Duolingo Review — Can It Help You Speak A Language?

Aclassroom is not the only place to learn a foreign language. Today, you can study any language anytime and anywhere through a mobile app at your fingertips. If you’ve been searching for one, you’re pretty much guaranteed to come across Duolingo.

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

While people may have different approaches and learning abilities, online language learning has recently dominated the market.

Contrary to the textbook and traditional methods, software and apps are inexpensive, convenient, entertaining, and, most importantly, flexible.

But as with everything, nothing is picture-perfect. There are some obvious benefits and drawbacks of using language apps.

Plentiful options in the market empower you to start with a few clicks. Of so many alternatives, Duolingo is a well-known app for studying a new tongue.

But can you actually learn a language with Duolingo, or is it overrated?

How effective is Duolingo?

Is it really worth it, or is it a total waste of time? What’s the difference between the free & plus plan?

In this Duolingo review 2023, I’m here to write my honest assessment and explain its pros and cons in detail. This will help you make an informed decision on what to expect. Let’s get the ball rolling!

The History of Duolingo

Duolingo was founded as an academic project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh by Professor Luis Von Ahn and his Ph.D. student Severin Hacker.

After selling his previous company, reCAPTCHA, to Google, both aspired to try something new in the education niche.

Since there was an enormous demand for language learning tools worldwide, they went with language study.

Eventually, they launched Duolingo by the end of 2009. Later, many others joined and took part in developing further.

As per the Crunchbase report, Duolingo raised $183.3M in over 9 rounds. As of January 2021, the investors estimate the total valuation to be a staggering high, up to $2.4 billion.

About the Founder’s Track Record

Before launching Duolingo, Luis von Ahn sold reCAPTCHA to Google in 2009 at an undisclosed price. Google might have bought because of the massive user base.

While the amount is unknown, Von said the amount was somewhere between $10 million and $100 million.

Regardless of the acquisition cost, reCAPTCHA was highly annoying and time-consuming on the internet. It was so stressful that almost everyone hated it.

He claimed that over 750 million people had solved one of his captchas. Yes, it prevented spam and fraud on websites to some extent, but notwithstanding, it wasn’t user-friendly and made life more miserable. I always despised it.

That is why, after purchasing, Google redesigned and made it less irritating by adding a checkbox I’m a human”. Now, in reCAPTCHA 3.0, it is invisible.

Do these things in earlier times really matter when I write the Duolingo review?

This inevitably implies a lot!

The founder’s track record plays an indispensable role in evaluating current products. No matter how surpassing and innovative an idea seems, the woeful track record does make a world of difference.

And that’s why it starts with a negative tick. It may not matter to a well-funded company, but it matters to myself and my readers, who trust me for what I say.

What is Duolingo used for?
Duolingo is pleasant, carefree, and welcoming in contrast to reCAPTCHA. This isn’t the same old déjà vu.

Duolingo is the most downloaded educational app and the most popular language-learning platform with over 500 million users. Over the previous eleven years, it has expanded greatly.

Prior to the 2020 pandemic, 300 million people were using the service. However, the number has improved Duolingo’s fortunes because to COVID-19. Many downloaded this addictive software because they had nowhere else to go.

Although Duolingo is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it has operations all over the world.

As one might expect, the iOS and Android operating systems support the Duolingo mobile application. There is also a version for browsers.

How Does Duolingo Work?

Exploring Duolingo’s functionality is a breeze! Its UI and UX are appealing and user-friendly, boasting a modern and innovative design for an intuitive and engaging experience.

Similar to other language-learning apps, signing up at Duolingo.com is simple and free. The registration process involves three straightforward steps: selecting your desired language and motivation, setting a daily learning goal (ranging from Casual to Intense), and registering through Facebook, Google, or any email account.

Within a minute or two, your profile is set up! Once onboarded, you’ll dive into bite-sized, game-like language tasks. Within minutes, the minimalistic interface becomes easily comprehensible, making the learning journey straightforward and enjoyable.

