hey everybody Daniel Guaba back with another entertainment video today
so I wanted to do something that of course is language related but something that
emulates a video that I saw someone else do recently basically what they did was
they went to the website called - duolingo and they made a video where
they tried to take a placement test for a language that they were a native
speaker of to see how far along they could get in the course basically they
wanted to see how far they could test out. Basically I want to see how far I
can place in the Spanish course on duolingo just using what I know of
Spanish already and also being a Dominican Spanish speaker which is a bit
different from a standard Spanish speaker
how different are Dominican Spanish and standard Spanish?
Standard Spanish is basically the Spanish that you'll learn from textbooks and that everyone
can use no matter what country they're in to understand and communicate with
each other. Dominican Spanish although I say Dominican Spanish but there are
really different dialects even within the Dominican Republic basically
depending on what region you're in in the country people are gonna have
different vocabulary words or different pronunciations sometimes even different
grammars to say different things. If you're not already familiar with
duolingo is basically website where people can go and learn different
languages I think it's a good starting point for people who are building an
interest in a new language or just want to get their foot in the door as far as
learning the basics of a new language how far you'll really be able to go on
duolingo I think depends a bit on the language that you choose to learn and
the resources that are available to you but anyway for now I just want to go
ahead and get started with this placement test and let's see how far we
can get. Okay so as we can see we have all the different languages here that
you can choose if got from Spanish French German Japanese all the way down
to things like Czech Welsh Romanian and like I said if you're a pure beginner or
just want to learn a little bit about the basics of language duolingo might be
a good place to start. Okay so we're gonna go ahead and click on Spanish
let's see it gives you a little bit of information about the people who have
contributed to the course we're gonna click right here for a start course and
then it should ask us choose your path so beginners take an introduction and
Advanced Learner's ticket a short test so this is what we're looking for right
here is the placement test we're gonna take it we're to see how far we can get
basically there are a lot of different levels for each language each level has
different themes different topics different levels of grammar and things
like that so basically to see how far do they really let us go before we hit a
place where we have to just start learning in the course from there. Okay so let's
go ahead and click on placement test it says it takes about five minutes adapts
to your level by getting harder or easier based on your answers so let's
see how this goes I am a boy so yo soy
my apartment is big pretty simple using the verb SER
she is fine ella está bien
I want to eat a sandwich - almost got tricked up there just kind of for
remembering that sandwich in English and Spanish is just sandwich
ahora necesito trabajar I need to work now
and so it's um it's weird it capitalizes the N in now so I'm guessing it's
gonna want me to do that first now I need to work alright so far so good
how many universities does Boston have okay so it's it's thrown in some more
complex questions how many cuántas universidades tiene Boston alright so
far so good okay we need to turn on the volume for
this one.
Ellos quieren hablar Español
easy enough. El sandwich de queso es muy bueno
the cheese sandwich is very good sometimes it's easier to come up with a
translation on your own than trying to get them actually to find the words
how many refrigerators are in the kitchen. they've been asking me how many
things there are but we haven't seen any numbers yet I'm curious to see if there
gonna be any of those. How many refrigerators are in the kitchen one
cuántas neveras hay en la cocina
Alright so we're almost like about third of the way done so far nothing too too
challenging we'll have to see if it's really adapting to the difficulty like
it said it would before the girl is not cold - La niña no tiene frio
clase es muy difícil this class is very difficult this test is not too difficult
alright okay we gotta hear it again si yo no puedo hablar ahora
okay Qué interesante es tu amigo this is an interesting structure because basically
it's saying that your friend is so interesting but it's weird because it
has the question word Qué in Spanish so some of these constructions might trip up
some people who are trying to take the placement test
your friend is so interesting
yo llevo las bolsas a la cocina
I carry - I am carrying, that's weird
Yo llevo, that's regular old present tense but it only gives us the option for the gerund
which is the ing so I'm gonna use that one I am carrying bags to the kitchen if
I was gonna translate this myself I'd probably say I take I take the bags to
the kitchen, but this is another way to say it I guess
okay sometimes we make sometimes we feel bad at night
some words some time
does this mean what I think it means? I don't know. The students are in the classroom
that was a weird way to say classroom. What would I say?
están en la sala de clases - is what I would say
las camisas son baratas pero el no las necesita okay
the t-shirts the shirts are cheap but he doesn't need
them. Doesn't need them.
I use these skirts because Carla doesn't need them
I wear okay I guess that makes sense in the context. I wear estas faldas
these skirts because Carla doesn't need them.
Bruno sientate cerca de la ventana
sit near the window
Interesting, so no we've got some absolute
now we've got some distance. What is the closest not just close. I wear where's
Where - Where's
the closest restaurant all right. We really enjoyed the snow last winter
bear doesn't really look like he enjoyed the snow the winter.
Disfrutamos - I guess - Yeah, disfrutamos, la nieve - last winter
el invierno pasado
I guess we should put mucho - this is very much enjoyed? we really enjoyed?
mucho
let's see... all right yep so gotta look out for those little things like mucho because
they might come and bite you if you don't put them in. Okay let's hear this
Anoche escribimos una carta - last night we wrote a letter
I don't feel anything too difficult. We only have
a couple more questions left. You can't forget the keys again - no puedes olvidar
las llaves otra vez
no me gusta la lluvia - I don't like the rain
Last one I think?
She never understood it. I think this is the only - there have only been two
sentences in this mini test that have used the past tense so that kind of
worries me everything's basically been in present tense. She never understood - Ella
nunca lo comprendió their company that we know that's the
We've got Comprendí - which we know is
first person try to trick people up there. Alright so we're done with the
mini test let's see where it places us according to their standards
all right we have tested out of 52 skills where does that put us on the
roadmap. I have unlocked 34% of the Spanish course huh well let's
see let's see what that looks like
all right so starting from intro phrases travel restaurant family things like
this going down to... farms recreations communications three direction
house huh so what do we not get - memories that might be past tense traditions
I'd be like imperfect occasions anecdotes daily life we need to daily
life alright so there we go we got all the questions correct but we only unlock
34% of the course so what does that tell you
basically I think like is it I think duolingo is a good place to start
learning a language if you have no prior knowledge of one or you're not even sure
if you want to learn language and you just want to have like maybe you know a
fun way something that feels like a game to introduce yourself to the
language duolingo might be the place to do that. So what about if you're a more
advanced learner trying to you know pick up vocabulary or grammar or basically
just like advance your language skills is duolingo the place for you? Maybe. You
might be able to learn some things here but I think from what you could see the
sentences are pretty short there is a section where you can do
stories which i think is actually pretty nice especially for students who have
some background but maybe just want to get more exposure to hearing the Spanish
but yeah, so, as far as how far you can get with duolingo, I think everyone will
have a different experience but if it's for me and wanting to improve my
standard Spanish coming up from Dominican Spanish I think I will
definitely have to look into books TV and that kind of thing. So anyway I hope
you enjoyed this it's pretty fun just doing this real quick. I think I'll try
out some other languages that I'm, you know, pretty good at and see how we can
do in Duolingo in those and I think I'm also gonna try out some duolingo
placement tests in languages that I don't have background in just to see how
I do you know based on the languages that I've studied before and some that I
have no idea about just because I just feel like that'd be pretty fun so that's
gonna wrap it up for this video guys
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