Duolingo is an app that exists for over a decade and aims on helping people improve their language skills and facilitating their language learning journey. This app has many features and advantages and downsides which must be considered before downloading.
Duolingo is an app that includes so many languages, including the ones that are not spoken by any community nowadays such as Latin, Scottish etc. and the languages that are spoken by very little communities such as Navaho and Hawaiian. This app also starts to teach the languages from the very start and you therefore get to understand the basics very well before moving on with the rest. Moreover, it is fun to spend time on and does not require attention that much so you can learn languages any time during the day when you are free. You can revise topics you don’t understand and the app ensures that you get the topic at some point.
The problem is that the app can only teach you the basics. After you skip that level, the exercises become the same and you feel like you cannot get anywhere above that level since the app does not focus on the four main language abilities: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. It can only get you somewhere in terms of vocabulary. Furthermore, grammar content is inadequate and you practice nearly no speaking. The last point is that the topics the app teaches are so random that you may know what “vine” means but you may not know what “of course” means in your target language. So if you want to focus on terms and expressions used in daily life, Duolingo may not be your cup of tea.
In conclusion, Duolingo is an app that is good at teaching language basics but is not an adequate resource for language learning if you take the process seriously.