I would like to learn a couple of languages (polish and Japanese - I already learned Spanish to a decent degree) but it seems like every solution is closed source.

I would use books but listening (and speaking) are very important and books won't help with those.

What would you guys recommend?

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[–] bluGill@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Duolingo is useful for wasting time while feeling like you are learning however it isn't a great tool for learning if that is your goal.

[–] pyrodorobo@feddit.nl 2 points 2 years ago

I hear this opinion a lot, and I'd just like to add it manages to help with some exposure and repetition at the very least. I'm sure you're more knowledgeable than myself with learning languages, but I've been using Duolingo to learn Japanese for a little while now and have managed to pick out basic hiragana and katakana here and piece together small words.

I don't have any delusions that I'll be fluent if I finish this course, but if it can help me learn the characters it's worth the time to me.

[–] IuseArchbtw@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

A lot of people reduce Duolingo to their app, but they offer a big website on which you get a lot of explanations

[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I disagree, of course you can't learn just using Duolingo, but it is like saying X textbook doesn't teach you anything because you are only using that. Learning a language is a process that never ends and that requires a lot of different processes, maybe Duolingo doesn't have absolutely all of them but if you finish a tree of the main languages and some other digging around you will have learnt quite a lot.

[–] madeindjs@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There is librelingo but, honestly, it's far behind Duolingo.

The closest software I found is to use a flashcard tool (like AnkiDroid) and then search for an open deck of your language using AnkiWeb.

Doing so you get a similar experience than DuoLingo without the gamification and pretty UI.

[–] speaker_hat@lemmy.one 0 points 2 years ago

This. Lots of people use Anki for this purpose. When you get used to it, there is no way back.

[–] WigglyTortoise@dmv.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The US Foreign Services Institute releases their learning materials, so if you're okay with a lack of structure I hear they can be very useful, including both reading and listening.

It can be accessed on several different sites. Here's one that came up, but you can find a few more with some searching: https://www.livelingua.com/fsi/

[–] Bombastic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Holy shit this is an excellent resource. Thanks a lot

Edit never mind just looked at the pdf for my native language and it's full of errors for the most basic shit.