Duolingo: Selling Us the Illusion of Learning 

For me duolingo began to turn bad in 2018-2019 when they put the leaderboards. The pressure to be competitive in a "learning" app is counterproductive and I hated that I couldn't opt out.

I started doing Japanese on Duolingo and it was dreadfully boring. It quizzes you on the same 4 words over and over again for about 20 lessons.

When I stopped using Duolingo my friends all acted like I was giving up on a dream. I felt more like I was stopping myself from continuing to do something that was completely ineffective.

I was just thinking about this after getting back on Duo, and I realized that they never taught the basics of the language

Fluency takes many years even in a formal instructional environment. How much you learn on Duo depends on many factors: your previous knowledge of the language or similar languages, how much time you devote to the app, how many different types of lessons you do, if you supplement with outside resources, etc. Personally, I think it’s a great low-cost resource for basic vocabulary and grammar.

I quit after that stupid leader board. I got Duolingo to learn, not to compete with others. I don't have the time to sit and complete repetitive lessons just so I don't demoted from an imaginary competition that will mount to nothing

My favorite duolingo sentance it had me read was "ich habe keine tochter aber ich habe einen fisch". "Oh nein, er liebt deine freundin" was a runner up.

Duolingo does not care about learning languages anymore and really only care about users using it for long periods of times and getting Super Duolingo so they can get more money. I still remember using Duolingo years back and it wasn’t perfect but there were forums where users helped each other and mini lesson things that introduced the grammar and a brief overview of where you’d use certain phrases. Now I learn languages from official resources and textbooks, it’s nowhere near perfect but at least nowadays I understand grammar in-depth which Duolingo doesn’t offer (which is a nightmare for highly inflected languages because Duolingo tells you nothing about the different cases, it’s so annoying)

You're right! Duolingo shouldn't advertise itself as an all in one language learning program. I think of Duolingo as a supplemental tool, an introduction to a word, the context in which it is used, and establishing rules. Everything learned there has to be reinforces by outside resources like practice books, language immersion like movies, etc. There's no one place to learn anything completely.

I’d never recommend using Duolingo to learn a new language from scratch but I found it really useful for reigniting my passion for the languages I learned in my youth. When I had trips to Germany and Belgium planned I realised how little confidence I had in my one-sharp French and German skills after two decades of barely using them. A while with the app got my brain back into the groove of thinking in those languages like it used to. Years ago, probably before the AI thing I really enjoyed finding the weirdest phrases it came up with. The German course on religion was full of references to The Holy Potato and those who worship it.

Duolingo fumbled the bag so bad, I was a devotee back in 2016 and it’s been all downhill since. I switched to Mango and have learned so much more.

I went to a nursery where I was taught French and I remember nothing from it, apart from the fact that the nursery was split in two one for the ones learning french and the others who's parents had just payed for a nursery. I can still remember staring out of the window at the kids playing while I was learning what is french for car, I can't even remember it, only the image on the card of a french car, which was for some reason a baby blue Reliant Robin.

I like learning languages, and am currently using duolingo for arabic. The fact that it doesn't teach grammar, expecting the user to intuit the frammar from working examples is utterly absurd. Grammar is to language learning what going to the gym is to physical labour: Something initially difficult that gets easier over time, that peoole often haven't time for (speaking as a labourer that doesnt go to the gym), but that renders everything much easier in the long run

Remember when people said Ai generation models wouldn’t replace workers.

You dont have to wait for the hearts to fill up again: You can do really easy lections to fill up hearts again, without having to pay. You have to click on the hearts in the corner and down there you can Start that Kind of lection. I learned french in School for five years and about 10 years later I started using duolingo for french and I really started remembering things I learned. It works for me to refresh a language. I Highly doubt that you can really learn a language from the ground up in duolingo .

Duolingo, from what I’ve seen, only goes up to B1. Fluency goes from A1, B1, C1, and C2-C2 being entirely fluent.

It's a nice supplement to my language class to remind me to practice every day, even when I don't have class, and pick up a few new words here and there- but still nothing compared to more formal classes.

For me, the game part actually helps me because it forced me to do it every day to keep up my streak and reach the challenges.

You can gain more hearts by completing an extra lesson, which is pushing you to practice more… I definitely can’t see it leading to actual fluency, but I’ve been finding the gamification super helpful for my ADHD and great for learning enough language to travel! I don’t think (or at least, hope) that anyone goes into Duolingo thinking they genuinely will become fluent

DougDoug(a big streamer and youtuber) said that duolingo did not work for for him, and that reading, translating, and examining comments under Spanish youtube channels is way more fun and is way better for actually learning. Haven't done it myself but maybe try it out if you want to slowly learn a language online. Plus don't cost any money

Duolingo alone got me to halfway through the Welsh course, but a couple of years later, I remember basically nothing despite a year of daily practice. Nowadays I use it to supplement my Mandarin learning (in person lessons and self-study), and it's genuinely helpful for new vocabulary my classes don't cover and practising grammar patterns. But the fact that it doesn’t explicitly teach grammar, only shows it to you in sentences, really makes me aware of the fact that it’s not really a good learning tool (alone) at all. I genuinely like Duolingo, but I think it’s a practice or boosting tool, not a learning tool

It was a great tool for me. I live abroad part-time, and when I am at home, I never get to speak my second language. So you doulingo allows me to practice every day and helps expand my vocabulary. I only use the free version, though.

I accidentally bought a year of super duo (i wanted a month to try) and im still mad about it. Textbook learning has been way better for me.

Credit where it's due, their social media is admittedly brilliant and hilarious.

Yet it created this illusion that learning a language can be easy and effortless. As a teacher I have to justify myself regularly as to why language classes are hard and progress is slow. Because that's just how it is. You have to put in the work

I’ve done French on duo every day for months now and I’ve never felt more confident in my accent, vocab and grammar. I like this set up much better than 10 years ago when I first tried duo. It really comes down to commitment imho. I’ll do an hour most days, or 15 minutes occasionally on busier days. this “issue” feels like people complaining that they can’t learn a language while doing the bare minimum lol it’s a tool. Watch movies in that language. Listen to music. Read articles. Change the language of your phone. It’s a tool, not everything. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I did the app for 2 months as a security guard, so I did a lot of the Japanese lessons. It was just learning patterns over and over. I'm fluent in Spanish and tried it for fun. It was not great either.

Oh damn i am the opposite. Duolingo helped me immensely more than years of classes... i practice outside of the app with movies and media etc in the languages i want to learn... you don’t have to wait for hearts you can just earn them through free practice rounds. I love it still❤

I've been using Duolingo for 3 months now. I did have some basic knowledge of the language and this is giving me more. I can ask some basic questions besides " where's the bathroom ". You get 5 hearts per exercise and if you make mistakes you run out of hearts and like this young man mentioned you can purchase hearts. I myself have never purchased hearts. There are practice exercises that you can do to earn hearts and not pay anything. That's what I do. By that I have retained some of what I have learned . I myself will stay with Duolingo for now.

This is why, you as the student, needs multiple vignettes to study. NOT just one. IMO, DL, does provide a basic communication style, however they do need to upgrade their platform with more a conversational method.

Finally someone said it. I'm (kinda) fluent in English (not my first language) and for our English class our teacher made us download it as part of our grade. Everyone was saying they were learning but to me it was just soooo boring and made no sense. I'm so glad it wasn't just me

I have a 2232 day streak I can’t let go. I havent done more than 20xp a day in at least 2 years now.

Watching this while doing my duolingo

Do not kiss the spider sounds like it was written by Husk.

I think it really depends. I remember stuff from duolingo pretty nicely in Italian, but it's true that I speak fairly okay French and Spanish so that helps. But I also learned a bit of German (which has similar logic to my native languuage) , but I can't imagine to only learn through the app once I need to do some grammar and stuff. For me the most annoying thing is that you can only make 3 mistakes per day, and the ads. My friend also learned whole language by doing just duo. I am glad it exists and it's free (but the ads are really annoying)..

oh my god!! another robert with a great video

clock that tea

I hate duolingo!!! (I have it on my phone)

Jokes on you, at least I now know how to say 'apple' in Russian!

I'm *this* close to getting a 365 day streak. I'm just gonna get that to feed my inner perfectionist, then watch with joy as my streak freezes run out.

yes they expect us to speak mandarin without even teaching the pinyin (Chinese's pronunciation system)

I find Duolingo when adding other methods help me learn languages pretty well. I'm constantly learning new words although I will admit you have to dive deeper to learn things like grammar and sentence structure

Unrelated to the video but I hope you've been doing well, Robert!

so true robert tolppi

Thank god ur back on my recommended omg

i don’t know why people would even think they can learn at least 20% of a language in mobile apps???…

hey bro, just found ur youtube! huge fan from tiktok!!! deff subscribed, keep going!!!

Personal anecdote, I've been on it to learn French for about a month and I now know a few French words that I did not know a month ago. Something is better than what I had before, nothing. Net gain.

