Duolingo App Review: How to Get 100 Million People Translating the Web for Free

Last year on European Day of Languages I decided that it was time to stop wishing I knew another language and take steps to make it happen in 2014. By the end of 2013 I was introduced to Duolingo by Apple when they selected it as the top iPhone app of the year.

Duolingo helps users learn a new language from their iPhones with user friendly visual and verbal lessons. The simple interface and the vibrant design make it a pleasure to use the app, and for a first time language learner I found it fun and simple to use.

Once you’ve signed up, you can choose which language you would like to learn from those on offer including French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. I have an ambition to learn both Spanish and Portuguese, but having a basic knowledge of French from school I decided to start there and hopefully progress.

After choosing a language you can also set a target of between 5 and 30 minutes of learning each day. I chose to start with 10 minutes to see if I could stay on track at first and I have found the daily reminders from my language coach really helpful and so far I haven’t fallen off my target!

The idea of having a coach is a great feature as are the different levels you can progress through which keeps the learner engaged for longer to complete each level. To make it more entertaining Duolingo also allows the user three lives in the form of lovely little hearts per level, and if you lose all three you have to start the level all over again. What’s great here is that even though you are starting the same level once again, Duolingo changes it up so you aren’t answering the same questions.

A series of questions encourage the user to answer correctly, learning along the way by typing in the chosen language and choosing from multiple choice and voice recordings with the phone's microphone. This innovative way of learning keeps the overall experience interesting and entertaining. Learners are also rewarded with experience points, which can be used to buy perks within the app, and, perhaps the best part, it's free, although I have enjoyed using it so much I would gladly pay for it too.

The most exciting part about Duolingo for me is the story behind it. The founder, Luis von Ahn (creator of CAPTCHA, the user identification test that tells humans and computers apart) created Duolingo out of an ambition to translate the whole web into every major language – the problem being that this would be a very time consuming and expensive project costing millions. He wondered how he could motivate people to do it for free and realised that many people have a desire to learn a new language, so Duolingo was born. Luis has created a way to help millions of people learn a new language while simultaneously motivating us to translate the web quickly and accurately, all for free.

Score: 8/10

I love... the simplicity of the app, the app icon and the way it motivates you to learn with daily reminders and helpful hints to stay on track

I'd like to... see the app offer more languages with introductory levels just to have an initial try, for example Mandarin or Russian. I would also like the app to have more ‘real-life’ scenarios to learn from. Since both Jane and I have been using the app we’ve encountered ‘The dress is red’, ‘The cat is black’ , ‘He is rich’, 'I am an ant' and our favourite… 'The shark eats the monkey'!

To find out more about the Duolingo journey click here to watch a video with its founder Luis Von Ahn. 

Download Duolingo here and find them on Facebook & Twitter to join a community of language learners...

Bon apprentissage!

Katie x