Do these learning apps really work?

I think it's a little unfair to duolingo. People use duolingo as the only thing which they don't use or practice or use outside of using the app. The use of any app is limited but duolingo isn't meant to make you fluent. And it's catered to some languages a bit better than others.

They are not particularly effective. They can be beneficial as part of a larger disciplined study plan, but you aren't going to learn to speak a language by just doing your daily tasks to satisfy the app. There are much, much better ways to study a language. But, many people lack the motivation or discipline to study regularly but the "gamification" in some apps helps people to study a little somtimes. So, Duolingo and other study apps are slightly better than doing nothing at all related to the language, but they are not better than actually studying the language.

Nope

2100 day streak on duolingo here... no. I've learned exponentially more from my year long, once a week Japanese course than all those days on duolingo.

I learned more in 1 month of spanish classes than 6 months on Duo so Im gonna say no. It helps to vaguely familiarise yourself with the language though before you go into actual classes.

I don't think it was ever supposed to be a standalone method of learning to speak a language fluently. Even so, before a year or whatever ago that it was when they updated, I was able to learn a fair amount of german. I was also trying to learn outside of that and looking up stuff I didn't understand, but Duolingo was my main source of knowledge and I was able to even start constructing sentences. Even back then though, it wasn't super great. But after the update they basically got rid of all the most useful stuff and now it doesn't teach you anything. I remember trying to learn Spanish recently and I was doing it for months every day and I remember thinking one day that I still haven't learned anything. Like maybe four words? It wasn't explaining why certain words were accented certain ways, it wasn't explaining the difference in gendered words, it wasn't doing anything to make me understand the language. It was just shoving vocabulary down my throat but even then it was just the same eight words over and over. Tl;dr: the app was always at least a little bit trash but now it's complete trash. Free would be too expensive for this app now.

This is a complicated question that is made more difficult by the fact that some people don't like Duolingo because it's very popular, and some people don't like Duolingo for business decisions that are less to do with how well the method works. Often people will complain extensively about why Duolingo is terrible, before recommending an app that has an identical methodology but isn't well known enough to have attracted so many complaints. The picture above describes a common criticism of Duolingo, that you can spend a very long time learning on it and then be completely stumped when put on the spot. This criticism in itself isn't fair, and applies to *lots* of learning methods that work very well. This is because learning the language and using the language are related but separate skills, and no self-teaching method can actually get you past that hurdle of starting to use the language. On top of that, even if your usage is very good, switching from one language to another quickly is another separate skill, one that is very rarely actually needed, and so being asked to quickly demonstrate a language you're learning and freezing isn't an accurate measure of your ability. However, Duolingo and apps like it do have a big problem when it comes to language learning. The method itself is fine for an introduction to a new language, with very basic pronunciation, reading, and grammar covered quite well in the early stages. It's a very traditional method with advocates of pure comprehensible input won't like, but as someone who thinks a little teach-yourself grammar and listen and repeat stuff is a good jumping off point to lots of reading, I don't have a problem with it. This issue is as you continue to use them, the pace of the course, and the type of learning, can't keep up with what someone actually needs to progress to higher levels of proficiency. As you progress through a Duolingo course, the material gets harder, but the pace of it stays completely constant. Bit by bit, new grammar is introduced, new vocabulary is introduced, but you take in new material at exactly a beginners pace. This is not a problem unique to language learning apps, a lot of methods have this issue, but books and classes etc. do typically advise you to supplement with other material. Apps and online courses don't. They present as a complete solution. The reason people plateau quickly in language learning (well before the famous *intermediate plateau*) is because more quickly than most people realise, learning materials become a bottleneck. The amount of new words in a textbook chapter, or a Duolingo module, pales in comparison to a children's book for eight year olds. But many students fail to make that leap, instead they push further and further into more advanced learning materials, more slowly, without every reaching the level that they could read a Goosebumps book, and apps like Duolingo are built around the idea that this method of study isn't just effective, but *is* progress. But, in Duolingo's defence, it's perfectly fine as a free, decently structured, gamified grammar course alongside a method with comprehensible input, and that's a valuable, decent thing to be. I'd even be persuaded that something like Duolingo probably is the best, easiest, most entertaining way to do that kind of study. I used it extensively after reaching a very high reading level in French, as I'd acquired a huge amount of vocabulary and grammar, but didn't have things like accents, spellings, or certain conjugations locked in because they're not a barrier to comprehension when you're absorbed in a book.

No, they don't work. Just talk. Speak in English. Practice.

