Duolingo is a popular language learning app, commonly known for its green owl mascot and the funny memes associated with it. Adored memes about the threatening owl may give the impression that Duolingo is a highly successful motivational app that can teach languages, right? 

But is it? With over 575 million users worldwide, the app gives the impression that it does, in fact, work, and all those people surely use the app for a reason, right?

So let’s discuss, does Duolingo work, and are there better ways to learn a new language? 

Just like everything else, Duolingo is as effective as its user makes it, meaning the app can be both rubbish and amazing for two different people. One person may find it very helpful, while another might see it as a waste of time.

So does Duolingo actually work? The short and simple answer is: no. But it's not that simple, obviously, it has some good features. The app can teach individuals basic vocabulary in a foreign language and common phrases, such as "how are you?" or "what is your name?". The app is also famous for its streak feature, and the encouragement users get to increase their streak by completing daily lessons. The app even has features where users can talk to characters in the new language as well as learn through different scenarios. So, with all of these great features, why does the app suck?

The common issue with Duolingo that users find is that the app doesn't help with retaining any of the information. Many users have 100+ day streaks on the app, yet still don't know much at all. But why is that the case? With all the great features, where Duolingo falls short is the usability of these features. The app uses a heart system. Each time you get something wrong, you lose a heart. When you have no hearts, you cannot complete a lesson until they regenerate or you buy new hearts. Because of this, users may feel like there isn't a lot of room for mistakes, as they don't want to run out of hearts, encouraging them to "cheat". On top of this, users are also put into a leaderboard, and completing lessons correctly earns them points; the more points, the higher the placement on the leaderboard. Although this sounds like just some healthy competition to motivate the users, it doesn't work. Many individuals have reported that they focus more on their hearts or their place on the leaderboard than actually learning the language itself.

Because of this, users find themselves either using Google Translate or context clues (such as the images provided) to "answer" the question correctly. This doesn't help someone to learn the language; in fact, it just gives the illusion of learning without actually retaining the information. Another issue that people have found is that the app has often given users the wrong phrasing/grammar due to mistranslation errors. Tyler Lau, a linguistics major, wrote an article for "Cambridge Coaching", and in it, he highlighted that their translations are iffy and can often be misleading (1). This could be because of its recent switch to AI (but we will get into that later). Continuing from that, the app often gives the users stand-alone phrases to learn, such as "What is your favourite colour?" "I like fish?", but it doesn't teach you how to formulate your sentences, making it very limited. Not only that, the phrases often given are very random and lack context, meaning users aren't able to learn how actually to communicate in the language. They know just how to say a few words. Another reason why the app feels so limited is that it is programmed only to accept one correct answer, which can be misleading, as some languages may have multiple ways to say the same thing. 

Many individuals have moved away from using the app due to its recent AI integration. Not only is this unethical, but it also causes us to question the validity of what the app is actually teaching us. The CEO, Luis Von Ahn, has stated that the app is now an “AI-first” company, devaluing its workers. Duolingo has started using AI to create more courses more efficiently, but is it really worth the ethical costs? Not only is AI itself unethical, with it stealing the work of others as well as destroying the environment, the Duolingo company has fired their workers and also banned new hires in favour of AI. With AI also comes inaccuracy; despite how evolved AI has become, when it comes to languages, it often gets many things wrong. This is due to the different grammar and spelling rules within different languages. A simple translation won’t always be completely accurate, as not everything can be word-for-word. Due to the app’s increased use of AI, users have reported the app feeling “hollow” in a sense, with very basic storylines. The use of AI has also caused many of the features, such as the story, to be of much lower quality. The app now feels very basic and often repetitive.

So now that we have established that Duolingo doesn’t work, what are some better ways to learn a new language? One way that I recommend is to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. By this, I mean listening to music, watching films/TV shows, reading books, or listening to podcasts in that language. Even if at first you don’t understand what is being said, it allows you to learn the accent, as well as the grammar and mannerisms of the language. Bonus points for slang and pop culture references. Another way is using flashcards, which help memorise certain words or phrases. A common technique is also learning the alphabet of the language as well as the nouns, verbs and adjectives first to understand how the language sounds. This allows people to form sentences and speak the language. 

With all this being said, many users have reported that Duolingo can be somewhat helpful if paired with other resources, such as the ones stated above or other language learning apps such as Airlearn or Lingodeer. The app alone will not make you fluent in any language. But with its rise in use of AI, and users reporting that Duolingo feels like more of an illusion of learning a language, it is safe to say that Duolingo does not work.

(1) https://blog.cambridgecoaching.com/learning-a-foreign-language-a-review-of-duolingo

Gabriela Miziniak is a second-year student studying Psychological Sciences, majoring in Neuroscience. A journaling enthusiast who enjoys trinket collecting and binge-watching films (especially Coraline or Fear Street). Also enjoys talking about literally anything and walking literally everywhere, while listening to SZA or Clairo.