Why Duolingo Is Worse Than Wasting Time on Social Media for Unprepared Language Learners
And why that streak is your worst enemy
I have a quite deeply-rooted hatred for Duolingo ever since I waste a year using it to learn languages.
Sure, I did succeed in reaching a 365-day-long streak a few years back. But this also resulted in being the year I enjoyed language learning the least among the 15+ years I’ve done it as a hobby.
Duolingo is great at two things: overhyping results and making you feel shameful.
Can it help in learning a language? Sure. Is it what you should turn to first? Hell no.
In fact, spending time scrolling through social media might be a better option.
Exposure vs learning
Duolingo throws at you sentences with new words. It also throws context out the window.
If you’re lucky, you might be learning a language that also gets a simplified grammar explanation beforehand but most don’t and even when there’s one, it often leaves us with more questions than not.
If you’re even luckier, you might be learning a language like French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, or Japanese that has stories to learn from but these shouldn’t…
