Would I use Duolingo to learn a new language?

CC subtitles available in multiple languages.

Many of you have asked for my take on Duolingo. In this video, I'll share my experiences using the app to learn Hindi and Turkish, highlighting what works and what doesn't.

⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Duolingo
0:52 Trying Duolingo for Turkish
2:51 Trying Duolingo for Hindi
4:23 My opinion on Duolingo
7:47 Can you become fluent using only Duolingo?

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[Thelinguist]

❓Have you used Duolingo? What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments!

[codyscott]

I completed the Duolingo Spanish tree. I definitely learned from duolingo but it wasn’t my only source. It was nice for keeping me on track when life got busy and I would have lost the habit when I was a new language learner. However, the pace of learning is very slow and I was far from fluent upon finishing the tree. But overall, I enjoyed using duolingo to help me stay motivated when I was a new learner. I’ve moved on to more advanced content like reading books and doing online lessons now. My opinion is duolingo is great for someone getting started, but you will need to eventually graduate from it. Great video Steve, I always enjoy your content

[kennyborland]

I started learning German on Duolingo a couple of years ago before I went to visit my girlfriend’s family. I just wanted to learn a few phrases but then I became more motivated to learn properly and I brought in other resources. I still do Duolingo because I see it as brain training and a way to at least do SOMETHING every day, even when I don’t have much time. It helps me to keep my momentum.

[MattDaddyFatStacks]

To me, duo is just a habit-forming tool. It exposes me to pronunciation and makes me commit via its heavy notification system.

[LanguageMaus]

I was gonna sleep but now I need to know Steve's opinion on Duo

[Hirsak]

Thanks to Duolingo I understood that I didn't want to learn Hindi

[luishenriquealmeidarocha]

I use Duolingo to learn English, and I like it because if it weren't for Duolingo I wouldn't be able to learn any other way, I have 1004 days there and that keeps me motivated to not stop.

[jackjohnson]

I’ve almost completed the Duolingo Hindi course and I’ll say this for it if nothing else: it’s been great in helping me learn the Devanagari script so that I can read Hindi, and I’ve learned a lot about Hindi syntax. Honestly, can’t speak it beyond a handful of phrases, but I have some handy tools to make the rest of my journey easier and it’s been 100% free.

I think some folks expect too much from it, you have to be realistic. It’s a convenient way for me to get a few minutes of Hindi exposure/practice out and about. But it’s a supplement or launchpad, not much more.

Edit: also, as you mentioned ruined, it was very difficult differentiating the audio for several of the sounds, so I went to a few YouTube channels to better learn the basics of the script and phonetics, then went back to Duo. I still routinely listen to Hindi podcasts and music too. All of it adds up to: I can understand a decent amount about a few topics after maybe a year of extremely passive learning. I can’t speak it, but that’s due to a complete lack of effort so far.

[DeTAYL.]

Duolingo, Michel Thomas and using HelloTalk did wonders for my Spanish. It’s great living in a time where resources for learning another language are abundant.

[nyeonii]

For starters, I don’t think it’s good to judge Duolingo based on the languages you tried. Duolingo is much better for languages that use the Roman alphabet. French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese are the strongest courses on there, but the others are slowly improving too. Duolingo’s biggest strength is that it lowers the barrier. By only requiring one short lesson per day, people are more likely to open it and practice. Not everyone will have an hour to study each day, but everyone should have 5 mins. This ensures you have contact with the language each day and keeps you engaged with it. It’s not very efficient for learning new topics imo, but it’s great for review and exposure to the language.

[ibRebecca]

Duolingo used to have a mini list of all the vocabulary words you learn in each lesson. It would be nice if they brought that back within each unit so we can go back and review outside of their lessons.
Nice and fair review ! Love seeing your new books!

[dontstealmydiamondsv]

One thing you can do to speed up with Duolingo is skip entire units. It gives you a test to see if you know enough to jump ahead and the thing is, this test doesn't use the same annoying heart system the normal lessons do. You can fail it as many times as you need so you can learn with it instead of the lessons to some extent

[DavudBeycan-gykm]

How nice to see someone learning my native language 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷

[Lafayette_Lucas]

Hello everyone. My honest opinion of Duolingo is that it depends on the language. I have been using Duolingo for more than four years, and first, one can do hours of Duolingo. Second, it depends on the language for example Latin is a very simple course which in this case in Duolingo you won’t learn how to speak in Latin. On the other hand French, spanish, German, Norwegian, and even Russian and Hebrew are really good courses. Thanks to Duolingo and studying daily for months I finished French, Romanian, and Hebrew; and continue studying German, Norwegian, and Russian. And in this moment after four years of French I can speak really well, also I can have a solid conversation in Hebrew and starting to be able to speak in German and Norwegian. But still some courses are more difficult like Russian. But Duolingo is a really helpful tool to start learning a language so I do recommend to use Duolingo but with courses that are longer and that have more material. 😊

[LucasCzarnecki-PoliPsych]

Great advice Steve. I really appreciate that you gave the app a fair review. Too many language youtubers have jumped on the Duolingo hate bandwagon.

It's a great tool. Hopefully one in an arsenal of many. I use it daily for Spanish. It's spaced repetition is great at teaching you words. I combine it with other tools like Dreaming Spanish and listening to native Spanish content (TV, radio, podcasts, books, etc).

The real magic seems to happen when I listen to comprehensive input. But my hunch is that Duolingo makes said process faster.

[RM-jbbv]

I’m now fluent in Turkish after this video. Thanks Duo and Steve!

[BijuuMike]

the 15 minutes a day as a serious learner gets me every time

[paulblissett]

Just started Hindi 10 days ago (mainly Duolingo but with some phrasebooks and Netflix to help)..alongside french/german/portugese and Japanese for the last 2 years or so daily to varying degrees. Looking forward to your Hindi content down the line Steve as I really enjoy all your videos/interviews and language tips 🙏

[valeriemcdonald]

Duolingo has been pretty good for helping with my french. It hasn't gotten me speaking, but I have had consistent improvement in my understanding. You do need to use other resources on top of it.

[socalvillaguy]

I use a few apps (as well as non-gamified resources), and I find Duolingo one of the better ones I've used which *works well for how I learn*. I think that's the key here. All of these apps, at least the better ones, have different structured approaches. Some focus on grammar and sentence structure, while others concentrate on vocabulary or common usage in conversation. One of the ones I like least (and own for a lifetime) is Rosetta Stone. Besides being buggy, it also seems to need a companion book to go with it in order to best learn while using it. Also, unlike Duolingo, RS is a relatively short course, at least in French.