They'll teach you the alphabet/sylabary pretty well and some basic words and grammar, but not much else on their own

Duolingo is a game, and it's about as helpful as Candy Crush.

Gohan to mizu kudasai 😭

Some languages on Duolingo have more features which allow you to develop different areas better. French, German and Spanish are especially loved on Duolingo. I think a good amount of people who do big streaks mainly just do it out of habit and keeping a big number so aren't necessarily focused on learning a language as a main goal. I'm sure they can utter some sentences though if asked, unless they only did questions with one word and asked to translate it. They may just do the required set of questions to maintain the streak and leave it for the day. Though I've heard Duolingo is trying to move to majority AI as it's workforce so I've heard a lot of people will be leaving the app, whether they do or not, I don't know I think it's good to use a multitude of apps for languages to compliment reading, but each to their own of course, there's no right way to learn.

Best I could do is "Wo ist die toiletten"

they don't

Dualingo might be ok to learn some words but it seems to lack any proper structure in how (or what) they "teach" you compared to a school setting, for example. It doesnt help that half of the time you also look at Ads in the free versio and I also noticed some stuff where they basically just present incorrect information to you.. meaning that some stuff they "teach" is just plain wrong.. 😅 Im basically using it to refresh my memory on a language I havent used in 10+ years and also trying to learn a new one but from my time with the App it's pretty clear that it's not worth paying for it and also not great at all with the whole "teaching" part..

I'm a bit over a year on Duolingo French. I can somewhat read longer texts on Reddit, and I think I'm about 60% comprehension on my 'set Skyrim to French' replay. Construction and pronunciation are probably terrible, as Duolingo is quite lacking in grammar drills and the spoken portions do not provide precise feedback on *why* you didn't get full marks for a word.

It's good for not losing what you already have or to help learn some basics before taking a real class, but no it won't really help with actually becoming fluent in a language.

People are so quick to shoot down Duolingo but it can be a very positive thing! For me it's something I use to enrich my brain instead of doomscrolling social media. Realistically I won't be able to go to a Spanish night class or move there or immerse myself by speaking it 100% of the time, but I _can_ fit in a few minutes of lessons a day. It improves my mental health, reduces screen time on social media and has taught me enough to use key phrases when I visit Spain on holiday. Yes I could have learned a lot more by using other techniques, but as long as someone doesn't expect fluency within a few months, it can definitely be a worthwhile thing!

If you use them by themselves then not really, they're only really useful if you're a beginner in your target language. If you supplement them with other things such as immersion and self-directed study they can be a useful aid.

Looking at my 1189 day streak and thinking the same. Although I never expected it to make me fluent, but it has taught me a lot about grammar and tenses etc.

Only if you're a beginner, then it can help with some vocabulary

I have one of those ridiculous Duo streaks for Japanese. It has been a good tool for learning kanji, and maybe some vocab, but not much else. I keep it going out of habit.

They're attempting to gamify and structurally commodify a process that is 1.) incredibly personal and non-linear 2.) relies on unending and consistent output and effort over a long span of time. Underneath the surface, it sells for people who assume these two things can be short-circuited and instantly gratified, which they are aware isn't true on some levels. So, combine the above, and what you get is people with hundreds to thousands days ongoing streaks who can barely form a sentence or who could hardly coherently speak their language of choice for more than 5 seconds on end. This isn't an indictment against any of them, just an exasperation towards these apps selling an illusion disguised as progress.

The only thing you need for learning a language is Vocab and time spent consuming media. Look into Anki, find a good deck, maybe learn grammar, and then consume hours of shows/books/games. The only reason to do anything else is if you can't form a habit by doing Anki + Media daily. The best method is the one you can form a habit with.

Unless you’re speaking and writing you really aren’t learning. You might pull off reading because that’s what you are actually practicing, but it won’t really stick in an I need to communicate sense

I had the opportunity to go to France with some students at the school I teach at. So I grinded on duolingo French for 80 days. It was helpful. It mostly gave me vocabulary and the fact that I know some Spanish helped too. Its not useless.

