Does Duolingo Really Work for Spanish?

Many mobile apps on the market today claim to teach you a language via your phone alone. Before my trip to Argentina, I wanted to know: Does Duolingo really work for Spanish?

As some of you may know, my boyfriend was born and raised in Argentina to a family that speaks little to no English. That meant that a big part of prepping to visit Buenos Aires and meet his family was learning Spanish.

I used Duolingo for 5 months. These are my results.

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What is Duolingo?

My Study Strategy

When we finally got our plane tickets, I started to crack down on my Spanish for a period of about 5 months before our trip. I hurried to download Duolingo as well as other apps such as Drops and LingQ– anything that could help me communicate with his family when I arrived in Argentina.

• I practiced for at least 30 minutes a day. I tried to allocate some time mainly before I went to sleep since it’s been proven that learning before you go to bed helps with memory and recall of material. When I didn’t have the time, I made sure to practice during the day.
• I mainly used Duolingo, but sometimes it felt a little repetitive so I used other apps too: LingQ which allows you to read and listen to content in your target language, and Drops, which is great for practicing vocabulary.
• I changed my phone’s language to Spanish.
• I repeated sentences out loud from my exercises.
• I created flashcards for words that were difficult for me to remember and reviewed them.

I reached a 140 day streak on Duolingo. But how far did that get me?

Results

After all the preparation and time I dedicated, I landed in Argentina and I had to face it.

Bottom line is: It wasn’t enough.

Let me explain a little bit more. I understood a lot more than what I would’ve understood without Duolingo. And the convenience, ease-of-use, and gamification that these apps offered make it easy to turn language learning into a habit.

But at the end of the day, I understood only about 50% of conversations and spoke with lots of grammar mistakes and very very slowly.

The Good

Duolingo (and the other apps I mentioned) were great at increasing my vocabulary, but were not so great for learning grammar or practicing speaking. The game-like structure of the app made it addicting and quickly turned language learning into a habit. The fact that all of the lessons were accessible via my phone allowed me to learn in between my day to day such as on the train or while waiting for the bus.

And everything I learned was absolutely free! I didn’t pay a dime.

The Bad

All of these apps, Duolingo included, have a cap on the amount you can study per day with the free version. Duolingo gives you 5 hearts a day and reduces one heart per mistake you make, which leaves you with 5 available mistakes a day before you can no longer continue. Now this isn’t that bad per se, because you don’t want to overload your brain with information every day as your retention of the material may be worse later, but it definitely slows down the process. Another caveat of the free version is that Duolingo has many ads which is pretty annoying, but understandable.

Regarding grammar, at the beginning of every section they offer some short written information about the subject, but since it’s short, it’s just not enough. The grammar levels themselves are very sparsely interwoven throughout the whole game which makes practicing it a bit hard.

When I started learning and my boyfriend overheard the exercises I was doing, he started laughing because it sounded really funny. According to him, the Spanish that Duolingo teaches is the ‘neutral’ dialect of Latin America. This means no one speaks it, but everyone understands it since it’s what all the movies, for example, are dubbed in. This definitely presented itself as a barrier when arriving to Argentina, because I was just not familiar with their accent.

Don’t Worry, There’s no Ugly 😝

So What Would I Have Done Differently?

The main thing I would have done differently is to use Duolingo as a supplement to a class or private tutor. Duolingo and other apps are an incredible revolutionary tool to integrate new languages into your everyday routine, but practically, they will not teach you as much as a human being will.

italki is a great online platform where you can find native online tutors from around the world that will help you reach your language goals with one-on-one lessons. They have virtually every language available and many teachers offer trial lessons for as low as 1$!

Click here to earn $10 in italki credits free when making a purchase of $20!

If you want to master Spanish for a trip you’re taking, or for business and communication, I highly recommend you find someone to teach you the dialect you are trying to learn. If you’re going to Spain find a Spanish tutor, if you want to understand your Mexican clients get yourself someone from Mexico. There are several benefits of doing this.

• You’ll be able to master the dialect of your choosing, as well as learn some of the widely understood neutral terms.
• You’ll learn about cultural differences.
• You’ll practice practical speaking for your language needs.
• You will have someone to ask any questions you might have about the language.

Stay Tuned For Part 2!

I’m now in Argentina for a whole month trying to learn as much Spanish (or Castellano as they call it here) as I can.

Subscribe to my newsletter to be updated about how much I learned with full Spanish immersion for a month!

Have you tried learning a language? What strategies worked for you? Share them in the comments below!

And until next time,
Take a shans!