Having started in the hope of picking up some niceties to use on my trip to Mexico (and also help occupy my evenings!), I recently celebrated a year of language learning! And, in fact, it’s given me a lot more than “por favor” and “gracias”. Here’s my reflection on a year of Duolingo…
Why I chose to use Duolingo
Although the app gets a bad rap – particularly from native speakers of certain languages, including Spanish – a few of my friends are longtime users, and have highly recommended it. As it’s a free one (a paid option is available), it seemed a low-risk way to start. I also like studying independently, and at my own convenience, so it felt ideal.
So accessibility was key for me. Plus having my friends vouch for it meant that I was hopeful of picking up at least something. As a typical Brit, all I really wanted was to be able to be polite. I’d booked a holiday to Mexico, and it would be my first time visiting the country (and going abroad since early 2020). I didn’t get to study Spanish at school, so I didn’t even have a rusty high school practice to lean on, I was going in cold. All of this told me that basic was absolutely fine, so I dove in…
How Duolingo works
The app, like many others, is incredibly clever at keeping you using it. There are adverts (which you get rewarded for watching) which happily are mutable. As a bonus, when the war in Ukraine began in early 2022, Duolingo pledged to use the advertising revenue generated via it’s Ukrainian language lessons to support the war relief effort (plus several other brilliant things to support Ukrainians impacted by the war, and those trying to help them), so I think for a significant part, the app’s heart is in the right place.
When you choose a language to learn, you let the app know whether you have any experience and, if you do, it puts you through a brief assessment in order to determine your current level (I only got this when I switched to French recently – that’s a language I did at GCSE level, and I was astonished when the app jumped me fairly far through the course!). If you don’t, it’s straight in with some very basic elements which seem incredibly random.
With Spanish, I was taught quite a lot of stuff about eating apples, and cats and dogs initially. You don’t just begin learning, “I have lost my passport”, and other touristy phrases immediately. The app grounds you in the basics of grammar and sentence structure, without actively pointing out which words are verbs and nouns. I’ve found this to be a simple yet effective and engaging style.
The other element which is useful is a high level of gamification. There are lots of dopamine hits, and the lessons are only 10 or 15 questions long. It highlights when it’s teaching you a new word, and there are hints at every stage in case you’ve forgotten. There’s also the chance to learn by listening, speaking, reading and writing, and having to move between your native language to the learning one, and vice versa.
Was Duolingo effective?
The acid test came when I landed in Mexico. I’d chosen to visit an all-inclusive resort, and the vast majority of staff speak excellent English, however there were still plenty of opportunities to test myself. Labels at the buffet are given in English and Spanish, so I tried reading the Spanish first, or remembering a new word when I saw one. I also gave my room number (via single digits!) in Spanish at each meal, and the staff were very patient and appreciative.
Whenever I interacted with a member of staff, I did my best to use Spanish, mainly to say please and thank you, but due to what had seemed like Duolingo’s random nature, I was by then able to ask for things like a glass, or items of cutlery in Spanish. I also had little phrases such as, “excuse me” and, “see you later” (that one got an impressed smile from the bartender when I first used it!), which were much appreciated.
My friend and I went out to the nearest town for a day, and it was then that I realised how much I could understand. There were billboards and plenty of other words to read, and I surprised myself with how much vocabulary I’d picked up. It was then also useful when we went to a shop or restaurant!
Unexpected benefits of Duolingo
I’d barely used the app for two weeks when I noticed that my brain had clearly perked up. I struggle to describe it, but I felt more awake and focused, finding it easier to concentrate on different things. I’d enjoyed languages at school – though found some of it frustratingly constructed – and I realised that I’d really missed it. And that’s what motivated me to keep going.
The more I spoke to people about it, the more I also expanded my language-learning community. I now have a group chat with some friends, and share the funnier phrases with them and my sister (when you look Duolingo up, there are a lot of memes due to the random nature of some sentences it teaches). And I’ve worked my way through three languages: after I’d been to Mexico, my travel bug was back, and I booked my first trip to Italy, so swapped to Italian for several months. I’m going to Morocco in March, so decided to brush up my French in advance.
My plan going forward is to move back to Spanish when I return from Mexico – I want to stick with it for a full year, and see how far I can push it. Duolingo allows you to study multiple languages at once, but I know that I tend to get confused when I swap around, so I do focus on one at a time. I’ll let you know how year two goes!