I had a friend learn german, so I guess they do work

I mean, I’ve learned some basics after booking a trip to a country, gone to the country, and used the language there with locals. Most recently I did that with Arabic (a language where I was really starting from 0) in Egypt. I’m not fluent but I can say a few sentences and the locals understood me🤷‍♂️ It’s exaggerated for the meme. No one became fluent off of just Duolingo. But it’s a good tool for refreshing a language you studied long ago, or for learning some basics in a language you’ve never touched. It’s not something to put on your resume or to claim fluency based off of. It’s a better habit than playing clash of clans or whatever, not sure why people dump on it so much

Guilty as charged. 3+ years on Duo, and 对不起， 我听不懂，你说得很快。

No singular resource is ever going to take someone from 0 to fluency, everyone needs multiple avenues for their reading, writing, speaking, listening, etc. Any resource that gives you correct information is good, but if all you do is revise 50 words and 3 grammar points, you're not gonna get beyond that. The shortcoming of apps like Duolingo is just that they're limited in what they teach and often don't give an actual explanation of grammar points or the nuances of certain vocabulary, nor do they give you practice in constructing sentences, only in translation. In short, Duolingo is like a pocket guide, which is good enough to get around, but to truly learn, you need a good range of resources and direct experiences

Jag tror att jag lärde mig lite svenska med Duolingo...

No singular resource is ever going to take someone from 0 to fluency, everyone needs multiple avenues for their reading, writing, speaking, listening, etc. Any resource that gives you correct information is good, but if all you do is revise 50 words and 3 grammar points, you're not gonna get beyond that. The shortcoming of apps like Duolingo is just that they're limited in what they teach and often don't give an actual explanation of grammar points or the nuances of certain vocabulary, nor do they give you practice in constructing sentences, only in translation. In short, Duolingo is like a pocket guide, which is good enough to get around, but to truly learn, you need a good range of resources and direct experiences

This is very curious, I’m Canadian and grew up learning French as a second language (my French sucks) but d/l duo lingo for trips to Cuba as a novelty and my Spanish is arguably better than my French, I was able to communicate with cab drivers, hotel folks about where the ‘banos’ were affectively. It made it fun and could show off a bit. Would have to slow down native speakers for sure. But could understand more than years of schooling could have me understand someone speaking French from an app that I played around on

Good for vocabulary recognition (because of repeated exposures), not good for much else - if Duolingo (or something equivalent) is the only exposure you get to your target language, when you speak with people IRL you realize they don't always follow the script, and so you're lost.

They do, but I get busy and just do the easy one sometimes to not lose the streak

Good to dive into new language, Aim of the learning apps is catching totally beginners and exploiting their desire to learn new language. They don't care about users above beginner level. Because of this, learning apps' beginner part is well but I don't recommend for even A1 level. Give it a few weeks and switch to books or courses that designed better than these apps.

Eres tu hermosa

I am fluent in Esperanto and I learnt most of it using Duolingo. But I think that's a bit of an exception because 1. it's an artificial language that was designed to be very easy to learn and 2. it has relatively few root words, and most of those are taken from languages I was already familiar with. Also, I only ever use the desktop version of Duolingo, where some languages have grammar explanations. The Esperanto course had them, and they were pretty good. And the grammar is sufficiently simple that it's actually enough. For other languages, my experience is similar to everyone else's I guess: it helps me expand my Swedish vocabulary and keeps me from forgetting all of it, but that's about it. No way I'm going to ever get fluent in Greek just from doing Duolingo.

I beat Rosetta Stone Japanese and Vietnamese. I beat some other apps more specialized to those languages as well. I'm mid way on Duolingo (although I quit Vietnamese like 2-3 years ago). Even when I was practicing hard, I'd be walking down the street listening to someone speak Vietnamese behind me and not even be able to pick up one word. I could read basic street signs/billboards. The apps teach different sounds from what is actually used here in US (I know there are a couple differences in dialect for Vietnamese), for example "gi" sounding like z vs y. In Japanese, Duolingo has been working on making it better; it's still nothing compared to Spanish which I also play with just for fun since I'm fluent. They did add kanji writing which has really helped with recognition. So I'm coming along, after many years. I can sound out katakana and hiragana and recognize some kanji; I pick out words and sentences when I watch anime. I can't really speak too much; no way to practice. I've watched for night classes around me; not too much here. So am I ever going to get fluent using Duolingo? Absolutely not! I really like their math practice though...it IS helping with fluency.

Imagine if you just studied how to read music and different chords on paper. Then somebody handed you a tuba and asked you to play something. Learning to speak requires real speaking practice.

I have almost a two year streak with Spanish. I work with a lot of Spanish speaking clients and I do think it's helped me be able to ask and answer simple questions. I don't really study Spanish outside Duolingo and listening to people speak Spanish around me. I think the real issue with Duolingo is it doesn't force you to confront the way it feels to try to speak a language you suck at. And then you end up not speaking and not improving.

