(Part 2) Top products from r/duolingo

Yes! As for books these one's have really helped me:

• Everything Learning German This one is super great for grammar. It has exercises at the end of each lesson so you can practice too :)
  
• Collins Complete German This one is probbbbably my favorite. I love it, it has a guide for pretty much everything you need to know in the grammar, it explains everything well, and it has verb tables so you can study the conjugation. It has some vocabulary in the back too.
  
• Graded German Reader This one is also really awesome. You can find a used one for 10 bucks on amazon, just the new ones are really expensive because I don't think they are made anymore. This starts with simple reading passages and gradually gets more difficult while adding new words- but it's at a perfect pace so you don't get overwhelmed, and you will probably be able to completely understand.
  
• Cafe in Berlin Another german short story book. This one is great too.
  
• German Pre-Intermediate Reader Another reader- this one incorporates the top 1000 words in German.
  
  I know I have more but these are my favorites! As for movies/shows.. when I watch like youtube videos (try 'easy german') or kids shows I tend to watch them without subtitles. If I'm watching an adult movie/show I pretty much have to use subtitles otherwise I can't pick up anything. I usually put the subtitles in German though, because I read better than I listen!
  
  Let me know if I can help you with anything else :)

There probably ought to be a list in the right-hand bar, since people ask this question so often. I have a rather long list of things to do to supplement Duolingo, but the most important is probably a grammar book. Schaum's is good for Spanish, and it does have exercises.

The other really important one is flashcards. I love Anki. It's free, and I have a strategy to use Anki with Duolingo.

For reading practice, I suggest using Duolingo's own Immersion facility. Read the sentences and then see how others translated them. That's useful even if you're not ready to try any translations yourself yet. Try newspaper articles. El País online is free and very good. News stories (as opposed to editorials) are usually written in easier Spanish.

I'd stay away from children's books, although young-adult books can be great.

Well I've been using Duolingo alongside learning French at school (the teachers aren't great) so it's hard to say. I can definitely understand the gist of some news articles but I have to look up tons of vocab on sites like France24. This site is a great place to start reading news because it's aimed at French children so it's simpler - I can understand about 80% of it.

As for speaking, I don't think Duolingo is particularly useful. I'm sure you could have a very basic conversation about some of the topics taught, but it would peter out pretty quickly.

Duolingo has introduced me to grammar concepts and tenses that I won't be learning at school for a few years so that's been one of the best things about the course. Although, the notes basically stop the further down the tree you get, so this book has been enormously helpful.

I'm doing one at my university this semester (basically rebuilding what I learnt at school for my GCSE), but I've also borrowed someone's 'Teach Yourself' book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teach-Yourself-Complete-German-Language/dp/1444177397/ is what I borrowed and it is really helpful in it (although I did see once, they had and instead of und (in a German sentence).

But yes, they do it in Italian also (and quite a few other languages, the book series is about 80 years old). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Italian-Teach-Yourself-Book/dp/1444100130/ which is also in an e-book if you want that.

The voices are proper people and for the exercises they will say it in the target language and then English. You may have to listen and answer questions from what you heard (such as who has a job or where do they come from, at the start at least), or perhaps you might have someone's information and you get asked the questions. You supply the answers then unpause and you will hear a correct answer.

I was talking to someone about these books in Waterstones (member of staff) and they were very helpful. He said that these Teach Yourself books have really improved a lot the past year or two.

I can't remember if I said it, but on the CEFR, it takes you to intermediate (B2, afterwards is C1 and C2 which are basically fluent in everything).

Please tell me what you do! :D

Edit: My university course is basically beginners (I forgot a lot of stuff even though I did a GCSE in it a few years ago) but I'm remembering stuff really well so it should be easy in the end.

I'll list all the stuff I'll be using!

I'm doing Brazilian Portuguese, so I'll be going through the Semantica course which I keep hearing is very good, although subscription-based.

Books that I got were:

1. Muito Prazer - just for learning in general.
   
2. [Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide] (https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Brazilian-Portuguese-Grammar-Practical/dp/0415566444/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0415566444&pd_rd_r=ZXSC993J5ZY3NH6K3898&pd_rd_w=cSvFc&pd_rd_wg=tD8Wj&psc=1&refRID=ZXSC993J5ZY3NH6K3898) - which is supposed to be THE Brazilian Portuguese grammar book to have.
   
3. Pois Não - More technical approach for those with a Spanish-speaking background. Not 100% sure on this one yet, but I like a challenge.
   
4. 501 Portuguese Verbs - for all the conjugation tables.
   