The Target Audience

Duolingo aims to democratize education, primarily targeting individuals starting from scratch in their language-learning journey.

Although the company claims to cater to ‘everyone,’ its core focus remains on beginners. The platform mandates starting from the initial lesson and lacks the flexibility to skip to more advanced levels or tailor learning based on existing knowledge.

For those with prior familiarity seeking advancement, Duolingo may not suffice due to its strict adherence to elementary levels.

In essence, Duolingo caters predominantly to novice learners, despite not explicitly acknowledging this focus.

Courses Available on Duolingo

The Duolingo courses vary hugely, depending on your selection of the language.

For instance, as an English speaker, you can learn Spanish, with 29 million other participants, and French, with over 17 million learners. You can even study Romanian, with just over 500 thousand language enthusiasts.

But what if you speak Italian fluently or your mother tongue is Italian?

In that scenario, the possibilities are restricted. You can only choose between English, French, German, and Spanish.

Duolingo Incubator

Because of limited options for less common languages and combinations, they have also formed “Duolingo Incubator.” This program allows community users to volunteer to create courses in languages unavailable on the platform.

Suppose you are knowledgeable and possess an in-depth understanding of a particular order (source and target language), ready to collaborate, and committed to the project.

You can apply for the same from your registered account.

With 100’s of languages, all user-generated contests are divided into three categories:

• Phase 1: Courses not yet released.
• Phase 2: Courses released in beta.
• Phase 3: Courses graduated from beta.

Duolingo empowered its community to develop all these courses thanks to thousands of volunteers. They also helped the company with Word-of-Mouth advertising.

While this creates a welcome variety, these programs vary in quality, sometimes a lot.

The audio quality of the words’ pronunciation’ can differ with strange voices, which cannot be very clear for many. Unlike the official version, some are more prone to influence by vernacular, dialects, and slang.

Despite the sheer number of contributors and checks and balances in place, there is no reliability and standardized flow for any language.

Which language can you learn with Duolingo?

Contextually, beating up almost all the online language learning programs in the current market trend, Duolingo sets out to deliver 98 courses that teach 39 different languages.

The platform covers nearly all widespread languages, including but not limited to English, French, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, German, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Whether you’re looking for less spoken like Danish, Catalan, or Irish or one of the endangered languages such as Hawaiian, Yiddish, and Navajo, Duolingo has it all in the palm of your hand.

Are you fascinated with the fictional languages used in the Star Trek movies and Game of Thrones TV series?

Well, you can learn High Valyrian and Klingon too. Plus, they also offer Esperanto — an artificial language. The probabilities are endless!

Types of activities

Duolingo is all about gamification. They have developed everything in colorful visual design, aesthetically pleasing pictures, progress bars, ticks, and clicks.

When you learn on Duolingo, you earn experience points (XP).

You earn through various activities like completing individual lessons, placement tests, checkpoint quizzes, skill practice, tests out, and stories in a few languages.

This also assists you in increasing your overall standing in leagues.

While you’re at it, it will cheer you up to move to the next part, though you shouldn’t be overconfident about that (more later). In the pursuit of this journey, you will gain lingots, gems, streaks, and crowns.

The blue-colored Gems and red-colored Lingots are virtual currencies in Duolingo. The gems are available on mobile apps, whereas Lingots are only accessible on desktops.

You will receive these rewards for activities like crossing levels, finishing a skill, translating, 10-day streaks, etc.

You can then use Gems/Lingots for shopping like streak freeze, double or nothing, heart refill, streak wagers, outfits for Duo, and bonus skills like learning idioms, proverbs, and flirting expressions.

Gems are for buying multiple things in the Duolingo shop. Wondering what they are? Here is the list.

(i) Refill your Health

If you make 5 mistakes and run out of heart during a lesson, you can use these perks to refill your health. This reminds me of the Candy Crush game.

