you always lose the homework in spanish duolingo

10 Best Tips for How to Use Duolingo

With over 300 million users, Duolingo is one of the most popular language-learning apps in the world. But are you using it, right? Excuse the accusatory tone of this video’s title, but there’s a good chance you’re not getting the most out of Duolingo. I’ve been using Duolingo 2014, and I’ve completed two trees, a German tree, and the Spanish tree. Right now, we’re going to dive into my best tips for learning with Duolingo.

Tip # 1: Understand a Concept Better With Tips 

Duolingo has implemented and removed many features over the years. But one thing that has remained consistent is the tree. This is where you’re going to start when you’re learning a language with Duolingo. As you progress through the tree, you’ll pick up new vocabulary. But sometimes, you miss some connecting parts that you might otherwise get in a class. That’s where the tips function comes into play.

Be sure to use the tips function when you’re entering a new course because this will give you a little bit more explanation about what you’re about to get yourself into with that class. Often, they’ll cover some grammar and just a bit more context about that class’s topic.

Tip # 2: “Discuss” When You Have An Issue 

One often overlooked function in Duolingo is the discussion tab. It comes in handy if you think you got something right, but Duolingo marked it wrong. You can click this option and see a discussion about that question or that part of the class. And you can see the rationale about why Duolingo may have marked it wrong. It’s also possible that your answer was correct. So definitely check that out to get a little more insight into why Duolingo may have marked your answer as incorrect.

Tip # 3: Use The Forum

This next feature is only available on the desktop app, but it’s invaluable. It’s the community tab. 

Here you can post questions for discussion or get a little bit more feedback and encouragement from other Duolingo users to help keep you motivated. If you question a specific topic, there are always tons of people willing to help you understand a subject a little bit better. Many users will share even more resources where you can further hone your skills.

Tip # 4: Repeat Everything Out Loud

It’s best to repeat the phrases you hear in Duolingo out loud. I recommend reading each word out loud three times. And this is because Duolingo doesn’t give you many opportunities to speak, which is an essential component of becoming fluent!

Keep in mind, though, that speech recognition isn’t great. So what you want to do is repeat what you hear within a lesson as accurately as possible. It will improve your accent and pronunciation a ton.

Tip # 5: Use The Desktop Version

Using Duolingo on a desktop computer is better for several reasons. But it also ensures you won’t lose hearts for answering incorrectly. It can prevent you from paying Duolingo to refill your hearts or to use Lingots from the store to fill up your hearts. There are also fewer matching games and more having you type in actual sentences on the desktop version. It will be more difficult, but you’re going to retain a lot more doing it this way.

Tip # 6: Duolingo Stories Are A Game Changer

My favorite feature in Duolingo is the stories. And although a lot of them are kind of cheesy, it’s so rewarding to be able to listen to a short story and answer some questions and feel like you’re actually getting somewhere with the language. I think it’s crucial to listen and repeat everything you hear in the stories. And that’s because you’re getting actual voice actors on each level. So you know that you’re copying a native Spanish speaker or native of your target language. And after you do it a few times, you get used to the rhythm and the intonation from the narrator in each story.

Tip # 8: Step Up to the Podcast 

Once you’ve built up some confidence by going through the Duolingo stories, you should start listening to the Duolingo podcast and even from there listening to other podcasts. One good thing about the Duolingo podcast for Spanish is that the narrators in each podcast episode speak slowly, and the producers have created the podcast in such a way to be able to scale you up little by little with each new episode. 

If you enjoy the Duolingo podcast and you understand most of that, I encourage you to check out our podcast Learn Spanish and G , available everywhere you listen to podcasts. We even have transcripts and breakdown audio and PDFs available for each episode in our podcast membership .

Tip # 9: Dedicate Enough Time

Be sure to spend at least 15 minutes a day with the app. That way, you’re investing enough to get something out of it, but not too little to where you feel like you’re trying to keep up a streak or trying to make sure that you did at least one lesson that day. 

Another thing that helps is taking classes at night. Studies show that you’re more likely to remember something if you learn than towards the end of the day. 

