In defense of Duolingo

I have been loving foreign languages since I was a child. It all started when I began learning basic English in elementary school, then I added French in middle school (it was more of an obligation than a choice, but I’m still grateful for the opportunity). In high school, I started German, my favorite language. When I graduated, I had reached C1 level in English, B2/C1 level in French and B1 level in German.

Since then, I’ve had a lot more free time and, as a K-pop listener, I was getting curious about the Korean language. That’s where my journey as a self-learner began. My goal was to learn the most while spending as little money as possible, so apps like Duolingo played a huge role in my self-studying process.

However, they also received a lot of criticism for several reasons, including issues with accuracy. I believe that they are not perfect (no learning method is!), but they also have a huge amount of benefits that we seem to forget. These might apply to other apps as well, I focused on Duolingo mainly because it’s one of the most popular and because I’ve been using it for a while.

Wide variety of languages

I rarely came across an app with such a huge variety of languages available. At some point, I had decided to study Swedish, which is not available on many other apps.

Let’s be clear: actually, my favorite language learning app ever is LingoDeer, because it has a lot of features that help build a balanced set of skills, making you develop listening, reading, and writing skills almost equally well. However, one of its disadvantages is that only East Asian and the main European languages (French, Spanish, Russian, and Portuguese) are available. If I wanted to focus on other language families, I would have to download another app.

In addition to this, most language apps (not Lingodeer, of course) are eurocentric about their offer. It’s no surprise that you are more likely to find a good language app for European languages, specifically Western European ones than any other. Duolingo is also a bit eurocentric, since its courses for French, Spanish and German have more accurate sentences overall and are equipped with a useful feature that other languages don’t have: stories, which are great to improve listening and reading skills and an opportunity to see a language in use. However, the variety of languages it provides is almost unmatched, and the lack of a single feature is still a minor issue compared to an entire lack of resources, which is the case for a lot of languages if you don’t use the owl app.

Therefore, Duolingo is perfect if you study a lot of languages from different families, because you have all of them in one app and you can save space in the memory of your devices.

It’s a free way to test the waters

Let’s be real: studying a new language is very thrilling, but it can quickly turn to extremely scary finance-wise. What if I pay for a course or a textbook and I end up not liking this language or finding it too difficult and decide to quit?

Duolingo, and free apps in general, can help you decide. If you are unsure, just download the app and see how it goes. It’s not the same as an online/university course, but it can make you understand what to do without breaking the bank.

It helps you study for your exams

When I started studying for my Bachelor’s degree, I enrolled in a Russian language course to add a third language to my curriculum. Despite its difficulties, the first year I was enthusiastic about this new language and culture.

However, during the pandemic, I had to switch to online lectures, like a lot of people in Western countries. While I am and will always be grateful for being able to continue my learning journey, I have to admit that my motivation to study this language plummeted. I had trouble focusing and every concept seemed overwhelmingly difficult.

This feeling reached a critical point in 2021 when it got mixed up with all the stress related to my dissertation and my graduation. Since my dissertation was mainly focused on Italian, English, and German language, I prioritized them and, consequently, ended up in a tragic slump with Russian. My motivation was so low that I was regretting every single choice I had ever made academic-wise.

Since I had to pass the exam to graduate, and I hated my textbooks with a passion, I decided to use Duolingo to get used to all the new grammar rules and cases. I’m not joking when I say that I studied more on Duolingo than on my books for that exam. Still, the days before the D-day I was a nervous wreck. It was the first time I had used this method and I was afraid it wouldn’t work out. I was so worried that, on the day before my exam, I even decided to revise my actual textbook.

Eventually, I passed the exam with a high score, and I can confidently say that, without Duolingo, it would have ended very differently. It is not the most comprehensive app, but it is definitely helpful to revise for other language courses.

Most features are free

Another huge advantage of Duolingo is its high amount of free material. Now, as I already mentioned here, my family is financially secure, and I am privileged enough to afford most language courses and apps. Still, I try to spend as least as possible on languages I learn as a hobby in order not to be too much of a burden to my family and to save my own money, since I don’t work a stable job at the moment.

However, there are people that cannot afford to pay for language courses and apps or consider it a risky investment, so the only resource they have are free apps. Specifically, Duolingo is one of the apps with the highest number of free features, and its paid features do not prevent you from completing the whole course.

Endangered languages are available

Not many apps can teach you Navajo and Hawaiian, two endangered world languages. While the courses themselves aren’t supe comprehensive, it is commendable to see an app like Duolingo trying to raise awareness about these languages and protect them from extinction.

There are language apps dedicated solely to endangered languages as well but, unfortunately, they aren’t as known as Duolingo, so the owl app used its privileged position in the app market for good. Like I said before, Duolingo is great to test the waters when you’ve started to learn a new language, therefore it’s quite likely that a person might start Navajo or Hawaiian on Duolingo and, then, switch to a different app.

Language learning and privilege

Overall, one of the best qualities of Duolingo is how it democratizes language learning by providing a large amount of free learning material and a wide variety of languages from different families, including some of the endangered and fictional ones.

While imperfect, Duolingo could be the only valid choice for financially insecure people, people who want to learn an endangered or less popular language, or people who are simply too busy to start a language course.

--

You can also read this article on Medium by clicking here.