You just remembered me to start my daily class. Duo rocks! The only problem is that you have to add another way of learning, not only Duo. And sincerely, did you finish all Duo Spanish course? I doubt it.

Even as far back as 2016, I remember Dulling had all these nonsense sentences like "I have 40 blue ducks" and the AI thing makes so much sense now

great video! i recently picked up using duolingo again after many years because i was desperate to get some basic vocabulary, grammar, and sentences i can repeat to ger used to speaking french again. i grew up bilingually speaking french but haven't spoken it since i was a tween about a decade ago, so i have advantages like already having the accent and being able to discern whether or not something sounds natural with pretty decent accuracy. but i'm determined not to fall prey to duolingo's tactics; i'm not maintaining a streak because i don't want to study 7 days a week, i'm not spending any money on them, i'm not going out of my way to get xp to top leaderboards. and when i do study, i do it for an hour at a time, sometimes two hours, because i don't think that ~few minutes a day~ model is beneficial for anything other than maintaining a language you already know. and once i finish all the sections (which probably won't take too long at my pace) i'll likely not use it again and instead maintain and continue to learn the language through conversations with actual people. duolingo really gives me the creeps, especially after hearing how many employees they laid off in favor of ai. yuck.

Been using duolingo for the past month to enrich my learning of Spanish (a language I've been learning for almost a decade and am semi-fluent in.) Overall it's helped me structure my sentences which as a person who sucks at grammer has helped greatly and combined with my daily 90 min class on the language it's pretty good. The worst part is getting started, I got all of their placement questions right but they only put me in A2 even though I'm a B1, meaning I had to skip over a section to get to the right place. My plan is to use all of the grammer stuff and then skip all the way to higher levels for a real challedge. Great vid!

Man, this video was absolutely fantastic. I was about to write about how it reminds me of lumosity right when you brought it up. The framing of it as an illusion and calling it out as a game... I don't think I've agreed with a video essay this much ever before.

very timely video, since i hit one year streak on duolingo today💀😂. i studied english and french in uni, but at duo i took spanish just because i was interested in it. i’d say that knowing french helped me a lot with learning spanish and duolingo actually helped me a lot with studying vocabulary. as for grammar, i just had to guess based on similarities between the languages i have previously learned. soo, duolingo definitely isn’t made for you to achieve fluency, but i still find it very useful in learning the basics

Pour one out for Robert Tolppi. The brave man willing to cross the Duolingo Owl.

Desktop Duolingo from like 10 years ago was decent and fun. It feels like a money grab now, increasingly so since 2019.

What's your opinion on Babble? Is it better, worse, or about the same?

Good GOD I’m so glad you mentioned Lumosity, I remember being a middle schooler and being HOOKED on their promises. Doing the little games and stuff and truly thinking “yes this will fix me , cause my mind is already so spoiled.”

So, after doing some research (less than 2 hours with google), you can find out how the language fluency system works as well as the courses in duolingo that will place you in certain tiers if that system. Spanish and French are currently the only ones worth anything at the moment as they will bring your fluency levels to b2 (can find a job speaking that language). Other courses have wierd rules and stipulations. For example, Chinese on iOS will only bring you to tier a1, which is the most basic of the most basic level. In addition, android is about a few months behind this course, and the desktop app/web-gui is the most behind. Also, the chinese course only offers mandarin (will not tell you on the app) and not Cantonese because their website says Cantonese is too difficult to teach. That being said, duolingo is great to see and stew in the way the sounds are supposed to be made and the words are supposed to be made, as long as you also take one of the many free courses (not duolingo) that are available online.

It makes it difficult to find the more comprehensive explanations and it doesn’t naturally tell you the information before you do the exercises like how a teacher would. It’s good for refreshing if you’ve already taken a course but not as the only teacher.

Your timing with this video is perfect, I just started looking into learning Malayalam. Honestly was considering taking traditional classes

With doulingo I also find their courses for non-European languages frustrating. I happy there’s some access but a lot of them lack the same features that the European languages have.

I learned nothing from it. It was confusing

I use duolingo and have a 267 day streak today. I never really liked duolingo, but the reason I got back into it was because I wanted to learn Russian. My boyfriend at the time had parents who didn’t speak a lot of English, so I wanted to learn it so I could talk to them even in simple sentences. I was very into it, and I did learn quite a bit (my bf helped me with pronunciation). After we broke up, i no longer had the motivation to learn that language. I went to spanish because it was easy and I wanted something to do when I was bored. I still keep up with it since my Duo widget on my phone and the incessant notifications make me feel unaccomplished if I don’t do my lesson, but honestly I have been speedrunning them and don’t spend more than 2 minutes a day on duolingo

I've been studying Spanish on Duolingo for years and I've learned so much! It works if you apply yourself.

