Duolingo Review: What Lockdown Taught Me About the World's Most Popular Language Learning App
A Lockdown Duolingo Review
Duolingo. You’ve heard the name and you most likely recognise the cute green owl that represents learning a new language on their highly popular app.
If you’ve just started on a language learning journey since lockdown, it’s good to know there are some expertly created resources for you out there. With apps like Idyoma, you can understand a whole new language by learning socially with native and fluent speakers. You can take turns talking in one another’s languages once you’ve matched up with someone and support each other until you reach fluency.
Other learning sources like Duolingo utilise different learning methods and attractive visuals and graphics to help you in the process. Duolingo has gotten mentions from the likes of the New York Times and received numerous user reviews on Trust Pilot, so it’s time to go through a thorough Duolinog review and see what the global app really taught us during lockdown.
Duolingo Review
How it Works, a Duolingo Review
Progression difficulty and Motivation
Doesn’t Have it All Though…
Remember to Live your Language- Concluding Our Duolingo Review
How it Works, a Duolingo Review
Basics first, as you might be early in your exploration of language learning sites and apps. Learning a language is a big task, not just because it takes time and considerable desire to learn, but because there is a lot that goes into language itself.
Generally, languages have different grammar rules, sentence structures and entirely new alphabetic characters. The way you learn French wouldn’t necessarily be the best way to learn Arabic, for example, as you would have a lot of new symbols and letters to get to grips with. This is often where learning apps stumble, as they need a user-friendly system that fits all languages they want to host.
Duolingo is a great example of this easy learning system.
Essentially, Duolingo teaches you native words and their meanings, proper sentence structures to use those words, pronunciation, and in some cases new symbols and characters.
As a brand-new user, you’ll find your home feed filled with a long and perhaps daunting list of learning sections which you can see progress in difficulty and by content. Each section needs ‘powering up’, which is done by completing so many learning tasks per section, usually 6 tasks. That section then glows gold and will need ‘recharging’ every few days in an effort to keep you sharp on every skill you learn as you go through each section. This does mean you’re increasing your workload the further you go but it is optional to keep each section golden as you make your way to the end.
During this Duolingo review I found that learning is mostly done through flashcards, listening and writing exercises, and stories that encourage you to test your comprehension and discover correct answers even when you get things wrong. Every section completed awards you experience (XP), which you can maintain for daily/weekly/monthly streaks. You can also be awarded bonus points to spend in the shop.
Be aware there is a life system similar to those you find in games, so if you get more than 3 answers incorrect you won’t be able to continue learning tasks until you’ve waited for the timeout duration or earned back hearts with forfeit-style knowledge tests on what you’ve learnt so far.
Everybody learns differently, though, and Duolingo gets that, so you do have the space to take your time memorising, make your own notes and do additional tasks and knowledge tests. Of course, you can argue that the learning work you do outside of Duolingo are equally important to your understanding. An excellent accompaniment to Duolingo is apps like Drops, where you have the chance to focus on your problem words, symbols and phrases in a super easy and visual way – visual learners take note!
Progression Difficulty and Motivation
A big issue with some language learning website resources is how steep the learning curve may be.
In the UK, many children begin studying a modern foreign language fairly early, but in large and disrupted classes the content doesn’t always have the chance to get to a more challenging level, particularly as teachers need to consider the speed of learning of an entire classroom of young people who might not be fully committed to learning their second language.
In creating this Duolingo review I found that it tackles progression in a unique but extremely simple way. As we mentioned, there’s a scrollable list of sections and this is one of the ways you can keep a direct check on your progress. Some users have noted in their reviews that after the first three sections, you’re quickly thrown into more difficult grammar understanding, and this could be a drawback for some learners.
However, Duolingo makes you repeat until you get to the correct answer before it will unlock new sections, even if it means waiting for your hearts to recharge and going through the same questions several times. During a lockdown situation when you might have more time on your hands than usual, this hasn’t been a problem and is actually a great way to feel productive and keep your brain active if you’re feeling anxious or lonely because of your individual COVID situation
If you’re hoping to avoid stress while you learn too, Duolingo keeps the pressure off. There isn’t a clear dissection of easy, intermediate, and expert tasks and tests, which for some can make your experience more fun and make it less of a competition to get to the hardest stage. Your learning progresses at the pace that you’re able to successfully make it through each section.
Keeping track of your progression is straightforward too. The most useful method is the knowledge test at regular intervals between learning sections. Each section test includes a selection of questions based on what you’ve learnt in the previous section. For example, if you’ve completed a ‘basic phrases’ section and take the test, you’ll find a series of questions that relate to words and phrases learnt, specifically in that section. You won’t be faced with new information in these tests, they’re simply to give you an idea of how much you’re really retaining about your chosen second language.
Motivation during lockdown is difficult at times even if you are excited to learn a new language. Duolingo uses some fun incentives and encouraging graphics to keep you going. If you’re already signed up to Duolingo and have the app installed on your phone, you’ll receive reminders from Duolingo on a basis you agree to in the app. These reminders are notoriously cute and guilt-inducing, often with the little Duo bird mascot asking where you’ve been and that he misses you. Come on, Duolingo, how can we resist a sad green owl?
Within the app, you also receive bonuses for completing your XP goal, which converts to purchases in the Duo shop. Inside the shop you can get practical prizes like freezing your XP for 24 hours so that you don’t lost your streak if you can’t practice one day. If you make it to the high numbers in XP, you’ll be able to exchange those points for adorable outfits for the Duolingo mascot, including a tuxedo and an astronaut outfit. Duolingo’s reward system approaches motivation in a fun way, so you feel like you’re enjoying a game instead of adding something else to your2 list of lockdown worries.
Doesn’t Have it All Though…
This Duolingo review asks the question of whether Duo has everything you need to learn a new language though? Well, users of previous versions of the app argue that the previous club aspect was the missing piece. In recent years the app mostly scrapped the club option where users were able to create a group with other real people learning the same language as them. Within these groups you were able to pose questions to the group, share progress, and compete internally with one another in XP achievements.
Now, though, the only community-based aspect is a weekly leader board of all users competing for the status of Gold, Silver, or Bronze status by gaining the most XP within the set time period. This might be another good motivator to get you on the app every day for a few minutes at least, but does it take away the sense of community that language learning should have? We’re not sure.
Remember to Live your Language- Concluding Our Duolingo Review
Even with all of the top second language learning apps and website available online and in app stores, it’s still important to live your new language. If you’re leaning Spanish, connect with a Spanish-speaker safely online and ask questions about formal and informal usage of certain phrases, as apps can sometimes skim over these nuances. If you’re learning Japanese, immerse yourself in Japanese culture and content to become familiar with cadences and new symbols. If you’re learning any foreign language and you feel like you’re getting stuck in a rut, remember this duolingo review and make a connection with a native speaker however you can and remember the reason why you wanted to start learning in the first place.
You can download the Idyoma language exchange mobile app for free here: