Why Duolingo Is a Bad App for Language Learning
Duolingo is great, to create habit of learning. Not to learn language.
I’m learning Spanish and have used Duolingo for 400 days in a row.
I liked that platform. It made me feel like I was learning something, and for first month I really was. But after a long time I never had feeling I know something. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t read fluently and I just learned some phrases and vocabulary.
I told myself it was only a matter of time and I was still learning. After half a year I even changed my devices to Spanish language, but then I felt really demotivated because I didn’t understand almost anything.
After 400 days I stopped using this app because for the last 100 days I was just doing it to maintain my day streak.
It wasn’t just because I started to get demotivated, but it was harder for me to learn something new when they added lives in one of updates.
Lives in Duolingo means you can only make a few mistakes, and when you’re learning a new lesson, it’s hard to study for a long time without making mistakes. With a bigger goal of how many minutes you want to learn, it becomes increasingly difficult to do in in once. I had to start application multiple times in day and it frustrated me enough to decrease my daily goal to minimum.
In my opinion, Duolingo is best at one thing. Create a habit and motivate yourself to learn. But not because their priority is you to learn language, but because their priority is you to stay in the app.
I understand, it’s making money and that’s always a big priority, but that does not mean you have to be okay with that and not try other alternatives.
Now I’m trying to learn with Busuu. It is more interactive and gives you opportunity to interact with real people who speak the native language you are learning. But it is good to know, Busuu has a much better experience if you have the premium version. But you can try it for free for a one week, if you are interested to try it.
What is your experience with Duolingo or Busuu? Or are you trying something else? Let us know.
Enjoy and always learn new things ✌
I’m still learning English. I apologize for my mistakes and feel free to correct me in the comments. Thank you.
