a sentence I found interesting or entertaining and reflect upon it.
For example, one day I had to translate in Spanish the following question: What do you prefer, badminton or Justin Bieber? Obviously, ordering the words in Spanish to translate this question was not a difficult task, but I also couldn’t stop asking myself what I would choose, and it took me about a second to make up my mind because it was way too easy for me to make my choice!
Badminton versus Justin Bieber is a confrontation that only makes sense when we refer to ways of spending our free time because these are two completely different things, so I imagined that I had two options to spend a nice weekend afternoon: the first one would be to play badminton with my friends, and the other to go to a Bieber concert, in other words, to choose between a dynamic and entertaining sport and seeing live a pop singer I had never cared to listen to before, so without hesitation, I would have picked badminton.
But what if, instead of Justin Bieber, Duolingo would have asked me: What do you prefer: Badminton or Deep Purple/Pink Floyd/Queen/Led Zeppelin/IronMaiden/Whitesnake/Metallica and so on? There are hundreds of artists and bands who make great, less commercial music and who would have easily won the battle against badminton! Even if some of these bands no longer perform or exist, their music will live on for centuries to come, while Justin Bieber will undoubtedly be forgotten in a few decades.
So this is my first analysis of the funny side of this remarkable language learning site: A fairly easy choice to make, at least in my case, but there plenty more stuff to come that makes studying Spanish on Duolingo more entertaining than I had anticipated!
I am Spanish!! You can try Spanish with me!!!! This is my Blog in Spanish Ser un Tusitala. http://seruntusitala.blogspot.com/ Perhaps reading in Spanish helps you
Thanks for the suggestion, any new Spanish language resource can be useful for me. I decided to start learning Spanish because it is relatively close to my native language, Romanian, and doing Spanish lessons has turned into a fascinating activity for me. I have bookmarked your blog and I am going to read your posts from now on.
Thanks a lot. Yes, you will learn Spanish easily, all romance languages are very similar. Our languages come from vulgar Latin thereby we can understand them. I was in Italy and I almost understood everything the television was saying and written messages. The same happens with Portuguese or French if you read in French and Portuguese. There are a lot of Romanian people in Spain and they speak Spanish so well you do not notice they are not Spanish. I hope you like my blog. Thanks again.
Thanks and I hope you will eventually find time to learn Turkish. For me learning a language has almost turned into an addiction, so I try my best to do it for at least fifteen minutes a day with the exception of Sundays, when I chill out.
That’s a great idea. I’ve been thinking about learning languages too, but I’m always running out of time.
Yes, unfortunately we often simply don’t have enough time to dedicate to all the things we wish to do.
Deep Purple was an underrated group. It is good that they are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
For me, they are in the top 10 rock bands of all time.
my kids use duolingo, I prefer travis! great post glad you are back!
Thanks, I’m glad my one-month long wait is over and I am back in business. I hope that the summer holiday is over for the Virily administration and they will review posts regularly from now on.
i think we all do on that one! Thanks for the share!
I have checked Duolingo , wanted to learn Turkish, but still have not enough time for it. I love learning languages, although I can talk and write only in three for now. Good luck with your lessons.
Thanks and I think that once you start learning Turkish for at least fifteen minutes a day, you will find the determination to go as learning a new language is truly a fascinating and rewarding experience.