   Websites:
   1. Hacking Portuguese
   
   
5. Brazilian Gringo
   
6. WordReference.com - Dictionary
   
7. Lang-8.com - AWESOME resource where you write diary entries for your target language and people will correct you. Did this/currently doing this for French and Spanish. I've gotten corrections in like, 5 minutes.
   
8. italki.com - For conversation practice. There are dirt-cheap community tutors who are patient with you, some for around $3.00 an hour.
   
9. BrazilPod - Free podcasts.
   
   Programs/Apps:
   
10. Anki - To make your own Flashcards. Everyone swears by this thing. I like it 1000% better than Memrise because the UI is super-simple and you don't have to force yourself to go through decks with stuff you already know.
    
    If anyone has more suggestions, let me know!

Yes absolutely. I think ideally it would be cool if there was a BCS Duolingo course for the first 1/4th of the tree, just to get the basics and exposure to the differences between BCS, then you can pick which one you want to advance with later on after understanding the basics. Pretty much exactly like the BCS Textbook teaches it. I think this would draw more widespread attraction to BCS learning, and would eliminate some confusion for people traveling to holiday to Croatia/Bosnia/Serbia. I would guess that most people don't know just how similar the languages are.

https://www.amazon.de/Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian-Textbook-Exercises/dp/0299236544

Example Page of BCS Textbook

With that being said, I am extremely excited about this course. I've been hoping for a Croatian one for a LONG time, and been working my way through my BCS textbooks in my spare time. Super pumped!

And count me in for Alpha Testing!

>But what exactly does a linguist do

If you mean job-wise, this here shows some of the different kinds of trouble you can get into as a linguist.

If you mean what kinds of things you can study, the school I go to requires classes in 4 core areas of study: phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax (I think most universities probably have a similar requirement.). From there you can then take advanced topics in those areas or in other areas like sociolinguistics, areal linguistics, language acquisition.

The program I'm doing is focused in language documentation, so that involves learning how to go out to the field (or wherever you find a consultant) and make records of languages with little to no description. This includes gathering material to write up descriptions that can range from simple overviews of the phonology or the morphology of the language to writing a whole grammar of the language (like this one).

>why did you choose this for studying

I've just been interested in foreign languages for as long as I can remember. Trying to figure out how they work the way they do is just an extension of that for me. I really like syntax and historical/comparative, and also just learning how other languages express things.

Wikipedia is actually a pretty good place to start learning about the subject. The Language Instinct is pretty good and The Unfolding of Language is really good to see how languages can change over time.

The way I see it duolingo itself is supplemental material, I haven't used the Irish version but speaking from experience with German this is one of the best courses you can get for self study. This is a nice series too, but not as comprehensive as the first one.

Practice makes perfect series on Amazon

I'm doing Spanish like in your screenshot. Each book focuses on a different topic like

Verb Tenses, Pronouns, Complete Grammar, and Conversation https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071841857/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486045354&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=spanish+verb+tenses&dpPl=1&dpID=51BrJxLBTVL&ref=plSrch

Those are all I have so far

I do yes, thanks though. There's one grammar reference book in English too, but it seems a bit academic for a beginner. There's also some books in Catalan for beginners (1, 2, 3, 4), not really sure how that works.

I'm waiting to hear from a Professor about whether I can take a Catalan course this year. If it's a yes I'll be able to take it alongside Spanish for three years and at the end of my degree should be at B2/C1. If not, rats!

Is this the one you are using? If you can recommend any dual language books, that would also be great.

I primarily use German Grammar Drills and Hammer's German Grammar and Usage. Also look up Practice Makes Perfect series on German.

This book seems to be very popular:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071435034/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn632jHi2Wo&t

Here is something that may help.

I have used this book in my Russian classes. It has the English translation on one page and the original Russian on the facing page.

http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Stories-Dual-Language-English-Edition/dp/0486262448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411531020&sr=8-1&keywords=russian+stories

I've been using The Ultimate French Review and Practice and it's been really helpful so far. I've done the chapters on regular and irregular verbs in the present tense so far, and I find the book to be very thorough and there are also a bunch of exercises.

I use this - https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Italian-Grammar-Language-Guides/dp/048620779X.
It worked wonders and it isn't expensive compared t other language books

It is not currently in the works, as far as anyone knows at least. You can check the Incubator so see what courses are currently in development. Unfortunately, no one knows if or when a Catalan for English course will be made, so I recommend either using the Catalan for Spanish course (if you speak Spanish already) or seeking some outside material other than Duolingo (which you should always do anyway - Duolingo alone is never enough).

With just a quick Google search, I've found a textbook, a website with some of the basics, a more complete online course and a wide range of Memrise courses, and of course, you could always try iTalki or something similar to find some native speakers to chat with.