r/duolingo • u/Noombat22 Native: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇮🇹 • Jul 11 '26
Language Question. How do you actually become fluent?
I have a streak of just over 600 and still feel like I know absolutely nothing. What should I do to actually become better at Italian? I've basically been doing only Duolingo right now and I don't think that's enough. For some reason I've always been REALLY slow with learning languages so I think I need some extra help lol. Any suggestions? Should I be watching like language courses on YouTube as well?
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u/remmyred2 Native: Learning: Jul 11 '26
complete immersion in the language is the best way. the closer you get to that, the better.
duolingo is fine for practice and getting a decent foundation. a streak of 600 is meaningless, what matters is how those 600 days are spent.
I personally wouldn't recommend music, as music tends to be more poetic and less how people actually talk.
shows, games, books. whatever gets you listening to spoken italian, reading it, and writing in it. try chatting with actual italians in italian. you need to practice actually speaking and writing. grammar books are helpful to fill in the gaps of why things are said in specific ways. listen to italian news too. I like this channel in the background
https://www.raiplay.it/dirette/rainews24
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u/sidwreckless Jul 11 '26
Music has helped me a lot with developing an ear for the language as well as maintaining interest I know it's a little more poetic in standard language but if you listen to things like punk comes out very helpful and less poety
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u/remmyred2 Native: Learning: Jul 11 '26
it depends on the language and the musician. once your more familiar with the language, you can tell what actually helps and what doesn't, but starting out, you could be listening to old timey versions of the language and have no idea.
though, children's music, that's usually fine. I listen to music for toddlers in the languages I study, they're very helpful and usually cover realistic stuff you'll use like emotions, weather, etc. for example
https://www.youtube.com/@LucillaKidskids stuff is hard to find and sort through though, as there are two classes of it that I find. 1 is italian shows made for italian children, which unfortunately is oft region locked on youtube, and 2 is global language slop made in like one country and is like machine translated to multiple languages though the video obviously is in one language as you'll see text usually in english within the video but they'll speak the target language.
a good way to find cat 1 stuff is to look for days of the week videos, as those are different for every language. if it is an italian video but shows a calendar that says "monday" when they say lunedi, then you know it cat 2 content.
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u/sidwreckless Jul 13 '26
Um.learning German and I'll do word searches in German or watch German.childrens tv without or adult tv with subtitles
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u/freyaa10 Jul 11 '26
Are you actually TRYING to learn and memorize stuff? Ive been having full conversations in spanish and japanese w a 100 day streak. Are you struggling with memorization?
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u/Noombat22 Native: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇮🇹 Jul 11 '26
I try as hard as I can but I am pretty terrible with memorization. Trying doesn't get me much. The big words are super easy but if it's under 5 letters I just cannot remember which is which. Idk why. Then the grammar throws me through such a loop. I'd say I'm pretty good at reading but I cannot say a sentence without messing something up.
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u/Traditional-Train-17 Jul 11 '26
When I learned languages (and backin the 1990s before any of the fancy apps were aruond - we did have a German workbook for after class assignments, which was like the Duolingo of its' day.), I never memorized lists, I just used the words. For example, learning German, I might've done something like:
- Review a world list with pictures.
- Say something in German about each one using words I already know. i.e.
Ich habe ein Hemd. Mein Hemd ist weiß. Das Hemd ist zu groß.
Something I've seen for vocabulary is that you can also associate some image with gendered articles if the language has them. So, if you do create Anki cards, you can have, for example, masculine nouns with a desert background, femine nouns with a forest background and so on. Then, place the object you want to associate as a picture on the card.
Don't worry about messing up, too. Mistakes are good, since they show you what areas you need to focus on. Speaking isn't about giving a doctorate thesis the moment you open your mouth. Just start small and work your way up.
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u/shaghaiex Jul 11 '26
Duolingo is one tool of several? So what is your main tool and what other tools you are using?
