I'm Reviewing Every Major Language Learning App - Starting With Duolingo

As a serial language learner who studied Modern Languages at Cambridge and went on to master Norwegian, Italian, and French independently (plus dabbled with tutors in Polish and Malay), I've experienced the full spectrum of language learning methods. From formal university instruction to self-directed apps, from conversation exchanges to grammar drills, I've tried it all. Now I'm starting a series reviewing every major language learning app. Let's begin with the biggest player: Duolingo.

I’ll admit, I've always been wary of apps that promise to make language learning "fun and easy.", but with 500 million users worldwide, Duolingo clearly does something right. So I spent a week diving deep into their Spanish course, testing everything from basic vocabulary drills to their new AI-powered features.

Here's my brutally honest take.

What Duolingo Gets Right

Let me start with the positives, because they're significant. Duolingo's onboarding is masterful. The sleek interface, charming characters, and polished animations create an immediately engaging experience. From a product design perspective, it's brilliant; they've gamified language learning in a way that genuinely motivates people to open the app daily.

At first glance, their content progression seems to follow solid pedagogical principles. New vocabulary is introduced gradually, building on previous lessons in a logical sequence. The app tracks which words you've learned and ensures new content remains just challenging enough without overwhelming beginners.

Adventures - a new lesson type with more immersive and interactive features

The variety of exercise formats (gap-fill, multiple choice, picture matching and sentence construction) prevents monotony and targets different aspects of language processing. Their newer features, like the interview-style listening exercises and interactive stories, show genuine innovation in attempting to make language learning more dynamic and contextual.

But Here's Where Things Fall Apart

The Sentence Problem

Nonsensical sentences seem fun but distract from more useful learning outcomes.

Spend five minutes on the subreddit r/shitduolingosays and you'll understand the core issue. Yes, "My horse collects teeth" and "The elephant wears a skirt" might be memorable, but they represent a fundamental misunderstanding of language learning priorities.

Every sentence a learner encounters is an opportunity cost. Time spent mastering how to say "The duck drinks wine" could be used learning "¿Dónde está el baño?" (Where is the toilet?) or "¿Podrías ayudarme?" (Could you help me?) These aren't just more practical; they're building blocks for real communication.

During my week of testing, I encountered dozens of sentences that felt more like Mad Libs than language instruction. Sure, they're entertaining and might help with sentence structure recognition, but language is ultimately a tool for communication. We should be optimising for utility, not virality.

The Heart System: Punishing Learning

A heartless motivational system?

As a free user, I was constantly aware of my five hearts. Miss too many questions, and you're locked out until hearts regenerate or you watch ads. This creates exactly the wrong learning environment.

Language acquisition thrives on mistakes. When I learned Norwegian, I embarrassed myself countless times—and those mistakes were my greatest teachers. But Duolingo's heart system trains users to be conservative, to guess safely rather than experiment boldly.

I caught myself second-guessing answers I was confident about, simply because I couldn't afford to lose another heart. Worse, I found myself tapping on word hints (Duolingo shows translations when you tap any word) rather than trying to recall the meaning of the word. This isn't learning; it's learned helplessness.

The Translation Crutch

This brings me to a deeper pedagogical issue. Duolingo's heavy reliance on translation exercises, combined with the tap-to-translate feature, creates a cognitive crutch that actually impedes fluency development.

Real language fluency means thinking in the target language, not constantly translating back and forth. But when every exercise encourages you to tap for translations, you're training your brain to remain dependent on your native language. It's like learning to ride a bike while someone holds the seat — you never develop true balance.

Inconsistent Course Quality

This brings me to a deeper structural issue. While Spanish and German courses feature the full range of Duolingo's innovations, such as interactive stories, conversation practice, listening exercises, other languages feel neglected. During my experience with Polish, I noticed a stark difference: fewer lesson types, no speaking practice components, and generally more basic content.

