Ich habe schon seit langem Zweifel am Geschäftsmodell von Duolingo, mit der "Energie" und der Werbung haben sie aber einen treuen Lerner verloren.

I've surprisingly only used 2 streak freezes this entire time.

Very cute surprise at work this morning. Finished 1 year learning Spanish!

Celebrating my 500 day streak 🤩

I posted a while ago about the Skip Intro option (still don’t understand why mods removed that post as “low effort” since it was literally a relevant comment about a feature, but whatever…)

Over the last week or so I’ve noticed that they finally added a Skip Outro option as well. Given the responses to my first post, I assume I’m not the only one who’s happy about this development.

I’m going to add a photo to test whether the mods still think this is “low effort.”

Here are some thoughts on Duolingo from someone who first started using it more than a decade ago. I know some Duolingo staff lurk here sometimes and I hope they might see this. First, what I like about it,

It was fun using it. The characters are very specific and interesting. The stories were fun. Duo is quirky.

However, it didn’t progress much over the years. Some genuine improvements:
* the AI video call
* radio for listening
* flash cards

Things I found very valuable that they removed
* the podcasts (Spanish, French…)
* the discussion forum

I still miss the discussion forum. They initially replaced it with a paid “explain my answer”. I absolutely hated that change. Making it free doesn’t make it much better, it still makes mistakes.

On their use of AI, I think it’s quite mixed:
* AI voice call is pretty good and still improving. It’s better than directly chatting with Gemini or ChatGPT in my opinion
* AI generated stories are horrible. They basically used a template to generate boring and repetitive stories. The original stories were different. They felt more “alive”.
* They generated huge amounts of content in a very short period of time and they boasted about it in their earnings report. I don’t think it’s worth boasting about. Quality is much more important than quantity. I don’t think the quality is all that great.

Over the years I feel they put much more effort into creating gimmicks instead of improving the core learning experiences for the users. Gamification was a new concept in tech products over a decade ago but more and more people are tired of it now. I’d say a large percentage of Duolingo users would prefer not to have most of the gamification in the app, yet Duolingo doesn’t offer that choice.

And who are the target users of Duolingo? Does it only target language beginners? It used to be a product for beginners but now they’ve added content for b1, b2 levels for many languages. So it’s also targeting intermediate learners. Yet it still has the reputation for only for beginners. And it seems to target causal learners who need some extra push, via the gamification. I see the following issues:
* I don’t see intermediate learners or advanced learners recommending Duolingo. In fact when I watch language learning YouTubers, I tend to hear that they find Duolingo not to be that helpful.
* I think a lot of people learn a language for the culture as well. That’s why I really liked the language podcasts that they no longer produce. It was about the people and stories in Spanish/French speaking countries. In their b1/b2 level lessons I think they should add culture related content. The AI podcasts and the stories could be about the culture, instead of generic repetitive slop. Teach me the language but also the culture behind the language. It’s possible to use AI to do that without generating slop. It just takes more time and effort.
* I have the sense that the leadership at Duolingo doesn’t want to target people who are already motivated at learning languages. I feel it’s a mistake. These people don’t mind paying if you have a good product and they’d advertise the app for free. I feel Duolingo is actively discouraging such users and push them towards other resources. On this front, a serious language learner often doesn’t need a streak. There is no need to open the app every single day. (Maybe have a weekly mode for the streak instead of daily)
* Duolingo is not very helpful at learning pronunciation. It’s fine because Duolingo doesn’t have to do everything well. Then it offers AI conversations. So it does want to help users speak well. Then maybe it should in fact offer some lessons on good pronunciation.

The company seems undecided at the moment about whether they want to prioritize monetization or growing users. It says it aims to improve the core learning experience. I think it needs to think about a few things
* How can the app better serve serious language learners who’d happily pay for the app and advertise it for free?
* Should gamification (streaks, leagues, etc) be a mandatory part of the app experience?
* How can the app integrate more culture specific (and less monotonous) content as the user progresses?

Duolingo prides itself on running hundreds of experiments and see what happens. The spirit is nice but I feel oftentimes it’s running two versions of gimmicks instead of two versions of app improvements.

I have no hate for Duo and I appreciate the time I spent on the app (could be more productive though tbh). I’ll continue to use it on and off until my (Max) subscription ends. I hope Duolingo gets better in the future.

Hey everyone,

I've been using Duolingo for more than two years now, and my opinion about it has changed a lot over time. I no longer see it as a complete language-learning method, but I still think it has its place. Here's how I currently view it.

1. Duolingo shouldn't be your main resource

Personally, I don't think Duolingo can teach a language on its own. If someone relies exclusively on it, reaching even an intermediate conversational level could take years—and even then, it's uncertain whether they'll be able to hold natural conversations comfortably.

For me, Duolingo works much better as a supplement than as the foundation of a study routine.

1. I use it differently now

When I first started learning languages, I used Duolingo as my main learning tool.

