A Review of the Duolingo App

I am not affiliated with any of the apps that I review. I simply wanted to provide a quick review of each app so language learners can decide for themselves which app best suits their needs.

We live in an ever-expanding digital age where we can explore the world while lounging on our couch. As a language learner, I am always looking to keep growing my vocabulary and keep practicing the language. The saying “If you don’t use it, you lose it” rings extremely true in the aspect of learning and maintaining a language.

There are a ton of different language learning apps out there, and today, I am exploring the most well known of them all, Duolingo. It should be noted that Duolingo is notorious for sending an insane amount of push notifications and, because of this, internet memes have surfaced that I will be sharing throughout this review.

Most people have heard of Duolingo by now. I was fortunate enough to have received the beta version of this before it actually launched. It’s been interesting to watch it evolve and mold itself into what it has become today. A lot of trial and error has gone into this language learning platform. It can be accessed either on your smartphone, tablet, or as a website. The website varies most from the mobile version with plenty of exciting features.

Duolingo is a free app and it is easy to sign up. Once you have an account, you can select the language you would like to learn. There are upwards of 95 languages to choose from, including some fictional languages like Dothraki from Game of Thrones and Klingon from Star Trek. Right off the bat, when you open the Duolingo app or the website, it is remarkably colorful and eye-catching. It engages and entices you to continue.

You are then presented with a tree of lessons starting with the basics and progressing to subjects that are more abstract and difficult. If you already have some knowledge, there are checkpoints where you can attempt to take a mini-test to prove you know the material. Then you can proceed like normal to the lessons that are more on-level for you. Each lesson you click on offers tips to help you complete it to the best of your ability. 

Duolingo has started something called the “crown system”. Beside each lesson’s icon, there is a small crown with a number inside. That number indicates the level of difficulty of the lessons. The scale is from 1 to 5. This is an interesting feature as it allows accessibility to the language for beginners, yet also challenges those learners who are a bit farther along in their language learning. There is also an ability for the learner to test out of the beginning crown levels to get to the more difficult ones more quickly.

There are different incentives provided as you learn. You earn lingots which is virtual money that you can use in the “shop”. For example, you can build up a streak to see how many days in a row you can practice the language and you can “buy” streak freezes just in case you happen to miss a day. You can also purchase different outfits for the Duolingo owl to wear which is kind of cute. They have also added leaderboards so you can have some friendly competition with strangers. This doesn’t motivate me as much as competing against my own friends, but it is useful. 

One AMAZING thing they added is the Stories feature. These mini-stories are wonderful for introducing common phrases in context and there are comprehension questions throughout the dialogue. I have learned so much more from doing these short dialogues than from the actual lessons. I find that a lot of the things learned in the lessons aren’t applicable when you use the language with real people. The Stories features, however, is a fantastic tool to help with listening and reading skills. 

Duolingo has also added a cool new feature called Events. You can find events online to attend virtually for whatever language you are learning. They have a Duolingo for Schools which can be helpful as teachers generally teach thematically. You can keep track of your students’ progress and assign lessons for them to complete with deadlines. Duolingo also has TinyCards which is a vocabulary extension with flashcards. 

Overall, Duolingo is a helpful tool when learning a language, but should not be the only thing used. It should be used as a supplement to other language resources. The most useful thing would have to be the Stories feature in my opinion. What about you? What do you think about Duolingo? Have you used it in the past? Did it work for you? Leave me a comment below! :)

As always, make sure to visit my website (www.tankardtutoring.com) to find out more about my Spanish private lessons and email tankardtutoring@gmail.com to get started learning Spanish today!