Duolingo - Language Lessons for iPhone

A free language-learning program

Duolingo: Language Lessons, or simply Duolingo, is an educational program that allows you to learn and practice various languages. Developed by Duolingo Inc.‬, this is a language-learning software that offers over 100 different language courses—available in 38 languages for all of its versions.

What’s great about Duolingo is that it encourages learning via game-like mechanics such as leaderboards and a point reward system. Plus, with a user-friendly interface and science-based teaching methodology, it lets users embark on a journey of linguistic discovery, regardless of their proficiency level or learning goals.

Can you become fluent by using Duolingo?

At its core, Duolingo is a language education software that offers basic and advanced digital language courses, as well as language proficiency assessment exams. With it, you can start learning both commonly spoken and written languages and some not-so-prominent ones from all around the world. It’s completely free to use; you just need an account—although it also offers a premium plan with added features. Anybody can try it, regardless of their proficiency level.

This is because you can take a test at the start to determine your skill concerning the language you choose to study. This will adjust the lessons and quizzes available to you. Completing lessons will award you points the more you give correct answers; and the questions and exercises vary between sentence construction, translation typing, audio transcriptions, and more. However, you can’t use these points on the PC version.

Moreover, all of this doesn’t help this program’s glaring issues compared to other language-learning apps. Most of the criticism toward it revolves around its ineffectiveness in fully teaching the languages, as it presents the lessons in a straightforward quiz-like manner that focuses more on direct translations rather than conversational speech. This is all the more evident in the language courses that use foreign alphabets. 

Tons of languages to explore and AI support

Learners have the unparalleled opportunity to delve into a vast array of languages, spanning from the Romance languages of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese, to the Germanic languages such as German, Dutch, and Danish. For those interested in the Slavic languages, the app provides courses in Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish, as well. Furthermore, you can explore other languages like Turkish, Greek, Irish, Esperanto, and Welsh, or dive into the rich tapestry of Asian languages including Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

Besides that, the platform extends its reach to include courses in Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and even the fictional language High Valyrian, enabling learners to explore cultures and languages from across the globe and even beyond that. At the same time, it has raised the bar yet again with the introduction of Duolingo Max. The new subscription tier offers access to two groundbreaking features — Explain My Answer and Roleplay — powered by cutting-edge generative AI technology developed in collaboration with OpenAI.

What sets Duolingo Max apart from its predecessor, Super Duolingo, is the inclusion of innovative AI-powered features alongside all the benefits of the Super tier, including unlimited hearts, an ad-free experience, and personalized reviews through the Practice Hub. Explain My Answer provides learners with valuable insights into their responses during lessons. They can tap a button to initiate a chat with Duo and receive a simple explanation, examples, or further clarification. 

On the other hand, Roleplay allows learners to practice real-world conversation skills with in-app virtual characters. From discussing future vacation plans to ordering coffee at a café abroad, learners engage in interactive scenarios that earn XP and provide AI-powered feedback on the accuracy and complexity of their responses. Unfortunately, Duolingo Max hasn’t been rolled out for all platforms and language courses yet.

A free alternative

All in all, Duolingo is a nice alternative for introducing languages in a way that challenges beginners. Whether you’re learning a new language for travel, school, career advancement, or simply for the joy of expanding your linguistic horizons, it can be your trusted companion every step of the way. However, for advanced learners, it’s not as effective due to its limit on conversational speech lessons and fostering such within a community.