Learning Language with Duolingo

Determined to write an English Post for English Friday Challenge, I was honestly challenged by the topic: favorite apps on your smartphone. The first thing I do is eliminating all the social apps. Then I turned to Dudu.

Dudu: Criminal Case?
Mama: Well, that's more like a game.
Dudu: But it's a fun apps.

True. When my tablet died, and I bought its replacement, one of the first game/apps I installed back on was Criminal Case. It's a game that unites us, as we collaborate to solve each case and move on to the next level. But it's not exactly an app. At least not for me. So what, then? I like Snapseed, but I don't have that much time to edit pictures. I use Google Keep for blogging but it's not exactly an exclusive android app either because you can switch back and forth to desktop. Then I realize an abandoned application on the left corner called Duolingo. A language-learning app. It's was installed earlier last month in conjunction with my long-term resolution of learning a new language. So here I left it dusty. 

If you abandoned them, the bar will decrease like the one on the right

Among many other language-learning apps, Duolingo is my favorite because it's simple. You can pick the language, set your goals and learn systematically. After a while you also has to refresh some of the previous skills you've acquired. It only takes 5 minutes for each lesson and there's a test out and short cut option for those feeling confident about their language skills.

Curious, I gave French a try and skipped a few basic lessons. Whoa, my high-school French is still there apparently.

It wasn't the perfect app. Switching from one language to another is a little tricky and it takes time to load if you have more than one languages. When I signed up for German, it won't let me do placement test so I have to start from super basic lessons. I can test out each lessons or take shortcuts though. In terms of language choices, the app focuses, more on European languages. Most of them are the ones written in Latin alphabets. There's also English lessons for Indonesian speakers. So if you want to learn English everyday everywhere, this app may help you. But if you're looking for something like Japanese, Mandarin or Korean, it'll be another app on your gadget. Psst, I used TenguGo Hangul for my Korean lessons.

Lessons looks like this at Duolingo

Pick a language and switch them as you learn.

Rewards are easy to track.
It also tells you how far you are from your daily goals

Duolingo has been installed by over 50million users and has been dubbed the best language-learning app by The Wall Street Journal. While the size may vary with devices, this app currently takes 17,83MB on my Samsung 3V. Its content rating is 3+ and actually it looks easy enough for kids to try.

The biggest challenge isn't finding the right app, but making time to actually click on the app and go through the lessons again. Today is a new month so it's probably the right time to start again. Like how we are willing to redo the 12 levels of Criminal Case when my previous tab died.