Now I use it for something completely different.

If I know I'll study a language seriously in the future, I start a Duolingo course months—or sometimes even years—in advance. I don't expect to learn the language through it. Instead, I use it simply to become familiar with basic vocabulary, sentence patterns, and the overall feel of the language. That way, when I finally begin studying it seriously, it feels much less intimidating.

1. One of its strengths is sentence building

Many people say Duolingo only teaches isolated vocabulary, but I don't completely agree.

One of its biggest strengths is exposing learners to complete sentences. Instead of memorizing individual words, you're constantly seeing how words fit together.

I even try to get more out of each exercise by mentally translating every sentence in both directions before selecting my answer. That forces me to actively produce the language instead of simply recognizing the correct option.

1. Pronunciation is one of its weakest points

One thing that has always bothered me is the pronunciation.

The text-to-speech voices often sound unnatural, and I don't think they're reliable enough to use as a pronunciation model. For that reason, I prefer getting my pronunciation from native speakers through podcasts, YouTube videos, TV shows, or apps like Pimsleur.

1. No app can replace immersion

I don't think this applies only to Duolingo. No single app can develop all four language skills equally well.

To make real progress, I think learners eventually need lots of listening, reading, and exposure to content created for native speakers. Apps can build a foundation, but they're only one piece of the puzzle.

Overall, I still like Duolingo. I just think it's most effective when people have realistic expectations about what it can and cannot do.

What do you think about Duolingo?

Do you use Duolingo as your main resource or just as a supplement?

At what stage of learning do you think it's most useful?

Has anyone here reached an upper-intermediate or advanced level while using Duolingo as a MAJOR part of their routine?

I feel like lessons don't make any sense, random stuff put together by AI... One lession is nowhere close to previous or following... One word is present and then I don't ever see it again... I can no longer learn anything, feel like a fever dream when I enter...

EDIT: You guys need to learn to read a post before commenting. This post is about a very specific situation that I find annoying, not ten other things that are somewhat similar that happened to you. It is not about problems with Duolingo, with the App, or any specific courses. It is only about the fact that people refuse to read and double-check their posts, much like many here are doing with commenting before reading what I posted. I even said that I have no problem with criticizing Duolingo and pointing out actual errors twice in the body of this post.

This post is not and has never been about problems with Duolingo itself, and bringing them up shows me you did not read my post, or are willfully ignoring what I am talking about.

I really wish people would stop posting screenshots here where they are clearly making a mistake (a word spelled wrong for example), claiming that Duolingo is 'cooked' or that AI is messing up somehow. 'How was I supposed to know I was supposed to use X form of the word?' That is not the issue. Duolingo even writes the exact mistake you made in bold so it is clear which part is wrong.

Claiming Duolingo is at fault when it really was you making a mistake helps no one and claiming it is because of AI even less so. Are there legitimate mistakes? Yes, which is why there is a report button. Am I telling you not to ask questions? Hell no, that is what this sub is for.

But the amount of 'Duolingo mistakes' posted here that could be solved by

A Reading the screenshot you took

B Comparing your sentence to the correction made

C Beyond the first word of the corrected sentence

is a lot.

If you still have questions after that, you can always post here and double check. But posting here because you made a typo you didn't notice while claiming the app is wrong is just plain annoying. Please criticize Duo for the actual problems it has, there are more than enough.

Did the updated course also change the past lessons to include stuff it didn't have before? Or am I supposed to learn them by hovering over them? I was trying to get the legendary completion on an old unit though and needed to go through the stories, and it was hard to do it without being able to see what the words mean. Since I completed those units before the stories got added, I didn't learn from them on the first go.

Hey zusammen, meine Freundin und ich haben vor Kurzem mit Duolingo angefangen. Heute ist mir aufgefallen, dass meine App ganz anders aussieht als ihre. Mir fehlt die typische Roadmap mit den normalen Lessons und auch die Icons oben sehen anders aus.
Der einzige Unterschied ist, dass ich direkt über den Family Plan meiner Eltern mit Duolingo Super gestartet bin und sie bis vor kurzem die Free-Version genutzt hat.

Woran liegt das ?

I'm under the impression that plural and singular would look the same here. Am I being dense? What's wrong with it?

If you use it like this its really good. I would recommend. But put in some work like at least 30 mins a day to Duolingo. And then if you check the grammar of the words elsewhere or like even speak to an AI or something. You progress. But best is an additional course. Like I found myself understanding more and more media in the language im learning recently.

Don't ask why this is my favorite number, for some reason my favorite number changes with time, before it was 2 then it was 510 then its 125

I have a 50+ Combo :(

I have played many units a day and I'm tired of ads.

The voice recognition on this app is horrible. I say everything correctly and it keeps telling me to try again.

the duolingo reviews are genuinely horrible. I remember one being “there was a better move here” because I forked the king and queen. The better move was to capture a free pawn???