You can buy back 5 more hearts and continue with the lesson. The good thing is the web version does not have the punishing “Health” feature.

(ii) Streak Freak

You have to practice your language on Duolingo every day. If you break your streak, you will be back to zero. But there is a way to win it back.

This feature helps your continuity to remain in place for one full day of inactivity. You can purchase this anytime, and it will compensate for a missed day.

(iii) Bonus Skills

These are some extra lessons that you can buy from the store. The cost differs, and some are only available for a limited period.

Some languages offer you to read some flirting words, idioms & proverbs. So, you can use these incentives to learn something related to the language concerned.

(iv) Double or Nothing

You can buy this for 50 gems. Suppose you maintain a streak for 7 consecutive days. You get 100 gems. And if you fail, you don’t get back the five you used to buy “Double or Nothing.”

To summarize, you can earn these rewards if you consistently practice.

Overall, they do a fabulous job of keeping you encouraged and hungry for more learning, making you a favorite study resource among new learners.

Pros and Cons of Duolingo

Like any other language learning approach, Duolingo as a language app has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Some could be subjective, depending on how you see and your purpose.

For illustration, Duolingo’s principal goal is to impart foundational skills in various languages. This might be favorable for someone who needs to understand the basic conversation before vacationing in that country.

Possibly for a school-going kid who strives to learn something in their free time. They might not get lessons from a teacher. So, Duolingo is helpful.

However, this is a negative for someone who needs a more extensive plan to prepare for TEF Canada, Spanish DELE B2, JLPT N2, or Korean TOPIK V.

To evaluate whether it will be beneficial, let’s touch upon the positives of Duolingo and its limitations.

3 Benefits

Here are three great and clear benefits!

1. Easily Accessible

Whether you are a homemaker, student, or professional who maintains a tight schedule, anyone can use Duolingo at its comfort with its interactive interface.

You neither need to travel far and wide to enroll in regular classes nor have any obligation to follow a fixed schedule.

You can study whenever and wherever you want at your own pace. You can jump right back into the next lesson or check out any previous one for revision.

You need a smartphone, internet access, and an email account, which most people have nowadays.

2. Everything is Free on Duolingo!

It is absolutely free, and you can access everything. And that makes it the most popular education learning platform on earth.

Let’s face it — many people want to learn a language but cannot afford it.

A parent might not pay the tuition fee for their daughter, who wants to learn Korean because K-Pop, K-Drama, and K-Movie fascinate her.

Duolingo’s mission to “make education free, fun, and accessible to all” is genuine.

You might learn nothing meaningful that can help you in your career or assist you in watching foreign movies on Netflix, but at least it’s a start.

Remember, a journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step.

3. You can learn multiple languages simultaneously

Do you want to become a polyglot?

Duolingo can play a small but crucial part in your goal in that situation.

The app doesn’t restrict how many languages you can learn concurrently. So, now you can easily switch between Spanish and French whenever you prefer.

I’ve tried several apps, and most don’t allow me to learn another language unless I finish the first one.

On the contrary, Duolingo allows you to learn many languages simultaneously.

There is no restriction. Suppose you have spent some time on Duolingo. In that case, you will see many profiles (like the one below) with several languages and their corresponding level.

But I won’t suggest going over 1 or 2. Language learning requires undivided attention. Focusing on too many will perplex you, and you might not concentrate on anything.

You can always endeavor the second once you have reached intermediate proficiency in the first target language.

5 Disadvantages

Despite some apparent benefits associated with the Duolingo app, they still come with many difficulties you must consider before diving deep into it.

Here are 5 shortcomings.

1. It focuses more on English speakers

As an English speaker, you have plenty of choices.

What if you want to learn Mandarin as a Hindi or Tamil speaker or dive into French as a Japanese native?

Unfortunately, you are out of luck!

Mostly, you have 1 or 2 options for several languages, and English is a common destination.