Tip #10: Type What You Hear 

One way to be fluent enough is to type what you hear. You are not just practicing the grammar and pronunciation but also how it is written.

Tip #10: Duolingo Is Just The Beginning 

We don’t talk about Duolingo a lot on our channel because it’s a high resource on the fun side of things but not necessarily the most effective. So I like to couple learning a new language with other resources. I don’t know anyone who has become fluent in a new language, only using Duolingo.

If you want a comprehensive program that includes audio, grammar, and cultural lessons, I recommend checking out Rocket Languages . If you want to mainly focus your efforts on listening comprehension and speaking, definitely check out Pimsleur or our Podcast Membership .

To be fluent enough, spend more time learning or using the app. Which tip is familiar to you? And what strategy do you think you’ll spend time with first? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions. I hope this article helps you find your way to Duolingo.

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Spanish with Stephanie

Ideas from one Spanish teacher to another

How to use Duolingo in your world language classroom

Today’s post is about this fantastic free app called Duolingo. It is a wonderful tool for differentiation, especially for your high-achievers who always finish early!  

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a free online tool to learn language. It teaches students through a series of mini-lessons and tracks their progress. Mini-lessons include skills across all 4 domains of language.  Students can learn more than one language at a time!

When a student completes a lesson, the level turns gold.  As time goes on, the gold bars fade to encourage students to go back to review and strengthen old lessons. They get a bar graph that shows their weekly Experience Points (XP) and they get points for both completing new levels and strengthening old ones.

The other incentive is called Lingots.  These are tokens that they can accumulate to “buy” items such as outfits for their Duolingo Owl or other special lessons such as idioms or flirting!

How I use it in my classroom

• Students create an account and join my class:
• Teacher Tutorial Video – Setting up your dashboard
• Teacher Tutorial Video – Student set-up

Daily:  This is their bellringer. (No prep!!) I set a timer that covers the passing period and the first 5 minutes of class. Students are motivated to get to my class on time (or even early) so they have extra Duolingo time!  When the buzzer goes off, they know to put away their device so we can begin class.  

Fridays:  Students begin a drumroll and I project the teacher dashboard to announce the winner each week. We select the winner by the amount of XP points, because this totals how many minutes they spent practicing, including review.  They are encouraged to play outside of class too!

Extra Credit:   Duolingo is the only way to earn extra credit in my class now.  Students can play outside of class on their home computer or on their smartphone. For every 100 XP points earned, they receive 1 point of extra credit. They max out at 10 points a quarter.

Competition

I have a bulletin board in my room entitled “Duolingüista” (This is the Spanish word I came up with for “duolingo-er”) and each class has a scoreboard where we write the winner’s name and their XP total. (Download here)  My weekly winner also gets a prize, and I have included the prize board poster in the download as well.  (Update: My students gave the feedback that they started losing interest when the same kids kept winning and thought the top 3 winners should get prizes, so that is what we do now.)

Helpful Tools for Classroom Management

• Students in my school have their own Chromebooks, but I also let them bring their phone to class because we have found that the speaking activities work better on their phone.  If I see their phone at any other point during class, I take it directly to the office with no warning, so I have not had any problems yet!
• I let students use Duolingo when they finish other work early.  This must be done on their computer though, not their phone.  Phones can only be used during the first few minutes of class when I can monitor everyone.
• Encourage students to use headphones to cut down on the noise. The program speaks to them and has other sounds throughout.
• Homework pass
• Sitting in the teacher chair or another “cool” chair
• Dollar store prizes

​The best part about this app is that the Duolingo staff is so receptive and supportive of feedback.  They have made some great updates within the past year alone that make it even easier to track your student’s progress using their Dashboard feature. This tool has become a hugely effective and motivating force within my classroom!

March 3, 2018 at 2:37 pm

Love Duolingo and my students love it as one of their options for homework! One thing to be careful of with purely XP winnings – students can just repeat the same lesson over and over again, as I have found. I look at both the XP and the “Course progress” columns. Tons of XP and no course progress is suspicious!

