So I’ve been hearing about this app for a while now, but never checked it out because it doesn’t offer my target languages (Korean, Japanese, and now Latin), but I decided to download it anyways, just to check it out.

They offer Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Danish, and Swedish for English speakers. Right now I’m just using it to refresh my memory in Spanish. I studied Spanish for 3 years from 8th to 10th grade, took 100-level Spanish for a year in my junior year of college, followed by a 5-week study abroad session in Mexico for the 200-level. It’s been a while since I studied and used Spanish regularly, so I don’t remember a lot, but I still have a really solid foundation, and I can speak just enough to get by. So far the biggest thing that trips me up is remembering where the accent marks go, and you will get penalized on Duolingo for those kinds of typos, which is good because accent marks can change the entire meaning of a word.

I really enjoy apps that turn studying into a game. (This is not the same as apps/books/etc. that pretend that learning a language is easy and you’ll pick it up in no time – not true!) Duolingo’s method involves a lot of translation and repetition, which seems kind of boring, but having a points system attached makes it more exciting. I took the placement test so I technically skipped a bunch of levels, but I’m still going to do all of the lessons as a refresher.

If anyone is using Duolingo, feel free to add me! Right now i’m just doing the Spanish course, but if you want a partner to compete against for another language, I might be interested in picking up another language!

My username is: itsveronicaguys

Add me! 🙂