| Developer: DuoLingo | Download: Android | iOS |
| Category: Language learning | Price: Free (with in-app purchases) |
If you are looking for a way to learn a language with the help of your smartphone, and do so without paying exorbitant amounts of money, DuoLingo is probably the best app at the moment. DuoLingo has started with official support for just Spanish and German, but it’s quickly added new languages, and now you can also study French, Portuguese, and Italian with its help.
A Carnegie Mellon University project, DuoLingo uses crowd-sourced translations to build its whole language-learning system that will take your to intermediate knowledge in no time. And while crowd-sourcing (which is, basically, translations from random people on the web) might sound terrible to some of you, that skepticism immediately goes away after you use the app for a while.
I started DuoLingo with German. Having signed up for a group study (beginners level), I was disappointed with the slow pace of the group and wanted to fill in times between exercises with something meaningful, and that’s how I stumbled upon DuoLingo. The app does not introduce you to the very basics like the alphabet, pronunciation of different characters, and so on, so it does require some minimum background, but if you have that very minimal knowledge, you’d be fine.
DuoLingo is built like a game - you progress through levels, and everyday you get XP points for that. In every level, you have hearts that you start losing one by one with every wrong answer. All of your answers are matched against the best ones, so that the system can give your every answer a score. It’s also a smart score - it would detect when you have made a typo and won’t penalize you for that, as it would for a completely wrong answer. The system pushes you to perfection, and if you have friends using the app, the whole learning process becomes a competition that will drive you to learn faster.
And that whole language journey starts with a big roadmap (unique for every language). We counted 71 levels for German, each of them with a few sub-levels (each sub-level coming with around a dozen exercise drills) that you have to complete. This is to say that the whole learning process takes days - not hours - to complete, and that’s a good thing.
The exercises vary in form and difficulty - they are not too complex, but vary enough to keep you focused. You have translation drills that go both ways, language structure exercises, grammatical questions, word drills, listening exercises, and so on. DuoLingo even requires you to speak, so it basically covers all four key aspects of learning a language - speaking, listening, reading and writing. New words, on their part, are introduced with proper pronunciation and a picture, and they are immediately incorporated in your exercise routine. The system is very smart in that aspect, delivering something for those with more visually-oriented memory, as well as others, who remember best by listening or writing.
Another key aspect of DuoLingo is that it disciplines you into language learning. Probably everyone who has tried to learn a foreign language knows that consistency and daily practice are hugely important. Teachers generally agree that spending half an hour learning every day yields better results than exhausting 2- or 3-hour sessions, followed by a weekly pause. That’s where DuoLingo really shines: the system sends you daily reminders to open the app and pass a few levels, and with its gamified interface, it’s not hard to lure in to that temptation.
In the app, you also have your own little stats hub for every language, where you can see things like XP points, your learning streak (how many days you’ve spent learning a language in DuoLingo without daily pauses) and the amount of words you’ve learned. If we had to say a few words about the graphics and interface of the app, we’d summarize it as clean and simple. The green birdie mascot of the app is all around, and the sound effects are nice and encouraging.
Finally, when you become proficient enough, DuoLingo will ask you to help out with the crows-sourced translation work, and you can join in this noble idea.
All in all, DuoLingo won’t take you to native language proficiency, but it’s a great app for learners making their baby-steps in a language, and will advance you easily to intermediate levels. We definitely recommend it whole-heartedly, and we’re eagerly waiting for new languages to learn.
A Carnegie Mellon University project, DuoLingo uses crowd-sourced translations to build its whole language-learning system that will take your to intermediate knowledge in no time. And while crowd-sourcing (which is, basically, translations from random people on the web) might sound terrible to some of you, that skepticism immediately goes away after you use the app for a while.
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DuoLingo is built like a game - you progress through levels, and everyday you get XP points for that. In every level, you have hearts that you start losing one by one with every wrong answer. All of your answers are matched against the best ones, so that the system can give your every answer a score. It’s also a smart score - it would detect when you have made a typo and won’t penalize you for that, as it would for a completely wrong answer. The system pushes you to perfection, and if you have friends using the app, the whole learning process becomes a competition that will drive you to learn faster.
And that whole language journey starts with a big roadmap (unique for every language). We counted 71 levels for German, each of them with a few sub-levels (each sub-level coming with around a dozen exercise drills) that you have to complete. This is to say that the whole learning process takes days - not hours - to complete, and that’s a good thing.
The exercises vary in form and difficulty - they are not too complex, but vary enough to keep you focused. You have translation drills that go both ways, language structure exercises, grammatical questions, word drills, listening exercises, and so on. DuoLingo even requires you to speak, so it basically covers all four key aspects of learning a language - speaking, listening, reading and writing. New words, on their part, are introduced with proper pronunciation and a picture, and they are immediately incorporated in your exercise routine. The system is very smart in that aspect, delivering something for those with more visually-oriented memory, as well as others, who remember best by listening or writing.
Another key aspect of DuoLingo is that it disciplines you into language learning. Probably everyone who has tried to learn a foreign language knows that consistency and daily practice are hugely important. Teachers generally agree that spending half an hour learning every day yields better results than exhausting 2- or 3-hour sessions, followed by a weekly pause. That’s where DuoLingo really shines: the system sends you daily reminders to open the app and pass a few levels, and with its gamified interface, it’s not hard to lure in to that temptation.
In the app, you also have your own little stats hub for every language, where you can see things like XP points, your learning streak (how many days you’ve spent learning a language in DuoLingo without daily pauses) and the amount of words you’ve learned. If we had to say a few words about the graphics and interface of the app, we’d summarize it as clean and simple. The green birdie mascot of the app is all around, and the sound effects are nice and encouraging.
Finally, when you become proficient enough, DuoLingo will ask you to help out with the crows-sourced translation work, and you can join in this noble idea.
All in all, DuoLingo won’t take you to native language proficiency, but it’s a great app for learners making their baby-steps in a language, and will advance you easily to intermediate levels. We definitely recommend it whole-heartedly, and we’re eagerly waiting for new languages to learn.
PROS
- Makes language learning fun
- Covers all four key aspects of language learning with engaging exercises
- Pushes you to practice daily
- Free
CONS
- More languages would be welcome
| Developer: DuoLingo | Download: Android |
| Category: Language learning | Price: Free (with in-app purchases) |
DuoLingo review: language learning as a game
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