March 3, 2018 at 2:51 pm

Thanks Sra. Kennedy! Yes, I have had some students try this. When I catch the first student dong it, I will show the whole class how clever s/he was and then tell them that from this day forward, you can no longer be the weekly winner by just doing the same lesson all week. =)

March 7, 2018 at 7:26 pm

This is a great share of ideas! I use Duolingo and give points using ClassDojo. Students earn points when I receive the Monday Monthly Report from Duolingo listning the students who logged in throughout the week, and the lessons they’d completed. Students earn points based on lessons. But, if they do lesson one (Basic) multiple times, they only get one point. It’s a great resource. Thanks again!

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Home » Reviews » Duolingo Review: Can You Become Fluent with the Popular Language Learning App?

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written by Agnieszka Murdoch

Reading time: 13 minutes

Published: Dec 5, 2020

Updated: May 5, 2023

Duolingo Review: Can You Become Fluent with the Popular Language Learning App?

What is duolingo.

Duolingo is a language learning app that uses game-like methods to encourage users to keep coming back to learn every day.

• Gamified learning keeps users motivated and on track
• Simple sentences used in target language from the start
• Visual revision reminders
• Beautiful interface
• Visual learning (with images and visual prompts)
• Duolingo Stories (in target language) and the Duolingo Podcast
• The gamified system is potentially stressful to some users
• No control over the vocabulary topics, the order they come in, and the ability to skip them
• Pronunciation practice but no human interaction 
• Some sentences would not normally be used in natural speech
• A lot of ads on the free version of the app

Can you really learn a language with Duolingo? How does Duolingo work, and how can you use the app effectively?

Here’s your quick answer: Yes, you can learn a language with Duolingo. But can you become fluent with Duolingo? Not quite.

And here’s what I’ll be sharing about in this review:

Table of contents

How does duolingo work, duolingo lessons, duolingo: what are the lessons like, duolingo helps you target your weakest words, duolingo tracks your daily progress, help with motivation, start using simple sentences from day 1, visual revision reminders, visual learning, additional learning features: duolingo stories and the duolingo podcast, the hearts system can be discouraging for some, some sentences are unnatural, not enough control over vocabulary topics, no human interaction, there are a lot of ads if you don’t go with duolingo plus, so why is duolingo “bad” and is duolingo as good as rosetta stone, conclusion: duolingo is a great tool for language learners.

The language learning app Duolingo offers 37 language courses for English speakers.

The Duolingo app also includes language courses for speakers of other languages. These include French for Portuguese speakers, English for Czech speakers, Chinese for Japanese speakers, and so on. And they’re always adding more.

I've used Duolingo to learn Spanish, German and Swedish. Let's take a look at how this cool little app works and how it can support you in your language learning adventure!

By the way, if you want the tl;dr version, scroll to the bottom for my pros and cons list summarizing everything.

Duolingo is a great example of a straightforward language app . It's simple to use.

You set up a profile, choose your target language, set your weekly goals (only if you're brave enough), and off you go!

I've made a video in which I explain what Duolingo is, and talk about its pros and cons. You can watch it below. Otherwise, continue reading!

Here’s what Duolingo says you’ll learn during their course in Spanish:

Each course in Duolingo is made up of modules (the circles in the screenshot below) which are grouped to form skills.

Duolingo dictates the order in which you need to complete the different modules. New modules becoming active only once you've completed the previous one. This is also the case with individual lessons within each module. You need to complete lesson 1 to be able to progress to lesson 2, and so on.

That said, Duolingo allows you to “test out of” individual modules as well as groups of modules (skills).

Pressing the “key” button on a category lets you take a shortcut if you want to avoid going through the individual lessons that you're already familiar with. You need to pass the test to do that, though, because there are no shortcuts in language learning !

The option to “test out” also applies when you begin a new language. You can start with the basics or you can take an entry test and let the app determine your fluency level.

Each lesson in Duolingo is made up of a range of activities, such as translation. Here’s what Duolingo Spanish looks like for this exercise:

Or this activity where you have to speak into the mic what you see:

New vocabulary is often taught with images and grammar points are explained in little speech bubbles. Or, you can click on “tips” to see more grammar insights.

There are also listening exercises where you need to type what you hear, among others.

