Review Day: DuoLingo

I've been using the DuoLingo app to fulfill my 2023 goal of learning Spanish to communicate better with my neighbors. I purchased the $83.99 annual pass because the ad-supported tier is absolutely useless for anything other than trying out the app. (Between the very slow loading screens and the twice-as-loud ads after every exercise, it's impossible to keep focused or make much forward progress).

I usually spend 15 - 60 minutes per day using DuoLingo. It's a mixed bag with a few more positives than negatives.

The Good

• The length of each lesson is perfect. Courses are broken up into units of 6 - 8 lessons each, and each lesson is broken up further into 3 - 5 quick modules. You can do a part of a lesson in just a few minutes of downtime, or sit down more formally to do an entire lesson. The Spanish class is huge -- I've done 28 units so far and there are still 192 to go.
• The variety of lessons (reading, listening, writing, speaking) is nice and forces you to think in the language in multiple ways. There are review modules in each style so you can get better at your weakest areas.
• The organization of the content is well-done. Topics are well-paced and new vocabulary words will pop up for several lessons to come so you learn them through repetition. Collections of words (numbers, months, types of things) are sprinkled throughout so you don't end up with a boring "Let's learn 20 different numbers and nothing else for two weeks" lesson like you would in high school Spanish.
• The gamification (earning points, rewards, and leaderboard status) provides a shallow way to keep you practicing consistently. You get more points for reviewing than you do for learning something new, which helps make the lessons stick.

The Bad

• The actual LEARNING part of the equation is lacking. Almost all of the learning is done with trial and error -- throwing something new at you then correcting you when you obviously get it wrong. This can lead to some confusion in later lessons that introduce exceptions (for example masculine vs. feminine, or when the adjective goes BEFORE the noun). While this teaching style works for reinforcement, it would still be better to teach a few things upfront so you understand the foundations instead of learning so many things by rote.
• The voice recognition aspect of the speaking sections is subpar and easily gamed. It seems to trigger based on the peaks and valleys of your sound wave so you can skate by just hitting consonants and mispronounce tons of stuff in the middle. Sometimes it refuses to accept your answer unless you slow way down and recite each word in isolation. If you try to speak as fast as some of the colloquial teaching examples, you have a high chance of being rejected.
• The gamification is ultimately a distraction from learning. If you get sucked into the competitive leaderboard, you'll find that some activities provide far more points than a NEW lesson. You may end up wasting a lot of time strategically using the "double experience" milestones and repeating old lessons for speed, with diminishing returns on how much you're actually learning. However, you'll eventually find out that the leaderboard is meaningless because you get grouped up with 30 new people every week so there's no room for real rivalry or cameraderie.

Final Grade: B, at $84 per year the app is still cheaper than an in-person course, but the amount you learn is directly dependent on your daily motivation. The convenience of having it on your phone may outweigh the dearth of true teaching.