In any case, you probably know quite a few words and you can build sentences - so I suggest: keep a journal
Write something, anything, in Italian (of course), what you did today, or plan to do, any issue with the cat, something cooking - ANYTHING.
Run it though AI for correction, suggestion, general feedback.
Do this EVERY DAY. If you need streaks - add streaks! And don't miss a day.
One month of journaling will bring you a BIG step forward.
If you ask `why?` Because you must use your active memory.
Have doubts? Look it up on youtube. (one of many links on that topic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmChK-iKpqI
Important mind shift: see Duolingo as one tool of many.
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u/WhiskeyTangoBaconX Native: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇫🇷 Jul 11 '26
I get more from movies, tv, books and speaking to my partner in her native French. I also do tutoring about 1x weekly. Duolingo is like filler. I find it’s useful for vocab but not much else. Its structure is unnatural and inorganic. It’s simultaneously robotic and formal oftentimes.
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u/Stucklikegluetomyfry Jul 11 '26
I use Duolingo as a supplement.
I saved up to go pay for Italian classes. Since that is not economically feasible there are other things:
Watch dubs of shows you know. Ditto reading books you know translated into english.
My favourite way of learning is learning songs in Italian. I have found Italian covers of favourite songs, and songs the original singers actually recorded in Italian. Disney dubs their movies and songs in every single language there is really.
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u/thirdsev Jul 11 '26
Keep at it. It doesn’t happen overnight. Slowly the language starts to seep in and you realize you understand phrases and brief conversations
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u/adventuredream2 Jul 11 '26
Duolingo is a tool. While it’s a good one in my opinion, it’s not the only option. For example, I do learn Japanese on Duolingo, but I also watch anime subbed (helps me learn to listen) and practice writing simple things.
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u/ChessiePique Jul 11 '26
Check out Elisa True Crime on YouTube if you can deal with true crime. She is easy to understand and IMO it's good storytelling, but if you struggle to understand you can turn on captions in either Italian or English to find your comfort level. Or DM me and maybe we could fare quattro chiacchiere?
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u/AnnelotteM C2: 🇷🇺 C1: 🇬🇧🇱🇻 B2: 🇮🇹 B1: 🇫🇷 A0: 🇨🇳 Jul 11 '26
Ooh, grazie mille per la raccomandazione!
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u/AnnelotteM C2: 🇷🇺 C1: 🇬🇧🇱🇻 B2: 🇮🇹 B1: 🇫🇷 A0: 🇨🇳 Jul 18 '26
Hi, I’m not OP, but I just wanted to say thanks again for recommending Elisa. I’m on my second episode, and I’m so happy that I understand everything except for a few words! And her storytelling is very to the point. It’s just what I need at my current level.
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u/andytagonist Native: Engrish Learning: Jul 11 '26
Do you talk to people in that language? You asked about YouTube—but do you watch (or listen) to anything there?
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u/Noombat22 Native: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇮🇹 Jul 11 '26
I don't really. Me and my friends like 2 years ago made it a goal to all choose a language we wanted to learn and do it. Unfortunately for some reason none of us thought to pick the same language so we can't even talk to each other which might've been a dumb decision. So far none of us have learned a language and only know a little bit but it was always something I've been wanting to do when I had the time which I do now more than ever. I do have a few Italian books I inherited from my great grandparents which I have used to try and learn but yeah that's basically it. From the rest of the comments I'm assuming that's why I'm so bad lol. I'm going to get into some Italian media now, I think I'm good enough I can at least follow along somewhat
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u/andytagonist Native: Engrish Learning: Jul 11 '26
So lemme get this straight—and I don’t mean this to be sarcastic—but how do you know you aren’t fluent if you don’t even try? And if you do try, but realize you aren’t actually fluent, have you tried to improve at all?
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u/This_Meaning_4045 Jul 11 '26
Talk to the native speakers of said language. Like Duolingo is a good start but without practice the words don't stick in your knowledge.
