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Comment by superplussed | Hacker News Reader

I built a website (and soon an app) for learning German, that has a focus on both grammar and vocabulary. We have a frequency list with the top 5000 German words. And we are a video-driven site, so each word has a video. And most words also have sentences (also each with a video). This is good for getting a feel for the spoken language, and hearing the vocabulary used in context. You can check it out here: http://www.seedlang.com

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I started with German about a year and a half ago via Mango Languages. I love the app because it approaches languages via phrases and conversations instead of vocabulary (like Duolingo)

Your site looks really promising... I will definitely give it a shot!

What was your driver for creating it? Language is a very competitive space these days.

I used Duolingo for a couple of languages, got pretty far in Italian and tried some German. I found it either too slow, or too beginner-ish; I didn't feel like I was learning much, and it didn't help me read news websites / novels much. While I do like the approach - specifically, the use of words in context, and the variety in exercises - it didn't really do it for me (Severin, if you're reading this - sorry, man!)

Duolingo starts at the beginning. If you think a skill is too easy, try testing out of it to get to a higher level or advance faster.

Duolingo says they don't currently aim too teach beyond A2/B1, so you may already be past that.

Having learnt a few languages with and without duolingo, I think you will usually need 2000+ words in a language, and close to 90% of the grammar to read native texts well. Duolingo can get you quite close to, but not past that mark.

Duolingo is based on sentences. It builds both vocabulary and grammar skills, though it may look like it's "only" translating.

I'll check it out! The frequency list sounds like a very valuable thing.

Great website! Much better than memrise and duo.

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