Greetings!

Here is my first update on how my French language-learning process has been going so far.

So, if you read my last post, I was trying to decide between two websites (busuu.com and babbel.com), when a classmate suggested that I try DuoLingo, which is a smartphone app of a similar idea to the websites I had been looking at. Even better, it is completely free to use!

I decided to give it a try, and in what felt like a short time, I suddenly realized I had been on the app for 45 minutes. I was really enjoying the app in my first impressions.

It has some cool features that I noticed:

It keeps a streak of how many consecutive days you have used the app (similar to how Snapchat uses streaks), I feel like this encourages people to continue learning through not wanting to break a streak.

The app is laid out in sections/units, from rookie, intermediate, and onwards. You can “progress” through levels in the app, making your learning feel like a game. If I suddenly feel like what I am doing is too easy (not likely at this stage), I like that it gives me the option to skip ahead.

I also like that the app uses encouraging language, and gives you chances to make corrections when you make a mistake…

However, this leads me to the only thing which I dislike about the app in its free-to-use state. The 5 Hearts.

Similar to apps like Candy Crush, where you have 5 “lives”, DuoLingo in its free-to-use form uses this system. Once these lives are depleted, they take a long time to replenish. Of course, this can be navigated around in a couple of ways:

1) Never make mistakes

or

2) Pay the subscription

With these options provided, I think I am going to try my best to not make mistakes when playing around with DuoLingo. In just my first time using the app, I made it 45 minutes in without making running out of lives. If I am using this app for 45 minutes daily and can see myself making progress without having to pay, and without feeling hindered by having 5 lives, I see that as a win.

In the early stages of me using the app, it introduced me to pretty basic words. Here are some phrases/words that I learned, or perhaps re-learned in some instances through DuoLingo:

Chat – Cat         Chien – Dog               Garcon – Boy           Fille – Girl

Homme – Man        Femme – Woman              Un – A             Et – And

Tu es – “Are you”     Mange – “Is Eating”

…And the list goes on!

Most of my activities involved using these words in phrases, or translating phrases which used these words, and through repetition, I found this to be quite effective. Below are some images for examples of what these activities entailed.

I have been really enjoying my experiences with DuoLingo, and I really would appreciate receiving feedback on what others think of it…

Have you used it before? If so, did you find it effective for you?

Thanks for reading! Have an excellent week!