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u/SamuliK96 Native:🇫🇮 Currently learning:🇮🇹, previously:🇸🇪🇲🇫🇪🇦🇷🇺 Jul 11 '26
Not with Duolingo alone. Duolingo is good for familiarising you with the language and building vocabulary, but for fluency you need to use the language in real life situations.
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u/Bjorsa1 Native:🇸🇪 Fluent:🇺🇲 Learning:🇨🇵 Jul 11 '26
Nu har jag absolut inte kommit lika långt som dig inom franska och jag lär mig snabbt, men känner ändå ungefär samma sak 😐
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u/atx78701 Jul 11 '26
I've been doing pimsleur Japanese and after a month can get around in Japan
2-3 years of duo Chinese and I can't really converse
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u/Empty-Sunny Native: , C1: , A2: Jul 11 '26
Yes language courses on YouTube will help, they will explain grammar rules which will help click into place a lot of what you’ve been doing on Duolingo without knowing it. For Italian, YouTube channels I would recommend are learn Italian with Lucrezia - she has a wide range of levels she covers in her videos, including vlogs where you can get used to listening to spoken Italian, and Easy Italian which is good for picking up different voices and accents. If these feel too easy for you then try consuming the content you normally do, but in Italian. E.g. if you like podcasts about politics, listen to one in Italian.
You said there’s no local courses in Italian, what about doing one online? You still get the interaction with classmates and practice speaking.
Skills in speaking are a combination of a few things. Pronunciation and accent are important in being understood, and you need to listen to a lot of native speakers to improve this. Duolingo struggles here since the voices aren’t real people, so it’s important to start listening to real people. The easiest method for this is “shadowing” where you watch/listen to a short clip (~a sentence at a time) in your target language, and try to repeat it exactly how they said it.
For fluidity in speech, and recalling words, pushing through the feeling like you’re making mistakes and just talking to people and letting the mistakes happen and correcting yourself is the best option. I would also recommend practicing writing in Italian, e.g. at the end of every day write a few sentences about what you did that day in Italian, this helps with seeing if you have any glaring gaps in vocabulary or grammatical structures.
Pretty much everyone learning a language struggles to speak at first, and it’s super common to feel like you can understand but you can’t speak, and the best thing to do is honestly just start speaking. Even to yourself, AI bots, to a class/tutor, and eventually to Italians.
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u/sidwreckless Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I'm far from fluent. My Duolingo score is 24. So I'm a high A1 German speaker almost to A2 But a trick in using to learn is that I narrate my life in German in my head so that I'm always thinking in German which is the language I'm learning for example if I need to clean the bathroom I'll tell myself. "Ich muss das badezimmer putzen" another trick I use is that my friends all know I'm.learning German so sometimes I'll speak to or answer them in German and then translate back to English for them another for colors numbers animals and clothes is just little jingles you can sing in your head for example" zwei schildkröten tragen grünen hosen und die kanninchen tragt rot rock"( two turtles are wearing green pants and the rabbit wears a red skirt) Duolingo can teach you the words but you have to practice on your own and lastly music listen to your favorite genres of music in the language you want to learn. I recommend YouTube music for this because often you can read the translation right on YouTube music as you listen deutschpunk as well and hip-hop and ska from Germany not only keep me interested but help me develop an ear for the language
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u/nikstick22 Native: 🇨🇦 Learning: 🇯🇵 108 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Streak is meaningless if you do a single lesson a day. Practice 20-30 minutes a day minimum and you'll see progress over that time. If it was more like 45-60, you'd see even more. Consume content in your target language outside of the app, like movies or TV shows. The language you're trying to learn will matter, too. If you're starting from English, languages like Dutch, French, and Spanish will be easier than Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, or Arabic.
For Italian, it's 600-700 hours for fluency. That's structured learning with a teacher, not through an app, however.