This inconsistency reveals Duolingo's prioritisation strategy. Popular languages get the premium treatment while smaller markets make do with basic translation drills. It's understandable from a business perspective, but it creates a two-tiered learning experience that undermines their "democratising language learning" mission.

The Listening Problem

Listening exercises are well-produced but often too focused on recognition rather than comprehension.

Their new listening exercises, such as the interview-style podcasts, are genuinely well-produced. But they're often too focused on recognition rather than comprehension. I encountered many exercises asking me to identify words I heard in a sentence without testing whether I understood their meaning or context.

This creates false confidence. You might perfectly identify that someone said "mercado," but if you can't use that word in context or understand its role in the sentence, you haven't really learned it.

The Bigger Picture Problem

Here's what bothers me most about Duolingo: it cheapens language learning by focusing on engagement metrics rather than learning outcomes. The streaks, XP points, and leagues create a dopamine-driven cycle that feels like progress but often isn't.

During my week of testing, I "completed" numerous lessons and earned hundreds of XP points. But when I honestly assessed my abilities, I couldn't hold a basic conversation about any topic I'd supposedly "learned." I could translate isolated sentences, but I couldn't express original thoughts confidently.

This isn't Duolingo's fault alone. It's the inevitable result of trying to make language learning as frictionless as possible. But language learning isn't supposed to be frictionless. It's supposed to be challenging, messy, and occasionally frustrating. That's where real growth happens.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should learn languages the way I do. I've spent years developing intuition about what methods work for me—that takes time and experience. But beginner language learners deserve tools that build good learning habits from the start: cultivating curiosity, encouraging ownership of their journey, and developing genuine communication skills - these positive habits would take learners far beyond what rampant gamification and emotional manipulative reminder notifications can do for them.

What Good Language Learning Could Look Like My success with learning Norwegian came from a completely different approach. I found myself setting specific, communicative goals: "I want to be able to introduce myself and talk about my hobbies" or "I want to be able to read and understand the politics section of a Norwegian newspaper". Then I found materials—textbooks, blog articles, videos, —that challenged me to reach those goals.

It wasn't always fun. I spent hours struggling through Norwegian news articles, looking up every third word. But because the content connected to my genuine interests, I stayed motivated. And because I was constantly pushed beyond my comfort zone, I developed real fluency.

Good language learning should cultivate curiosity, not compliance. It should encourage risk-taking, not risk-aversion. It should be goal-oriented and personally relevant, not arbitrarily gamified.

The Verdict

I have to give Duolingo credit: they've democratised language learning in unprecedented ways. They've made learning languages cool, accessible, and removed barriers that kept millions from even trying. That's genuinely valuable.

Duolingo succeeds brilliantly at getting people to open a language learning app daily. Their user engagement metrics are genuinely impressive, and for complete beginners, the structured introduction to Spanish basics has real value.

But users deserve more than what they've been promised. If your goal is actual communication, i.e. having real conversations with real people about real topics, Duolingo will leave you wanting. You'll spend months collecting XP points while developing limited practical ability. Some harsher critics have even called Duolingo a “procrastination app”.

Language learners deserves better than this. They deserves approaches that respect the valuable time and effort they put into learning a language, that genuinely prioritises real-word communication and their personal goals, rather than those that sell them quick dopamine hits.

I'm not saying Duolingo is useless. It's a decent starting point for complete beginners who need motivation to begin. But if you're serious about actually learning Spanish, you'll need to graduate to more substantial methods.

The question isn't whether Duolingo can teach you some Spanish vocabulary. It's whether those 500 million users are actually becoming Spanish speakers, or just becoming very good at using Duolingo.

Based on my week of testing, I suspect it's mostly the latter.

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What's been your experience with language learning apps? I'm currently exploring what effective, technology-enhanced language learning should actually look like. Next up in this series: Memrise, Busuu, and the new wave of AI-powered apps. Follow along as I test them all and work toward building something better !