So, spurred on by a friend who is working her way through it, I've signed up for DuoLingo and am working my way through the German course.
Have done the first few lessons (Basics 1) and am working my way through the next lot (Basics 2). Eine, Das, Der, Brot, Mann, Zeitung, usw. usw. usw. I tore through them at quite a pace, which is no great boast as I've been starting to learn German and then putting it aside since the start of the Britpop era. I've read the first two or three chapters of every German textbook in the world. I certainly should know the commonest words by now!
Each block in the skill map consists of several lessons and each lesson consists of several questions: translations and type-what-you-heard and cloze tests.
Verdict so far: pretty (looks very Twitterish); quite addictive; main annoyance is that the multiple meanings of common words such as Sie makes for questions that could have several answers, only one of which is accepted. Lose all your 'lives' during a lesson and you have to redo it. I was also taken aback at the end of Basics 1 to be faced with translation exercises for extra credit which were taken from real-life German texts way, way above the level of that elementary block. I made a brave stab at them but felt foolish, and it was extremely daft that I had to try to rate the attempts of others at these tests from my position of ignorance.
I feel inclined to stick with this and see how it goes. I've tried and failed to learn German many times and feel uneducated not knowing it; perhaps this time I'll make it.