But if you’re not able to speak into the microphone or listen at that moment, that’s okay. The app does give you the option to deactivate your microphone or skip listening exercises for the time being.

Duolingo also uses a “hearts” system that only allows you to mess up so many times during a session. If you lose all your hearts, you have to go back and study previous material to regain hearts.

Your hearts automatically refill every day. But, if you have Duolingo Plus, you get unlimited hearts, as well as progress quizzes and some other nifty features.

Duolingo does this because their studies have shown people tend to plow through their lessons and not go back and review. So this encourages people to slow down and review to really learn.

Once you've finished the lessons in a module another screen appears. You’ll be given the option to review with either “regular practice” or “hard practice”.

You can strengthen your weakest words there and then, or go back at a later point.

Whenever you’ve kept up with your review, your module icon will turn gold. But as the days go by, it’ll start to go back to color and have a bar showing how “remembered” it is. So keep up your review!

At the end of each lesson, you get a progress report that also shows your streak – the number of days in a row that you've completed. If you've earned any “lingots” (the Duolingo currency you earn as you answer questions correctly) that's also indicated on the screen.

You can use the lingots to buy different costumes for the Duolingo owl mascot, Duo, or freeze your streak if you know you’ll miss a day.

Of course, we’ve all seen the Duolingo memes with Duo and how you’ll get tons of reminders from him to keep up your streak.

Duo will show up in your notifications (repeatedly), your email, etc. You can of course turn these features off in the settings. But many users have joked how “aggressive” Duo can be, like he’s going to stalk you and make you study.

So much so, Duolingo played on the joke with a “coming soon” meme:

So be prepared for that.

Duolingo: What's Good?

Here are a few things that Duolingo is good at which helped me in my language learning adventures.

Duolingo recognizes language learners need to be motivated to make sure they come back to the app and engage in some more language fun. Duolingo uses several different methods to keep you hooked.

The first is its goal-setting tool .

The goals you can choose from vary from “casual” to “insane”, depending on how serious you are about learning and how quickly you want to progress.

I've picked the “regular” goal for my Spanish course and the “casual” one for German. Duo reminds you every day if you're on track to reach your goal.

This works well for those learners who are motivated by the idea of streaks and maintaining stats. It works for me. If my goal is recorded in the app, it has to happen!

And it's so nice when Duo tells me I'm on track.

Duolingo’s other two main methods are earning lingots by getting correct answers, and the leaderboard. Their leaderboard ranks you against your friends in the app or other language learnings studying your language.

If you're an impatient language learner like me, you'll want to be able to create simple sentences straight away. Duolingo allows you to do that.

Let's look at the first lesson in the first module of the Spanish course. You start with learning some vocabulary, such as boy, apple, and water. After the first three or four slides, you'll will have learned how to say a sentence:

All you need to do now is go out there and start speaking to real people (rather than your smartphone screen)!

The “strength” bars showing around your modules are a great reminder of the brain's imperfections. You think you've learned something and can move on but really what you need is spaced repetition to make sure the new language sticks .

Spaced repetition in language learning is a method where you revise specific words. Gradually, the intervals increase between each revision session. The theory is that, eventually, you can have an interval of several months without forgetting what something means. Duolingo makes it easy to know when your next revision session is.

A Beautiful Interface

I love everything about the sleek interface of Duolingo. One of my favourite things is the little turtle button that allows you to listen to “slow” pronunciations of the word or phrase. This creepily slow voice is a very useful feature in the exercises that ask you to type what you hear:

A lot of the learning that goes on in Duolingo is visual. There are pictures for learning vocabulary, colours that show whether you're right or wrong. And highlighted tappable text for new words or grammar points.

If you're a visual learner like me, you'll love it.

Plus, as you continue on through the lessons, you start to learn more by context and visual cues rather than English-to-Spanish translation. This is super helpful!

Duolingo also has the Stories feature now, where once you unlock 10 crowns (or 10 mastered topics), you get access and can start reading in your language.

This is a helpful feature to expand on your skills as you progress. It’s currently only available for Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Portuguese though.

Plus, Duolingo has a podcast for Spanish, French, and English learners. It’s essentially an audiobook to listen to stories in the language and improve on your listening comprehension. While Stories is in the app, the podcast can be listened to on Spotify, Apple, or Google.

