Duolingo Hindi

I finished!!!

I am excited to announce that I just finished the Hindi tree on Duolingo.

Overall, I love Duolingo and think it's a great app for supplemental language study. I have been very out of language practice so this was really good to go back to.

How did it go?

The tree is very short. I tested out of the alphabet but a lot of my basic vocab skills were lacking, so I didn't make it very far passed the first checkpoint (the awful alphabet section that I will discuss later on). I use Hinglish (along with the Indians I know in the US). So my vocabulary for American foods and numbers and family was severely lacking.

But I was able to test out of moat levels individually, because the context and topic helped me remember and it was fairly easy to tell when I didn't know one or two vocab words in context.

I did have to complete one or two lessons from about 5 levels and then was typically able to test out. The biggest exception was the last two. I really struggled with those grammar concepts and even gave up a couple times because I was making so many mistakes.

But I made it and I am excited for the content to get more challenging and I think I will do several review lessons (the dumbbell in the bottom right corner).

My thoughts on the course.

Though it is officially out of Beta , I noticed a handful of errors or frustrating things.

'ne' is lacking an explanation.

It over and over expects uses to use Indian English, rather than American, which was quite frustrating for me. "You people do that thing," and leaving off articles were common. I've heard similar frustrations about other trees from bilingual speakers living in the US as well. Either way, the Hindi tree does feel like it was designed for Indian Hindi learners, which in the long run is great and I hope it will help with communication issues between states and help unify North and South Indians. So though frustrating, it could actually be good.

I also wish that there were grammar explanations for the more challenging concepts and more complete explanations for others. This will come.

A huge frustration is the Alphabet levels. They seem to be terrible. I have only passed one or two. I don't think I could have stuck with it if I had not tested out. I don't understand how they work or what is going on. I would highly recommend an app such as TenuguGo Hindi or even just making flashcards and memorizing before trying to use Duolingo before you know the alphabet. It took me two weeks (if I remember correctly) on TenguGo.

But my biggest complaint is that it's too short!!! I want more!!!

Conclusion

Overall, this is has been a great course and I will continue to use it. Being on my phone makes it so much more accessible than the other resources out there. Ans most of my frustrations will work themselves out, I'm sure...And if not, chalta hai, na?

Thanks to the volunteers! And good enjoy your studies!!!