Duolingo for Android: Daily App Pick

Posted By Cassandra Chin in App Picks, How To, Travel

BreakingModern — Bonjour! Je m’appelle Cassandra! Listo para aprender un otro idioma? Jetzt können Sie mit dieser app.

It’s been a while since I’ve had so much fun learning a new language. While some people are capable of rolling their tongues, enunciating an accent aigu or applying sharp consonants to a word, I struggle. Seriously, even imitating accents is a challenge for me. Duolingo for Android makes the whole process a ton easier for me, which is why I’m making it a Bmod daily app pick.

How Duolingo Works

Duolingo, the free mobile app for Android (and iOS), helps you learn a variety of languages. From Spanish and Portuguese to Italian, French, German and English — each language learning experience is presented in a fun and interesting way. Duolingo was considered Google Play’s “Best of the Best” in 2013, and I must say I agree.

Though mandatory French classes — I’m a veteran of the Canadian education system — were engaging and fun (to a degree), language is one of those subjects in life that tends to easily be forgotten if you haven’t already mastered it or if you don’t practice on a daily basis. It takes time and practice to remain fluent when speaking or writing a foreign language

With Duolingo, learning a language becomes a game in which you lose hearts (gamification at its finest) for answering incorrectly, but advance when you complete the short lessons. The app tracks your progress with corresponding achievements and updating levels.

As you progress, the difficulty gradually increases with new words, tenses and terminology. After all, everyone loves to receive badges and points for succeeding. The sense of achievement certainly helped bolster my interest in proceeding to the next level. It becomes addictive in a way, and that mentality is perfect for learning a language.

Full disclosure: I have yet to “complete” a full language session in Duolingo, so I don’t know how involved the discussions and conversational phrases become. That said, the app itself switches from verbal to written formats, and definitely tests your listening skills with words and phrases. Between le, la, un and une, masculine versus feminine, and tense, Duolingo covers it all. Of course, these aspects change depending on the language you choose to learn.

Duolingo is great because there are pop-up boxes everywhere with little tips and pointers on why you are correct or incorrect, or, as is the case when learning a new language and its grammar, “almost correct.” The “almost correct” indicates where you went wrong and what the correct response would be in reference to the question.

Aside from the fact that it’s free, the app makes it easy to learn and practice anywhere, as opposed to programs like Rosetta Stone. There are daily, weekly and monthly charts to show your progression, and it’s easy to communicate with other users in the app’s Discussions forum.

For Chrome users, which I presume many people are, you can add Duolingo directly to your home page for easy access. If any of you out there are competitive, like me, you can also invite your friends via Facebook and challenge them to learn a language alongside you.

Once you’ve completed one language, or feel up to the challenge of learning another, you can always change the settings to another language.

Ready to learn? Listo?

Well, Allons-y!

For BMod, I’m Cassandra Chin.

Have a great app you want to share? Email it to [email protected].

All screenshots: Cassandra Chin

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