Learn Different Languages with the Duolingo App

Learning a different language can be time consuming and frustrating and can lead you to quitting before you even start.

Many of us have taken years and years of a language class in high school or even college only to find ourselves unable to understand or converse with native speakers. That all changed when I came across the Duolingo App.

This app (available in the AppStore) is completely free and offers many different languages to learn including High Valyrian and Klingon. Endangered languages such as Navajo and Hawaiian is also offered on the app as well as popular languages like English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, Korean and the one I’m currently learning; German, among many others.

Learn different languages in a fun, interactive way with speaking, listening and writing prompts to challenge your speech, pronunciation and vocabulary. Whilst learning, you will be so immersed in the skills and mascot Duo’s positive feedback that you might just spend hours going through the lessons. The lessons uses imagery and word association as well as repetition to reinforce ideas and has an active discussion section for confused users to converse with fellow students about any questions.

This app is great for the self starter and individual learner as well as a supplement for those who have previous knowledge and would like a refresher or to build on their knowledge.

There is a feature to start learning from scratch if you do not possess prior knowledge so first time learners should also give it a try and not feel discouraged. It was my first time learning German and I’ve already completed a fair amount of the lessons in only 21 days.

The developers have opted to use in-app ads as a way to keep the app free. The ads however show up after completing a lesson and I did not find it to be disruptive in the least. Duolingo also feature a plus version that removes ads for $9.99/mo, gives you unlimited tries in learning (5 mistakes costs 5 hearts which takes time to reload) and offline progress quizzes. There is also a 12 month option for $79.99 or $6.67/mo and a 6 month option of $47.99 or $7.99/mo. Try a week free and decide what is right for you, however the free version works just as well and includes practice runs and ways to test out of skills and topics if you have prior knowledge.