Duolingo User Guide
This year, I’ve enjoyed using Duolingo. While it hasn’t significantly improved my skills, it has helped me consolidate basic vocabulary and improve my listening skills. Plus, it doesn’t take much time, averaging just a few to a dozen minutes daily.
Here, I’ll introduce how I use Duolingo.
Platform
Duolingo is cross-platform, supporting Android, iOS, and the Web. There is no Mac version.
I mostly use the iOS version, with the Web version as my secondary choice.
Free or Paid Service?
You can use Duolingo for free, but there will be ads, and hearts are limited, meaning you can’t keep going indefinitely every day.
If you need a membership, I recommend joining a family plan. For example, I joined a family plan, and after sharing the cost, it’s 38 CNY/year. The main benefits of membership are as follows.
I suggest playing for a while first and then, if you need, getting a membership. Light users can still enjoy the app without a membership.
Instructions
Whether through the Web or App, you can start using it after registering an account.
Courses
First, choose the language you want to learn and fill in your current language proficiency. Set your daily learning goal, and you can start learning happily.
Note: If you want to delete a course and reset it, you must do so on the Web version.
https://www.duolingo.com/settings/courses
Level Ranking
What pushes you to improve is the ranking. The ranking ends around 5 PM Beijing time every Sunday. Those in the promotion zone can smoothly upgrade to the next level, those in the demotion zone automatically downgrade, and those in the middle maintain their current level. Therefore, you need to keep progressing to upgrade.
As shown in the picture, I am in the demotion zone. With only one day left this week, if I remain in the demotion zone, I will be downgraded to the previous level.
Add Friends
I recommend adding friends you know so you can encourage each other to study. Friend alliances allow you to do tasks together and earn rewards.
However, even if friends are at the same level, they may be on different leaderboards. Currently, it is assumed that the leaderboard is randomly matched.
Avatar
- You can set a virtual avatar in your profile.
- Interestingly, there are static or dynamic emojis on the avatar on the leaderboard. This is the status. Clicking on the emoji next to your avatar will bring up a menu where you can set your status. Dynamic status animations require diamonds to purchase.
Diamonds
With diamonds, you can buy items like timers. For example, when playing word-matching games, time is always short. There are two ways to get diamonds.
- Free method: Complete tasks, unlock achievements, etc., to earn a certain number of diamonds. It is recommended that you earn diamonds through learning.
- Paid method: Purchase diamonds separately. This is not recommended.
Note: When completing learning tasks, we will unlock many achievements. Click on the newly unlocked achievements in Profile - Achievements to get some diamonds.
Duolingo Test
The above mentions Duolingo’s app for language learning, but Duolingo also has a real language test, which many universities worldwide recognize. It’s pretty impressive. I haven’t started it yet, but I consider it worth knowing. The first experience is free.
https://www.duolingo.com/learn
At the end
- I watched an interview with the founder of Duolingo before. The mission of Duolingo is to make language learning free and accessible for everyone because the founder himself is not American and has a hard time learning languages. So, it’s unsurprising that we now have such a fun language-learning app, 👍.
- Duolingo is remarkable as the world’s No.1 language learning app. I recommend everyone to play and learn!