A Few Cautionary Notes on Duolingo

Although Duolingo can be very helpful in supporting your language learning progress, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind when deciding whether the app is for you. Let me give you a brief summary of the things I noticed that could be improved.

Making mistakes is an inevitable and essential part of language learning . The journey to fluency is often about having the courage to say things even if you know it's not perfect.

But with the hearts system, you can only make 5 mistakes a day. Some people may get discouraged and feel like they can’t make mistakes — even though it’s a fantastic part of learning!

But this has been improved over the years.

In the past, Duolingo used to be even tougher on mistakes. The tiniest typo or mispronunciation would cost you a heart. Now, this feature has been refined and starts to recognize typos and the like. It’ll still point them out, but it’s less harsh.

Even still, my advice to you would be: don't take Duo's perfectionism too seriously. It’s okay to make mistakes!

This is especially true as you progress and you're learning more complex grammatical structures.

Some of the sentences that the app makes you translate would not normally be used in natural speech. Their point, though, is to illustrate certain language concepts, so it's almost forgivable.

After all, you never know when you might need to talk about milk-drinking elephants or a burger made of fish!

New lessons and modules are only activated in the app once you've completed the previous lesson. So you sometimes need to learn vocabulary which is not necessarily relevant to your learning objectives.

Words for clothes and animals are not something I expect to be using at all in German but I can't continue until I've proven to Duo that I know how to say “tie” and “mouse”.

I wish I had more control over choosing which words are the ones that matter to me.

Duolingo gives you the illusion that you're practicing your speaking skills. But what the app actually asks you to do is to repeat what you can already see on the screen in written form.

So when doing Duolingo “speaking” exercises, you're essentially repeating after the app. You're not retrieving anything from memory or asking your brain to create anything from scratch.

As such, Duolingo is an app that allows you to practice pronunciation but not to speak from day 1 .

That's why it's very important for language learners to supplement Duolingo with another resource. Especially one focused on speaking and interacting with other users of their target language, such as the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge .

There are so many ads in the app, including for Duolingo Plus, unless you buy Plus. This is a bit annoying and distracts from language focus.

Duolingo has gotten some poor reviews in the past, namely because of the things I mentioned here. Especially in the past, Duolingo used to use many unnatural sentences that became memes or jokes. This has been improved on, although it’s still there.

Even so, many people became frustrated with it. Plus, many users noticed that they would study and keep their streak up for days and days , and still not be able to speak the language or could only speak at an intermediate level.

And this comes from a lack of human interaction and real speaking practice.

So, no, you can’t become fluent with Duolingo alone. But, if you pair it with other resources, it can be an amazing tool to boost your studies as a beginner to intermediate learner.

Now as far as comparing Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone? There’s no comparison. Check out Fluent in 3 Months founder Benny Lewis’ review of Rosetta Stone for the full scoop.

You’ll learn something with both of these programs. But Rosetta Stone takes a “full immersion” approach so far it becomes a flaw. Duolingo more seamlessly helps you learn in-context and wean off of English-to-Spanish translations.

So that makes it the winner here.

Alright, to wrap this up, here’s a summary of the pros and cons of Duolingo. If you scrolled from the top for the tl;dr version, here it is.

• Duolingo tracks your progress and weakest words
• The Duolingo app has many built-in features to boost motivation
• You learn simple sentences from day 1
• Lots of visual revision reminders so you know what needs to be reviewed
• A beautiful interface and easy-to-use “gamified” learning approach
• Lots of visual learning and learning through context
• Stories and a podcast for supplemental learning
• The penalization for mistakes can be discouraging for some
• Some sentences are unnatural
• Not enough control over vocabulary topics to pick words relevant to you
• No human interaction or real speaking practice
• Lots of ads unless you go with Duolingo Pro

Duolingo is not a stand-alone language course, but it's an excellent addition to a language learner's toolbox. It's easy to use, it's fun and it works.

Don't forget to do the homework, though. If your aim is to achieve real fluency, remember to read, speak, and truly live the language that you're learning !