The app centers mainly on English speakers who want to learn another language than speakers of other languages who wish to study something other than English.

Perhaps they don’t have enough resources to make these programs.

It is also conceivable that it is daunting since many languages are more colloquial. Thus, creating such a combination meets many localization issues.

Alternatively, you can check out the LING app, which offers many rare languages and uncommon combinations. For instance, you can learn Bosnian for German speakers.

Whatever the case, your possibilities are pretty unsatisfactory as a non-English speaker.

2. It is only for beginners and not meant for Advanced learners

Duolingo is not a magic solution that will help you easily learn any language with just a few taps on your device.

Forget about fluency; even achieving an intermediate level is a pipe dream. This is one of the major problems of online language learning.

Everything begins and ends at the primary level!

Some people even fail to learn anything. Do you want authentic examples?

According to Forbes, Duolingo’s chief revenue officer did not immediately understand the spoken question “¿Hablas Español?” after six months of Duolingo Spanish study.

If this intrigues you, you can read some known criticism and complaints in the image below, taken from Wikipedia.

Duolingo’s lessons leave a lot to be desired for serious learners. If you have any crucial long-term goal like a career requiring languages, higher education abroad, immigration, etc., you should avoid it.

Instead, consider enrolling in a language school, finding a teacher, or taking help from other resources like books, audio, and video lessons.

By all means, you should try. But I’d firmly say keep your expectations low. So you won’t be disappointed once you complete the whole tree.

3. Duolingo is all about a game

Language learning isn’t just playing a game. The entire strategy is gamified. There is undoubtedly some educational value, but not enough to make you learn it.

They don’t teach how to communicate in the language.

I doubt anyone can even talk to a native speaker for 5 minutes or order food in a restaurant. You won’t catch anything if you watch a movie in that language without subtitles.

They incorporate some random vocabulary and phrases, which means insufficient for anything worthy.

In the end, it becomes all about beating the game.

4. You can only learn some vocabulary and phrases

You cannot learn a language just by practicing some words and phrases through flash cards.

Duolingo explains things like informal and formal greetings and commonly practiced sentences. In further exercises, it also comprises frequently used nouns, verbs, tenses, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.

There isn’t any proper and suitable grammatical explanation and rules for sentence structure. Everyone knows the varieties can be productive but are insufficient on Duolingo.

They are also horrible at teaching non-European scrip if you intend to understand Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji to study Japanese.

Perhaps Russian Cyrillic, Korean Hangul, or some Mandarin characters or Indian languages, it would be almost unlikely that you will understand anything substantial.

When I first completed the entire tree for French. I asked myself, “Is this it?”

It left me with much to crave. Since I already knew French, this was hardly an A1 level of DELF.

5. This is more useful for Kids and not Adults

These days, Duolingo is focusing more on adding cartoon characters and animations. It seems they are more targeting the youngsters.

The total number of users has soared from 300 million to 500 million since the coronavirus spread in early 2020.

This robust growth is mainly contributed by school-going children with easy access to smartphones and laptops. Parents primarily work from home, and thus, they don’t mind their children studying something new.

But this doesn’t serve the purpose for adults who want to learn effectively.

Neither does it explain the fundamental grammar (they do some parts on the desktop, though), nor will it help you enhance your listening and speaking.

It also has no natural-sounding conversations and resembles more of a computer voice. You will not get a real-life insight into how people actually speak it.

A lack of intermediate lessons and face-to-face interaction like recorded videos is a big disappointment.

How much does Duolingo cost? — Free Vs. Paid

Duolingo’s unique selling proposition is that it is entirely free. This is the primary reason its popularity is rising at an unprecedented speed.

You can locate entire content, stories, and perks from beginning to end without paying a single penny.

You can use it on a smartphone, which will sync the progress on all the devices you use with your account.

If you want to track your students, try “Duolingo for Schools.” Once added, you can check their improvement from your account.