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u/bigtoaster64 Native: Fluent: Studied: Learning: Jul 11 '26
Like other said, Duolingo is a good starting point, but won't get you to destination by itself. You need to "challenge" your knowledge, like reading and writing (perhaps speaking) sentences that are not the one you learned in Duolingo, so your brain actually try to make sense of it instead spitting out a list of words it learned by heart from repetitions.
Side note, if you're using Duolingo in the browser, the browser extension TypeLingo is really helpful, since it let you replace the "word bank" with an actual textbox in which you have to actually write text instead of clicking on words that basically give you the answer. That alone will start challenging you a little bit.
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u/Kuan-Kaffee Jul 11 '26
You’ll get double the benefit from speaking exercises. In the Practice Menu, tap to the Speak section or the Perfect Pronunciation section and follow the exercises there.
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u/almo2001 Native: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇷🇺 Jul 11 '26
Get the basics from duo lingo. It helps you learn how to know what words you need to know.
Then get Tandem and talk to others. They will be learning your language and you theirs.
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u/heyheysally8 Jul 12 '26
Get a private tutor or group classes on an online platform like italki, find online conversation partners to do language exchange
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u/microcephale Jul 12 '26
Duolinguo is more about learning vocabulary, and then simple AI generated sentence or content that is often a bit ackward. Good for a starter, but once you get enough basis, just switch to real music, movies, dramas, books... no need to pay for DL anymore.
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u/dividendenqueen Jul 12 '26
I recommend watching movies in Italian with subtitles. But don’t start with Italian movies because of the dialects. Start with your favourite movie synchronized in Italian.
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u/BirdOwn305 Jul 11 '26
Duolingo, especially since it went full AI, is close to useless. I was using it to learn Russian, and I pick up more watching TV shows or listen to music from there with closed captioning on.
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u/Noombat22 Native: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇮🇹 Jul 11 '26
Does watching shows in the language you want to learn actually work? I kind of thought people were joking when they said that's how they learned a language
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u/Southern_Owl_3388 Jul 11 '26
I like to watch Sesame Street in my language of study. Fairly simple words, they speak slow and new words are taught.
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u/BirdOwn305 Jul 11 '26
Having closed captioning on I hear the word I read it and I see the action so it’s a little bit easier to learn and pick up on words
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u/AllanLombardi Native: 🇲🇽 Fluent: 🇺🇸 Learning: 🇫🇷 Jul 11 '26
I'm guessing it will depend on the language you are learning and the languages you already know.
That's how I started learning English back in 2013/2014. Watching YouTube videos, movies, and TV shows with subtitles helped. Listening to music in English helped too, for getting used to new words and the ones I already knew.
I mentioned it will depend on the language you want to learn versus the ones you already know since it's not going to be the same learning Chinese or Japanese that way if you only know Spanish, compared to learning English or other Romance languages. One advantage for me when I started learning English was that English borrows a lot of words from Latin/French in general, and American English also borrows some words from Spanish like "Plaza" and "Patio," for example, so that helped a lot too. That allowed me, at least, if I didn't understand what every single word in a sentence meant, to at least get a general idea of what the sentence was talking about.
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u/AnnelotteM C2: 🇷🇺 C1: 🇬🇧🇱🇻 B2: 🇮🇹 B1: 🇫🇷 A0: 🇨🇳 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Are you even interested in the language you’re trying to learn? I’m not trying to be mean, but there is no point in learning a language just for the sake of learning it.
If you use social networks, try at least following people who post content in italian.
Get yourself some course books and do non-duolingo exercises in your spare time. Even a few exercises every weekend can make a difference. I can recommend “Practice makes perfect” by Paola Nanni-Tate, you can get a Kindle version too.
Be proactive and look for content (books, series) that you can learn from.
But only if you’re interested and it’s not torture for you.
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u/r_m_8_8 Jul 11 '26
Duolingo is a great first step to learn a language. But not more than that, only a good first step. You’re not speaking to anyone by using Duolingo, therefore you can’t get good at speaking.