I’ve been using the app Duolingo to learn Russian and to review Spanish for the past year or so. Spanish was one of the first languages available (along with French, German, and I think Italian); Russian was added in 2015. I’m still holding out for Thai (they have Vietnamese, so they haven’t shied away from tonal languages), Mandarin, and Latin.
It’s interesting to see the differences in the more beta-version Russian, which is a little more bare bones in terms of graphics and types of lessons (primarily, there’s no “speak this into the microphone in Russia” and no conversation with bots, the way there is with the Spanish program). During the Spanish course, pretty much every question/phrase is accompanied by a giant-mouthed smiling cartoon. The Russian course has graphics, too, but they are a little more stock-photo. Both yield intermittently hilarious results. Below, a narrative of sorts.
Previously, I had gotten practice sentences in Russian that included statements such as “My girlfriend can’t cook, but she eats a lot” and “Big Brother is watching.” Then I reached a unit on the body…
Oh dear.
But on a cheerier note…
This was the best picture they could find for “eye”??
I mean, there was at least one other available photo of eyes…
So many questions…
And statements….
and eventual levity.
