Duolingo

I have chosen to write about my story of association with the Duolingo App for the letter ‘D’. As many of you might already know about or use Duolingo App, I would say it has become an addiction, a productive addiction. Currently, I’m on a 615-day strike for German and Finnish languages. In this post, I am going to reveal my motivation behind choosing and Learning these languages.

When I was doing my Masters, somewhere I read that the strongest passport in the world is that of Germany and by acquiring it one can travel the maximum number of countries. I have always had the desire to travel the world, meet people, and get to know their cultures and stories. When I researched the eligibility of acquiring the passport, one must know German well. That planted a seed of desire in me to learn German. Apart from that, I never planned or intended to travel to Germany.

I started learning German at the Prince Margaret Hospital of Hong Kong in April 2021 where I was admitted as a patient of COVID. It was very very easy in the beginning and I felt like giving up due to the monotonicity or repetitiveness of the exercises but the concept of day strike made me hooked to it. Later I realized that the repetitiveness of exercises ensured the retention of words for a longer period and it is an essential part of learning any language. Duolingo App provided a variety of exercises designed for reading, writing, and listening, making the learning process wholesome. There is also a provision to revisit the exercises which you chose incorrectly. There’s a lightning round to increase your points as XP rapidly and I am so fond of matching exercises. There are friend Quests where you along with someone randomly chosen from your contacts will have to complete given tasks within a deadline. There are monthly challenges in terms of attaining some XP which decide one’s position in the leaderboard and eventually the league. 

My story of learning Finnish on the Duolingo App is simple. When I learned about our moving to Finland from my husband, I started learning Finnish. I found German easier than Finnish contrary to many learners.  It may be because I had already spent more than a year learning German when I started learning Finnish, so I felt comfortable in German. Whenever I saw any English word, its German equivalent came to my mind effortlessly. So, I have taken a break in Finnish.

This year I took a paid subscription for a year to Duolingo App to learn faster by avoiding advertisements coming up after each exercise. There are also many benefits of opting for a paid subscription like freezing the day strike in case you miss it, unlimited hearts to practice for a long time,

I haven’t found any app so addictive as Duolingo and it keeps praising the users to have spent the time productively and effectively rather than scrolling aimlessly in social media. As I believe in forming habits rather than chasing goals, spending time on Duolingo is a perfect example of learning a language in a consistent way without feeling pressurized. When the learning becomes fun, the progress comes out to be cumulative and grand.

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Swati Sarangi

04.04.2023