For the past year, I have been regularly using Duolingo to work on my Japanese. As with most other activities, prolonged use comes with diminishing returns. However, Duolingo still represents significant value for me, and I'd like to examine it in some detail.
The Premise
When you sign up for an account, Duolingo tests you in that language to assess how far along you are in your learning journey. From there, it places you either right at the beginning, or somewhere further along the path.
From there, you complete modules that have been grouped into two basic groups - reading and writing, and grammar.
In the case of Japanese, reading and writing is further sub-categorized into Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. This will take the form of character recognition, and actual writing.
For grammar, it's more along the lines of forming sentences, learning new words and concepts, and translating from Japanese to English. And recently, they even added speaking lessons!
Duolingo is partially gamified. As the users learn, they gain XP which can be used for extra challenges and unlocking features like Personalized Planning. Users are also placed in Leagues - Copper, Silver, Gold, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, Pearl, Obsidian, Diamond - and even a sort of Elite-level league within the Diamond League.
The Aesthetics
The layouts are clean and straightforward, with a cutesey bent. Check out the art on these medals!
The animations are pretty cute, especially at the end of each lesson.
The Experience
Even just exploring the app for the first time, I navigated it with ease. I managed to find extra information by clicking on stuff during exercises, such as explanatory text.
Also, there were charts and wordy descriptions hidden away, accessible by clicking the correct screen elements to open them up. They were almost a bit too well hidden, because I only really discovered them half a year into using Duolingo.
All in all, this did not require a huge learning curve to use.
The Interface
The user tends to be clicking buttons on most of the screens. It's mostly arranging words to form sentences or multiple-choice questions.
In the case of writing exercises, there's a drawing component.
For speaking exercises, tap the mic and read the text provided. It's all pretty simple, hard to go wrong.
What I liked
This app keeps getting revised as the creators refine their teaching techniques, adding new question types every now and then.I love this particular puzzle. It's mad (just like its name), yet so addictive.
This timed challenge isn't bad either.
This avatar maker seems totally superfluous if I'm being honest, but I totally love it!
I like the fact that Listening and Speaking exercises are totally optional and can be turned off when encountered.
While I'm not wild about the concept of Hearts (you need at least 1 Heart to do the lessons), there's at least a practice option that can be used without Hearts, to earn Hearts. I understand why it is the way it is, because Duolingo is ultimately a business and users need to be encouraged to use the Pro version. Doesn't stop it from being annoying on occasion!
Friend Quests are great. Nothing like teaming up with someone else once a week, to meet some objective or other. This is so cool!
Gems. While I think they're kind of superfluous, I can't seem to stop obsessively collecting them by doing challenges, completing Quests, watching ads, and so on. I tend to console myself that at least with all this ad watching, I'm making up for the fact that I haven't yet spent a cent on this app.
I live for Duolingo telling me I've extended my streak!
The concept of Super is nice. It adds considerable value to users who have money to spare.
Just the entire concept of Duolingo, to be honest. It's hard to have negative thoughts about an app whose intention is to educate. The intention is to be lauded, both in terms of intent and scope. Over forty languages is nothing to sniff at.
What I didn't
Some of the voices are extremely annoying. The voices of the kids - and this may be just my opinion - are high, shrill, and somehow louder.I like encouraging my friends and all, but having a list of different emojis to do it with, feels like overkill.
Having a listening Daily Quest seems a little insensitive towards the deaf.
One main limitation of Duolingo is that it uses English almost exclusively as a base. If you are trying to learn English, then yes, you can use one of the other languages as a base. However, you can't, for example, learn Japanese using Mandarin.
Sometimes there are glitches in the interface. Mostly layout problems, probably easily fixed.
I think the concept of using English to type in romanization for sounds, is more than a little annoying when you factor in Autocorrect. Plus, I really don't think it adds much to the education.
Just the general gamification of the experience seems a little off, somehow. I suspect the app would be better with its exclusion. In particular, I detest the Leaderboard.
The entire concept of XP also gives me the eye-rolls. This goes for related functionality like Legendary, Saturday XP Bonus Hour, and so on. A guy just wants to study Japanese, why do I need this? Why does anyone need this? It's a distraction, nothing more.
There's also an issue with Duolingo that has been making the rounds on Social Media a while now. And that's the inclusion of LGBT themes in the training material. Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I think inclusivity is a wonderful thing, and I certainly won't criticize it on a platform that I'm not even paying for. However, the heavy-handed way Duolingo goes about it, is problematic.
Take the above screenshot, for instance. It's that of a butch-looking woman (with a woman's voice) telling us about her wife. Now, butch lesbians exist because LGBT is a fact of life regardless of legality. Muslim users can complain all they like; it is what it is. But I do object to sentences such as "My older brother's husband is Canadian.".
You see, same-sex marriage has not been recognized in Japan as of now. That is also a fact of life. And to act like it's mainstream in Japan via means of the training sentences, strikes me as supremely disrespectful of another country's right to determine their own laws without outside interference. The makers of Duolingo are not Japanese, are not natively familiar with the culture, and have no business trying to impose their ideals here no matter how noble their stated intentions seem. As of last June, they've already gotten into trouble with Russia about this.
Conclusion
This app is great for learning a new language. It won't give you native-level fluency, but it will absolutely take you from zero to some significant level of proficiency provided one uses it diligently and consistently. Duolingo is probably excellent as a supplementary means of learning. Or even a main means of learning if, like me, you're just a casual.Great as the concept is, however, there remain several implementation problems that, in all fairness, are ironed out with regularity. With the regular addition of new features, inevitably, there will other implementation issues, but hey, it won't get stagnant. That's a huge plus!
Regardless of what I think about Duolingo's attempt at incorporating progressive politics (and make no mistake, I think it's misguided at best), Duolingo remains one of the most recognized language-learning aids today. And if they sensibly keep those politics as a feature rather than the feature, this should not change anytime soon.
My Rating
7.5 / 10This app speaks to me!
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