I'd be curious if someone's review of Rosetta Stone programs. I was always interested in trying them out.

I found it first quizzed me on the same couple of words for a long time, then threw me words I saw briefly and long ago during the quiz to move onto the next level. It then failed me, saying 'Oh dear, you're not ready to move on! We need to keep doing the same stuff over again. Unless... you pay...'

Glad to see your teeth are doing good, thanks for the new video!

!Yo tengo el gato, los pantalones! - duolingo werked fir me!

if you live in the US, some public libraries have online language learning resources and if you have a library card, which is free, you can reap the benefits. my library has mango languages and it actually teaches you how to respond and understand information in a foreign language. i know i sound like an advertisement, but please!!!!! get a library card! see if your library has language learning available! it’s free, and the library has so many other resources you probably don’t know about

9:06 I like Busuu. You can take a placement test, you can get your exercises corrected by other users who know the same language, and their premium isn’t necessary just worth it for all the extra stuff you get. And they ask you what your native language is too.

I feel strongly about this. I grew up using different kinds of language learning apps to learn my mom’s language and I learned nothing! I couldn’t memorise anything with the apps’ mini games and the words I was practicing was basically useless (things like ocean and parrot instead of more common words in sentences 🙄). What I do now instead is taking a text (in my case fanfictions) and pasting it into Google translate so that the text is in the language I’m learning. Then I take the words I don’t know in the text and create a set on Quizlet. Since I’ve chosen my own words from fanfictions, I get to learn more common words like “instead” or “maybe” or “until”. Words that connect things in a sentence and words from common topics. Quizlet works much better for my memory. Quizlet test you on the words by letting you write them from memory, and if you spelled the word wrong because you didn’t remember it, it test you on it again until you won’t make mistakes. For the grammar I try to look at the translated sentences and figure out what patterns there are, but I’m sure you can also search up the grammar on the internet to see if someone has explained it.

I love the phrase "enshittification arc"

I know so many people who tell me they’re learning a language on duolingo but if I try to speak to them in that language they admit they have no idea how to have a conversation.

Guys I don't think the duo bird is randomly gonna appear in these comments

I'm from the USA, and my native language is English. I've learned two languages on Duolingo (Spanish and Italian) to conversational levels. I later went to live in countries where people speak those languages (Argentina and Italy) and now I'm perfectly fluent in both. Duolingo is not going to get you to a level where you will be confused for a native, but it can get you to a level where you can then immerse yourself in the language enough to gain fluency. That has been my experience. Ultimately, it's exactly like everything else in life... you get out what you put in. If you just do a single lesson every day to keep your streak going, or just do the practice lessons because that's the fastest way to get on the leader boards, you're not really putting in the effort that it will take to get the results you want from it.

I'm happy I learned English in school, college and now learning professional English in university, in additional English classes, also a bit in English RU-vid and internet overall, and not a a single bit from Duolingo. At first I didn't like the theory part, but now I'm thankful because it is much easier to learn more complex topics when you subconsciously know what is what in sentence and how these parts are connected.

i will literally watch any video about duolingos inadequacies! i love it❤

I had a long streak on the app but felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. Then I started taking physical lessons and with in one to two lessons I learned most of what I had learned over all that time on the app. Not to mention I got real feedback and could ask questions.

When I use Duolingo I learn how to play Duolingo. Others may be different but I do not learn the language. I learn from other apps and books.

I learned a lot from it. I got way more comfortable speaking Spanish because of it (having started from nothing), and was able to communicate with students (who had ZERO English), my husband (bilingual, and another resource for my Spanish), and his family (especially a cousin who, again, spoke no English). I learned a lot from the stories because they were conversational. The lessons were also good, but the stories put things into context and I was able to pick up whole phrases, and then break apart those phrases for other needs. Maybe things have gone down hill, but I'm not for the extreme DL hate. If anything, it's a free way to dip your toes in a language and see if it's worth pursuing further.

Keeping my streak was so stressful. I got to about 210 days and had to quit the app because I felt like I wasn’t learning enough yet being forced to use it

They have grammar lessons and podcasts for hearing practice that are intermediate level. But yeah I regularly supplement the lessons with language content creators, and I have some elementary education with the languages I'm learning in the app, like Spanish. For "traveling" Spanish, it definitely helped in a recent trip to a Latin American country. We weren't having deep conversations with anyone, but we knew that going in 😂 and we had a basis for saying what we had to translate on the spot. We basically knew the sentence structure, we just had to look up certain words in the regional dialect.