One more thing: if you are bored with Duolingo's repetitive tasks, try Clozemaster , which is Duolingo on steroids: it helps you to internalize real sentences with context.

Original review by Agnieszka Murdoch with updates by the Fluent in 3 Months team .

Agnieszka Murdoch

Language Coach

Agnieszka is the founder of 5-Minute Language . Her mission is to give everyone a chance to learn a foreign language .

Speaks: English, Polish, French, Spanish, German

Have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days

Duolingo Spanish Review

A comprehensive review of duolingo spanish after using the app for three months.

Want to learn more about our language experts?

Learn More About Our Team

In This Article

In late 2022, Duolingo completely overhauled how their app works. I had used Duolingo previously, but when I heard this update was so massive that it had upset a huge portion of the user base, I knew I had to retry it . So that’s what I did. I signed back up for Duolingo and used it for three months. Here’s what I found, and what I now think about this Spanish language learning app.

• Free Version
• Mobile App or Desktop
• Lessons take just 5 minutes
• The program is legitimately fun (and somewhat addicting)
• The vocab repetition is great for burning new words into your brain
• There is very little conversational practice
• Not much emphasis on grammar
• Lessons feel cursory compared to those from other apps

Duolingo Spanish Updates: How It Now Works

The biggest change with Duolingo has been the switch from the tree format to the path . In short, Duolingo used to have a pretty flexible learning format where you could pick and choose what you wanted to learn .

You could do basic exercises like matching vocab words, listen to short stories, learn how to order food, or talk about sports. Or, you could always jump to old lessons to review, or work on legendary status. In other words, you could essentially drive how and what you wanted to learn.

The update, however, has turned the tree into a linear path. Rather than having optionality, you work on a straight line through lessons . The lessons are organized into units on the path, and there are hundreds of units to complete to finish the entire language course.

Basically, the units are kind of like checkpoints under the old version of Duolingo Spanish. The crown system is also gone , and it has been replaced by the path as well.

So rather than earning different crown levels within a particular skill on the tree, they’ve taken the same lessons and spread them out across the path.

Plus, another change is that they’ve taken stories, which used to be separate on the dashboard, and integrated them directly into the learning path. The stories, which are really fun and popular, are no longer separately accessible under a different tab.

To be clear, you can actually review old stories you’ve already completed on the path under the “practice” tab, but it’s not like before , where you could go do a new story whenever you wanted.

Also, “tips” are now gone from the program, and replaced by a grammar guidebook at the start of each unit. That’s actually a good opportunity to explain how Duolingo does grammar instruction.

Rather than build grammar directly into their lesson work (similar to how Babbel Spanish and Pimsleur Spanish do it), Duolingo Spanish used to provide grammar “tips” with each skill on the tree. Now, however, they’ve dialed the grammar back and put it into the form of a “guidebook” at the start of each unit on your path.

Lastly, in a similar vein, Duolingo has taken their practice work and layered it into the path as well, based on a spaced repetition model . This is opposed to letting people practice of their own volition, as it used to be.

To recap these major updates : the path has replaced the learning tree; stories are now layered into the path; the grammar tips are now guidebooks at the start of each unit; and practice is also worked into the path like the stories.

Otherwise, the content of each lesson remains the same . The exercises and drills that make up the heart of Duolingo remain relatively unchanged. You’ve still got basic matching pairs, translation exercises, speaking drills, and writing exercises.

It’s really the same core exercises each day, with the same funny little characters and motion graphics.

Duolingo Spanish Negatives (What I Don’t Like)

Now that I’ve broken down the new updated format of Duolingo Spanish, let’s get into what I like and don’t like about this update. And let’s start with the negatives, as there seems to be a lot more criticism of these changes then there is praise for it.

Lesson Navigation Is Now Harder

The biggest downfall of this update in my eyes is how difficult it has become to navigate through the course . If you want to go forward or backward, you have to scroll through for an eternity.

Basically, you have to follow the new path all the way down, or all the way back up. The old Duolingo was not like this. The old user interface had easy to read lesson names and icons , so you could tell exactly what each skill or level was about.

The issue with this has to do with going back to review. Previously, it was really easy to go back to older lessons to get more crowns and work on legendary status.

