What I learned from 1,800 days on Duolingo

Many people start their language journey with Duolingo. And many more people are surprised to hear that I am still using Duolingo after 1,800 days.

First of all, some context

Day 0 - Day 633 Completing the Duolingo Irish course the first time.

Day 634 - Day 1068 At the time, Duolingo was structured in a way where you could complete all of the lessons again, but at a higher level the second time. After completing the Irish course, I began to go back over all of the lessons.

Day 1069 - Present Working through the Duolingo Polish course.

How I use Duolingo?

I have always used Duolingo as a supplement to my overall learning. From the start of my streak, I have been using Duolingo alongside language lessons, studying material from those lessons, and practicing immersion learning by reading books, watching shows, and listening to podcasts.

In the early days of my language learning journey, I did spend more time per day on Duolingo than I do now simply because I had yet to find other resources. That said, I typically only complete one lesson a day which typically takes me between five and ten minutes, depending on how difficult that particular lesson is.

Here is what I’ve learned

Duolingo is not enough to learn a language alone.

My biggest grievance with that app isn’t that it can’t teach you everything - no single tool or resource can, but rather, I feel like a lot of people download Duolingo thinking they will learn a language and find themselves trapped, not knowing what next steps to take beyond just using the app. If you want to hear my recommendations for how to learn a language, you can check out this article.

That said, I do think Duolingo is a good tool for revising what you are learning elsewhere. People often complain that Duolingo doesn’t explain grammar. I don’t completely disagree with the school of thought that you can learn grammar naturally through repetitive exposure to grammatical changes in sentences you can otherwise understand. (For example: The cat’s ball. The man’s house. The woman’s shirt. You’ll start to realize ‘s equates to possession without being explicitly told.) However, I do think that approach is even stronger when you have been taught the base concepts in a more direct and formal way and use Duolingo to repeatedly expose yourself to that information in small, understandable bursts.

So in summary - Duolingo is good for practicing what you already know.

Consistency is Key

I would recommend using Duolingo for no reason other than to build a habit of consistency. There are days in my life when I am too busy to sit down and formally study a language for any amount of time, but I usually can spare at least five to ten minutes to complete a lesson on Duolingo. Not only do I believe that time adds up, but more significantly, I am signaling to myself that language learning is still part of my life, even when I am too busy to make it a big part of my life. This makes me less likely to completely fall off of the habit of learning.

One thing I do want to stress, however, is to be mindful of days in your streak compared to hours spent actually learning. Five minutes a day studying does add up. But five years learning for five minutes a day will yield very different results than spending half an hour or more a day learning. A lot of people get hard on themselves that they’ve been learning for years, but don’t take into account that in those years they haven’t actually spent very long learning. Which is totally fine! However, it’s important to be aware of this so we don’t get hard on ourselves and hold ourselves to unrealistic expectations.

Know Your goals

If you’re planning to travel to a new country and want to be able to order and make polite conversation, Duolingo is not the app for you. A lot of the content, even at the most beginner levels is focussed on building your ability to form more complex sentences and thoughts, rather than an outright focus on the basics first and foremost. Because of that, you may learn the word for pigeon before you learn the word for man and you may be asking if the croissant is blue before you’re asking how are you.

However, if you want to fully learn the language, I don’t think it’s bad to learn some less common words before others. If anything, you’ll have funny moments where someone is shocked you know the word for something they’re not expecting you to know. The sentences are strange, and I would hope you never find yourself needing to say ‘there is a woman in the refrigerator’ but I do think they tend to choose words that you will find yourself using often enough once you reach fluency.

Note: Unfortunately, it has come to my attention after writing this article that Duolingo is now using AI for the Irish language audio. I do not support that change.

If you want to go beyond Duolingo, my complete guide of how to study Irish at any level if now available to all paid subscribers!

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Upcoming from Foghlaimeoir:
Wednesday: Your Feet Will Take You Where Your Heart Is
Saturday: Irish translation of Wednesday’s article

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