Learning a new language is a way to connect to thousands of new songs, films and best of all, people!
Duolingo is a free language app——although you can pay to go ad-free, but the ads are very brief—with 94 different language courses in over 30 languages, and it’s a great place to start learning!
- You can set your own goals.
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You choose your goal for how many Duolingo lessons you want to get done per day, and Duo, the company’s lovable green owl mascot, sends you encouraging emails to help you keep on track.
- You can choose whether or not you want to be competitive.
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There are different “leagues” in Duolingo, but you’re under no obligation to participate! If you do, however, you can go up the ranks and win different medals, and the time constraints for winning these medals is a wonderful incentive
- It’s inclusive!
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Duolingo uses situations and characters to help you learn, and it certainly doesn’t ignore diversity! There are many Duolingo characters of color, and it isn’t heteronormative when presenting relationships.
- You don’t have a choice.
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You’re already downloading the app.
- Duolingo makes learning endangered languages easy.
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Languages such as Navajo, which have become less commonly spoken due to colonialism, are free to learn on Duolingo.
- Most Americans are monolingual.
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This is like being trapped in a box. The walls are coming in, and the hourglass is flipped over. You don’t have all the time in the world, you know.
- Duo the owl’s green feathers.
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They can raise the dead when combined with four pounds of pickles.
- Duo won’t give up on you no matter what.
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You’ll get emails every day for years.“You’re kicking Duo when you don’t do seven Hungarian lessons a day,” they read. “You’re stabbing Duo in the heart!”
Five years later, you get an invitation to the funeral. You’re in attendance. “This is your fault,” someone says in Hungarian. You don’t understand it, because you’re an asshole who didn’t do your lessons.
- Learning a new language teaches you more about your own.
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When you learn about the grammatical differences between your native language and your target language, you get to know your native language pretty well!
- The ghost of Duo refuses to let you do anything.
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It changed all the labels in your house to Hungarian. All those expensive books for college are also in Hungarian. You call your mom. The answer is something you can vaguely recognize from a beginner exercise, but she’s speaking too fast. No amount of lingots could save you now. You tried to read the Bible for solace. You’re not even Christian. You open the first page. “Keletkezés,” it reads. You can’t stop sobbing.
I’m so glad I started using Duolingo. Not only have I gained countless lingots and skills, but I’ve been able to keep my arms. Duo says that I won’t even have to say that if I get you to enter the contract; they’ll even let me eat non-Hungarian food once every two years!
Sign up today!
*This is not a sponsored post.