Why Duolingo’s Gamification Update isn’t Enough

It’s not about language learning now, but about maintaining my streak

Even with notifications disabled, Duo finds a way… (Source: Duolingo)

I have recently (and by recently, I mean I’m on a 175-day streak) started learning Spanish on Duolingo again. When I first saw the linear map, I thought this was an interesting change, and I was curious whether it would directly affect my language-learning journey.

In the past, it was easy to break a streak and lose all motivation to restart it, but now, with Duo’s constant reminder on my home screen widget and my long commute, I’ve found myself building up my streak again. All is well.

Until I realised that it was not as simple as it seemed.

I am keeping up my streak, but every day I open the app and drag myself through one single lesson before moving on to other activities in haste. It became a chore, but I did it because I wanted to keep up my streaks in front of my friends. I no longer cared about the global leaderboard, or about progressing on the map.

It became clear soon enough—Duolingo’s new gamification updates weren’t enough.

Removing What Attracts

Any form of learning values one practice — repetition. In language learning, repetition is king. From vocabulary to sentence…