If you’d like to learn another language in your (limited) downtime, the Duolingo app is incredible. It has quick, simple practice sessions that let you accumulate the basics fast. You can set it to how many minutes a day you want to practice, and it tells your percentage of fluency at the end of each practice session. It front loads the commonly used words and phrases, so I’m at 14 percent after only two weeks. So motivational and gamelike, try it!
(Thanks, Swissmiss!)
Mighty Girl 
I guess mileage varies – I tried this last year, for French, and I hated it: the sentences seemed random and quite useless, and the scoring seemed random, too (I really resented losing points for things that I knew were not wrong).
I came away thinking “so this is why we pay professionals to develop language classes – because this stuff is amateur and super annoying”.
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I have been using it to regain my German fluency, and I think it’s been pretty useful. I have always used the Pimsleur system to refresh me, but tapes of any of the major brands are never going to be as interactive as they need to be. Don’t just try to do a set amount of minutes daily, but try to move everything forward while always going back to do the various strengtheners keeping the tree golden.
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It’s a nifty tool to practice vocabulary. Not useful for becoming fluent by itself.
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And honestly it gets really boring really fast.
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I have to agree with you Greg. Duolingo really could be better. They haven’t added any new features in a long time. Switch it up a bit, add chat, games, anything. Instead they’ve just added more and more languages.
And you can translate articles on the web, but they’re basically all poorly written Wikipedia articles.
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I am using it to review Spanish and learn Irish. This is for fun, not a work focused thing. I love it. 5 minutes a day each. Also using the Memrise/Duolingo program to review Latin. I think it has been about a year and a half now. Missed a few days when sick or had work or family responsibilities. Almost a form of meditation for me.
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Please help me get closer to my dream! Go to gofundme.com/2jdxmpgk
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I’ve been using it for a little while to brush up on my French and Dutch and find it pretty addictive even if the sentences are truly random, e.g. “he is rich and calm.” !?! Added bonus- my kids love it too and are randomly developing French and Dutch vocabulary which is rather entertaining.
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I’m with you, Melanie. Soothing.
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