I can't help but agree and disagree at the same time. I've used duolingo as my primary language learning tool for French and was able to learn enough to pass two semesters worth of courses at my college. I think that while there are plenty of issues with it, it is certainly possible to learn a language using it. Maybe you'll only learn to A2 or B1 level, but at least with courses like French and Spanish you can learn enough to start reading books or watching tv/movies in the other language, or having basic conversations with natives, and that can help you develop more advanced skills and fluency. Though I do think that my main issue with Duolingo is that it doesn't focus enough on learning the grammar and tries to get you to learn it naturally, but there's been plenty of times where I've seen a really simple graphic explaining a grammatical concept that I was supposed to learn from duolingo months ago and thinking, oh, that's how that works. But tl;dr: the only thing that can teach you a language is yourself. Use whatever works for you, dedicate yourself to studying the language, and above all else find ways to apply that knowledge daily.

I learned more Japanese in 2 weeks of language school than 2 years of duolingo streaks. The only exception is memorizing hiragana and katakana. So use the app for that, and use everything else for everything else.

this is all so true and so frustrating when you're learning one of the languages they have that have few resources! :( me trying to learn yiddish like i know i don't know anything but there are no other options available

I took French as a kid and in college so already had a basic vocabulary and understanding of the language when I started Duolingo in 2015-16ish. I'd made it far enough in the original tree to unlock extra modules, like the goofy flirting that didn't feel accurate but was fun. Then they redid the whole system I think twice since then and knocked my progress back to the beginning and testing forward throws in enough words I can't pass the test. I've got a 400+ day streak, zooming through a lesson a day, barely putting in effort to get to anything remotely challenging

I remember one time my dad (Italian) was listening to the Duolingo exercise, and got really confused because the sentence wouldn’t be used in everyday conversation.

Well, yeah. As long as you've learned vocabulary, it has done its job. Unrealistic expectations are the problem here.

I don't know, I agree with a lot here, but there are some major flaws. The only way to become fluent in a language is regular use. Instructors teaching you are going to help expedite you learning, but you are never going to become fluent by just taking a course. You need real life and continuous experience with a skill like language. I took French for 13 years, and while I could definitely say and read a lot, I didn't become fluent until I connected with people who only spoke French. Then I had to learn how to actually converse in the language instead of structured phrases from class or from books. Duolingo did a solid job of teaching me the basics of language. I have used the free version for both Dutch and Japanese, and while I would never say I am fluent in them, I could absolutely find my way around Japan and Curacao. Would I be able to have extensive conversation, meet new people, and ultimately have new experiences as a result? Nope. But I also only spent about a year on each course and if/when my career takes me out that way, I won't be lost and I'll be able to ask for most of the things I need to without a translator app or book. I can call that a win.

It can also help to learn your target languages from each other if you have more than one.

I have a friend that condemned me when I said I use Duo. She advised me to use Mango languages, and I'm happy I listened to her.

2:38 they used to not have ads too. I don’t remember the hearts being a thing until I picked it up a third time.

So would my console I’m planning on developing that is designed to run basic math related games be educational?

I use it as a tool. I combine traditional learning with it. Duolingo is good for me because I can practice the language while at work. I can practice the Japanese characters and there are no hearts so you can screw up as much as you want!

Can't wait for the CoolMathsGames to push the microtransactions and dark patterns update. Kids in IT class have never learnt maths as fast.

I've come to realize this about five months in. I couldn't hold a basic spanish conversations. I think Duolingo is best as a supplement to different and tradition methods of learning. Immersion is still the best.

one thing i wasn't really a fan of on duolingo was the prioritising of being able to perfectly reproduce sentences rather than understand why you were saying things in a certain way, for example i tried to start learning korean on there but was frustrated because even though i could translate all their sentences, the lack of information about grammar rules/sentence structures essential to have even the most basic ability to create sentences meant i basically had no practical skills in the language. it wasn't until i went and took courses to learn the basics myself that i found duolingo useful, putting into practice things i had already learned. i will say however that the super repetitive nature of the vocab games were quite effective in getting me to remember the words it taught. did duolingo make me fluent? absolutely not, but at least i'll never forget the words it made me repeat 200 times over.

I saw a duolingo sentence before in Japanese saying "Excuse me, i am apple".

As someone who just finished the Swedish Skill Tree as of a week ago after 4 and a half years, if you just click your not going to get much out of it. So, I make notes, write, and speak. Also, doing bi-weekly reviews. Sure it takes longer but you get more out of it. However, no App alone or resource will get anyone to fluency. Note: I learn more than one language.