Now, however, you have to scroll a long way, and you’re just guessing at what each step in the path covers as they are not individually labeled .

For example, say you’re at unit 60; however, your legendary status only goes to unit 30. This means you would need to scroll 30 units up to find your legendary progress.

And even then you won’t have a great idea of what you’re reviewing because the steps aren’t labeled. This can be a big deal .

Let me explain further. Let’s say you’re getting ready for a trip to Mexico City and you want to review the lessons on ordering in a restaurant and asking for directions.

These particular lessons are now much harder to find for those specific reviews . The bottom line is that it’s not a huge substantive issue, but it is definitely annoying.

Frankly, I feel like a really easy fix for Duolingo would be to collapse the path view for all but the current unit . In other words, just allow users to scroll through unit headers with labels of what’s within, in order to find what you’re looking for . That would be nice improvement.

Light on Grammar

The second complaint I have with the update has to do with grammar. Duolingo has really scaled back their grammar instruction by doing away with “tips.”

The new grammar guidebooks that are appended to be beginning of each section are helpful and contain some of the same material from the old “tips” sections, but honestly, they feel somewhat neutered.

It feels like these more robust grammar tips have been replaced with a few example phrases and teaching points. It’s not a great way of managing grammar instruction in my opinion.

Something else I have noticed in using Duolingo Spanish for a second time is that the program overall feels a bit easier.

Now, it could just be me, but it feels like post-update, the program is much heavier on repetition. Every stepping stone on the path just hammers the same phrases and concepts, over and over .

I might just be more acute to differences post-update, or maybe it’s just the new linear format, but I’ve seen other Duolingo users say this as well . The program overall just feels a little bit more repetitive and easier.

Too Many Ads In The Free Version

Full disclosure, my fourth negative is something I actually haven’t experienced myself since I pay for Super Duolingo, their ad-free premium version. However, I’ve heard from a lot of people on the free plan that the ads are much heavier and more frequent after the update .

To be honest, this doesn’t really shock me. If we peel back the layers, one of the biggest points of the update for Duolingo was to get more people to upgrade to the paid Super Duolingo.

They say this major change was for improved learning science and user experience, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, part of it was driven by the desire to get more people to upgrade from free to paid.

The free version under the new format is harder to navigate than if you have the paid version, and with the heavier ad impressions , I just think they’re really trying to get people to pay up for the Super version.

Duolingo Spanish Positives (What I Like)

Now let’s switch gears and discuss the things I actually do like about Duolingo Spanish.

Path Offers Learning Structure

Even though everyone loved the old tree and skills framework, the reality is that it wasn’t perfect either. Because you could jump around to learn whatever you want , it gave the program a very hodge podge feel.

In fact, that’s why Duolingo had suggested ways of using the program, such as the waterfall method (which by the way, not that many people used). The reality is that there are lot of people with 1,000+ day streaks who still have low confidence in their ability to speak Spanish.

They just don’t feel comfortable jumping in and holding conversations. And the reason for this, at least in part, was the lack of structure . People used the learning modules willy nilly, and there was no flow to the program.

That is why with this new path structure they’ve placed a big focus on progressive building . The lessons all build on one another, and even the stories have consistent characters which get developed along the way.

This update brings the Duolingo courses in line with other Spanish language learning apps that are more structured and help people to work through language programs in an orderly fashion.

Spaced Practice & Review

Another aspect of this Duolingo Spanish update that I actually like is how they’ve built practice sessions right into the path . Every few stepping stones, you’ll get a review session that forces you to practice stuff you’ve already learned.

This is a change from the past program , where it was on you to manage your own reviews and practice work.

This built-in practice work ensures you’re regularly revisiting material , which is crucial for learning Spanish .

Spaced repetition is a huge factor in internalizing a new language, and I think this new format will ultimately help learners develop a stronger foundation long term as they stick with it.

Shockingly Fun

Lastly, my final positive is that the app is still fun . Yes, it’s more rigid, and there are definitely some negatives with the changes they’ve made, but the content is still the same .

