Have you always wanted to learn a new language? With no dearth of online resources, it can get overwhelming to choose which platform to pick to continue on this journey.
Duolingo provides the best solution to this problem. It removes the biggest hindrance by taking away the overwhelmingness of learning, making it fun!
The developers have gamified the language-learning process and created bite-sized lessons to ensure you only need 5 minutes a day to learn any of the 43 languages they offer courses on! From Spanish and French to Korean and Hindi, you can learn how to speak, write (type) and read a language. If certain languages have their script, Duolingo will teach you that as well. It is also the best in the industry concerning pronunciation.
Individual lessons focus on teaching you a set of 4-5 words. These are followed by clever repetition, including speaking and writing (typing) activities, which reiterate the new words or phrases. For me, this is what sets Duolingo apart from all other online language-learning services.
Other platforms might teach many words but you write them down in a notebook and then forget about it as soon as you go a few days without using them. The actual learning, hence, isn’t as good.
They maintain a streak on your account for every day you practice and complete at least one full lesson. While this motivates you to not miss a day, it does not create undue pressure or guilt because it also allows you to use a limited number of ‘Streak Freezes’ for every month. The team has managed to strike the right balance between too tough and too easy.
You can see cool graphs and count your total or weekly XP to track how much you managed to practice. Learning also happens alongside cute characters with individual personalities and accents which put together makes it a very “chill” place to be. There are lessons in the form of stories and conversations available too. You can even create an avatar with adorable features for your profile.
You can invite your friends, compare your progress with theirs if you wish to, maintain friend streaks, send them boosts to their aid, and join quests together to complete goals if you wish to. This makes it fun for everyone who is in the game.
Duolingo has a freemium model which means that it is free to sign up but has some premium features which can be accessed only if you subscribe to premium tiers like Duolingo Super or Duolingo Max. While it isn’t necessary to subscribe, the service obviously makes the advertisement quite annoying so that the user would be compelled to do it anyway. I am still running strong on the free side of things and I can assure you that you will get used to it too. Not to brag but on the day of writing this, I have a streak of 648 days! 😎
If you can ace one language easily, and like a true nerd you just can’t get enough, Duolingo also allows you to learn multiple languages at the same time. Progress is saved for each language separately but practicing any of them contributes towards your daily streak or goals.
The platform is very consumer-friendly and totally shifts your focus from education to fun which also means that while spending just 5 minutes would suffice, you’ll end up spending a lot more time on your own.
Duolingo has a website and an app so you can choose the device that is most comfortable for you! If you use a tablet or a phone, you can even set up a widget to show off your high streak score. They have even mastered the art of notifications and Duo, the green owl, will use whatever is required to ensure you don’t miss a day of practice. He will use manipulative tactics, anger, pleading, sadness, threats, and encouragement to bring you back to complete a quick lesson.
The coolest thing about their notifications is that besides the set notifications that come at fixed times, they also send an additional notification at the time of practice on the last day. This intuitiveness assumes that if it was convenient for you to practice at time X on the last day, you’re quite likely to do the same today. Boy, does this work! I have lost count of the number of times I have clicked on these notifications and saved my streak. Phew!
Give it a try. Just spend a week on the platform and I am sure you’ll end up loving it!
Disclaimer: This post isn’t sponsored in any way and contains no affiliate links. The sole aim is to create awareness and share information about a cool service.