Language Learning: Duolingo as a Tool

I wrote a post about having my old friend pop up in my dream yesterday. Check it out: Dream Interpretation Part 2 (ft. ChatGPT)

After that whole conversation with GPT and the post, I sat down and gave it a thought. I did have some interactions with that friend recently. It was a deal that went down, minus any bad feelings.

Some time ago, I posted a story on my instagram, inviting people I know to subscribe to the Duolingo (a language learning app) Super Family Plan with me. This friend messaged me, telling me that he's interested. We agreed to subscribe in July when his paycheck comes in.

Things didn't go well. There were some technical problems and finally, I managed to get us subscribed to a week's trial plan. Somewhere in the middle of the week, he sent me a youtube video link, with an attached message saying, "we have a problem."

The video features a youtuber telling his points about why everyone is cancelling Duolingo. After watching that video, however, I wasn't really affected by it.

Here's my thought:

Duolingo is a language learning app. It's a tool that helps you learn a language. It's simply a tool. I can make good use of the tool combined with many other tools to make my learning journey fun and productive.

It may be true that there are annoyingly tons of ads, but subscribing to the plan solves it. I can simply get another five people to subscribe to the family plan with me. That way is much cheaper and it's worth it to learn with unlimited hearts and play the special chapters without wasting any gems.

In the video and the comments below it, they said something like:

"I've learned much more Japanese in 5 days going to a lesson than I did using Duolingo for 2 years."

And there's the talk about having lots of streaks but not being able to converse.

Here's a fact for you:

A lesson a day maintains the streak. There's differences between a lesson a day and 30 lessons a day.

Let's say it's an hour per lesson. So, in five days, it comes to a total of five hours.

Let's say you spend two minutes on every lesson in Duolingo.

2 mins X 30 lessons = 60 mins

30 lessons X 5 days = 150 lessons

How much effort do you put into your learning when using the app? Do you read them aloud or simply tap the words? Do you read the word or the romaji / pinyin / etc.?

I believe it makes a difference.

Some of the comments make me feel like they have this mindset, like those parents that send their children to tuition and expect their children to turn smart out of nowhere.

It's like paying for gym membership, thinking that you'll lose weight.

Where's the effort? You have to go to the gym, and you have to workout instead of taking pictures. That's what makes you lose weight, not the membership!

However, I won't deny that there are some comments about the languages I'm not familiar with. There are people who claim to be native speakers or at least been living in the country and speaking the language for years, saying that the way the language is taught in the app is not so great. I won't be able to give any comments on that since I'm not familiar with the languages.

Anyway, everyone has their own way when learning a language. It doesn't matter if you sing songs, subscribe to an app, make friends and speak in that language, or go to lessons, it is really up to individual preference. Everyone has their own way of learning. We should explore which way is best for us instead of blindly following others.

Happy learning!