The lessons only take 5 minutes ; you still get to compete against other users in leagues; you can still do friend quests; you can earn gems, lingots and XP points; and all the same little characters and motion graphics are still there.

In other words, the gamification aspect of language learning with Duolingo that everyone loves is still there front and center, and I really like that .

Final Verdict: Is Duolingo Good For Learning Spanish?

That brings me to my closing thoughts—is Duolingo worth it? Or is it time to consider another app? Honestly, my thoughts on Duolingo haven’t really changed that much post-update. Even before the major changes, I thought Duolingo was best used as a supplemental tool , and not a standalone Spanish program.

There is good reason why people with 1,000 day streaks still complain about not feeling comfortable and confident is their conversational abilities. It’s because Duolingo is a brain game— not a full blown Spanish course . Thus, I would say that if you’re just looking to learn some basic phrases and elementary-level understanding of Spanish before a trip, then Duolingo is great for that. Go for it.

However, if you’re serious about becoming fluent in Spanish at an intermediate to advanced level, you have to use another Spanish app which is more robust, like Babbel , Pimsleur or Rocket Spanish , and then supplement with Duolingo Spanish. That’s where I see Duolingo being the most beneficial—as a complementary tool to a more comprehensive language course.

After using Duolingo for three months, I definitely think there are better apps to learn Spanish. While Duolingo is fun and kind of addicting, it just isn’t that effective for actually learning to listen and speak.

The problem with Duolingo Spanish is that it can take a really long time to learn Spanish. If you do just one lesson per day, you really won’t make much progress. You’ll get a long streak, but you won’t become fluent.

I like Duolingo for what it is, a fun game. I love doing the lessons and keeping my streak up, but feel as if it would take forever to actually become fluent in Spanish just using the Duolingo app.

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6 easy ways to incorporate Duolingo into your classroom

It’s no question that teaching is hard, and great teachers are irreplaceable. That’s why every feature and update that we launch at Duolingo for Schools is meant to make educators’ lives easier, and students’ learning more fun and effective. Here are some easy ways to get started with using Duolingo in the classroom. Teachers: make sure to add your students to a classroom at schools.duolingo.com so that you can create assignments and follow along with their progress!

Assign a game as homework: Instead of printing out worksheets and exercises, assign specific Skills that align with your curriculum for students to practice on Duolingo (we’ll handle the grading!). For an added challenge, and to personalize student learning, set an XP goal for them to meet by practicing with any activity they choose. Our research shows that Duolingo is an effective way to gain proficiency in a new language, and we have a wealth of teaching and learning experts dedicated to creating and improving our courses!

Turn XP into extra credit: Our experience points, or XP, make it fun to set up class-wide competitions or challenge individual students. Use XP assignments as extra credit to reward students for practicing language learning on their own time, or give extra points to individuals or teams that win time-based XP challenges.

Warm up cool down with bellringers: Those first five minutes of class can always feel a bit chaotic—and those last five can carry an angsty “watching the clock” energy. Use Duolingo at the beginning or end of class by setting a specific goal for students to complete during these times. This will help everyone settle in, or out, with some fun learning activities!

Gather the groups: Does your class thrive on collaborative exercises, or on competition? Students can race against the clock to see who can get the most XP, or divide into teams for some friendly competition. Get ideas for activities from our Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers pages, or by joining our Educator Community on Facebook .

Call for reinforcement: Don’t have time to go back and review everything you’ve taught, or even just the material that you know your students need to revisit? We’ve been there. Use Duolingo to assign specific Skills that students need to practice that aren’t part of your regularly scheduled program.

Reward with learning: Duolingo’s gamefied interface makes learning exciting and fun. It can actually function as a reward to allow students who have completed their in-class assignments or other work to “play” Duolingo! Offer “Duolingo time” as a reward when you have students who have earned it!

Create your classroom(s) , join our community , and get the very most out of Duolingo’s free, fun, effective tools for teachers today!

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You know I've always seen my friends say oh no I'm going to lose my 198 day Duolingo streak and then after that I always ask them to say one sentence in Spanish go on say one sentence and now I'm asking all of the people on this subreddit that what's a sentence can you say because of Duolingo

Point proven Duolingo sucks BALLS

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