I think it largely depends on your prior experience with languages and the language you're trying to learn. If you learned a language like Spanish as a second language, Duolingo could probably teach you Italian, Portuguese, French, and Romanian because those languages follow the same general rules as Spanish. English is its own beast though, particularly because it breaks its own rules pretty much constantly. It doesn't help that a lot of rules in written English are often ignored in spoken, vernacular English (e.g., no ending sentences with prepositions, subject/verb agreement, etc.). Duo may help teach vocab, but it's not going to be a sufficient substitute for a class or immersion.

I used Duolingo for a couple of months before going to Italy on honeymoon, and it definitely helped me. I was able to carry out basic communication. I had the advantage of already being English/Spanish bilingual, but still, the app was very helpful!

I think that if you are a beginner and don't know anything about the language, it's a good option. but only for one week, because these apps are too simple.

They're okay to get you started, they don't get you past the lowest levels of proficiency. At some point you have to start reading things in the language and speaking it with native speakers. The other thing is duolingo doesn't really explain anything well so you learn by memorizing but if it's a language that isn't super simple you're going to have more questions than answers. It's best used alongside other tools. That said, they started using AI, so I don't know how well it works now. AI can lead you astray when it comes to pretty much anything, but in language learning it's especially bad. It's going to have a whole generation of people talking in an unusual way.

The chic thing to do is shit on apps like this and it's mostly warranted, but here is a more balanced assessment. They serve like 1-2 specific functions really well out of the 10+ you actually need to develop mastery of a language. They are a good way of expanding your vocabulary and getting frequent low-level reading comprehension practice. They do little to nothing for speaking/listening/writing skills, developing a better understanding of grammar, and there is an upper skill limit where it stops really being helpful. For someone with no experience at all in a language, they're an okay on-ramp to get started. For more experienced learners, they can still serve a role in a broader system of resources, but won't be enough to see significant growth on their own.

It’s probably more of a “learn the words, not the sentence” type of thing.

Duolingo has been bad for a while, but there was just recently an article about them letting go some of their course experts in favor of AI. You're much better off with more traditional language learning methods

i love duo, currently on a 750+ day streak. but i only do the minimum to keep the streak going. total time spent learning is probably only like 60-65 hours. i find it helps me a lot with my reading but yeah i can't speak it, i might be able to understand someone if they talked slow enough.

I'm pretty sure they're bots that duolingo stages to make it seem like people are actually learning on their platform.

I have over 500 days on Duo and I still don't even kinda understand French lol

ive been doing german on duolingo, i have a nearly 200 day streak and all i know how to say is “bring me the rice”. brilliant

Duolingo was super helpful to learn some French after I was already quite proficient in Spanish. I could carry over most of the grammatical concepts and recognize a lot of words, and Duolingo helped me expand vocabulary and some listening skills. It's not useful without any existing background in the language, in my opinion. I can't imagine starting from scratch and coming away with anything other than some individual vocab words.

Purely my personal experience: Duolingo Spanish gave me the ability to start practicing with actual Spanish speakers. I have enough basics that I start. But is it ever going to make me proficient? No. I’m not nearly as bad as the person in this meme. I could speak a sentence in Spanish if I needed to. But I have a ways to go, and I don’t think Duolingo will get me there.

The only one worked for me is [Lexioo](https://lexioo.io). It’s not a gamified app but a real self paced learning platform built for serious learners. It’s also free

i like Busuu better it teaches you more helpful words and phrases!!

they are better than doing nothing. if you are trying to learn a language that has a different alphabet-writing method they are a decent tool to learn how to read/write, provided you use them correctly. for the rest, meh.

I think it is a good supplement aside from a main disciplined study plan.

I started learning Spanish through Duolingo a few years ago (I have a 1079 day steak lol), and I’ve since expanded to using a few other apps as well. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from them, but my learning also feels really imbalanced. I can now read a decent amount in Spanish, but I have trouble forming my own sentences or understanding native speakers. Prior to starting Duolingo, I only knew a handful of words.

I used Duolingo just when I started learning English and I think it was very helpful for a complete beginner like me. It helped me to understand how the "to be" verb works and some basic grammar. I didn't spend too much time on this app but I think it was a good experience.

Real

They're good for drilling sentences. Getting instant feedback that you are putting words together following correct grammar. They're also good for drilling basic vocabulary. You will want to supplement them with grammar guides, readers, podcasts, writing things, and speaking to humans.

too funny