Well, OK, not exactly. I don’t even know what it would mean for German to be completed. It’s just that I have completed everything that Duolingo can offer me in German. And that is far from “everything.”

Basically, I have gone through all of Duolingo’s German lessons, at both the first and second level for each lesson. I have also gone through all 40 of the interactive stories that they provide. In each case I have answered all the questions in the associated quizzes. When I get an answer wrong (at least in Duolingo’s eyes), I am usually given repeated chances until I get it right. These lessons, stories, and quizzes involve a mixture of modalities: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

At this point I can choose between two roads that diverge in this yellow wood:

• I can continue with my German studies, since there’s still a lot more for me to learn. In particular, I need a broader context than the fragmented lessons and slightly more coherent stories can provide, so I’m reading/listening to News in Slow German. (They also have French, Italian, and Spanish available, if you’re interested in any of those languages.)
• I can start up another language in Duolingo. I’m thinking of Ukrainian, for obvious reasons.

I’m not sure which road to choose… If I take the road less traveled by, will it make all the difference? I can’t decide, so I think I’ll do both, which Frost said he couldn’t do, but I can. Maybe I’ll do one in the morning each day, one in the afternoon. I’ll let you know how it goes.

OK, I’ve now completed one newscast in News in Slow German and one lesson in Duolingo Ukrainian. My favorite sentence in the first Ukrainian lesson is this one:

It means “home is where the cat is.” William approves.

Categories: Linguistics, Technology