DuolingoReviews 83

It's really frustrating when you have a perfect streak and making every effort to practice every day then suddenly for some unknown reason you get kick off the site during the practice dialog..., lots of buffering, the website logs itself off, It's as if its being remotely controlled. I immediately log back in, there's lots of buffering. Then finally when I'm able to log back in, the duolingo website will start you from the very beginning, not even giving you credit for the progress I have already made. Then I start over again just to get kicked off once again from their website. I notice this happens quite frequently after I have had a perfect passing score and streak.
I have no idea what causes this, but it is extremely frustrating. You get kicked, log back in, kicked off again, AGAIN, again...

Very useful, fun & progressive app, except for blasting you with so many loud ads that it teaches you as much to watch ads as it does another language. Duolingo advertises its Super Duolingo so much that that particular ad is starting to make me naseous. There are also occasional grammatical errors such as the following:
We didn't use to write emails
Nous Nous n'ecrivions pas d'emails
So, it should say "used to"

Duolingo can be free but you will have tons of adds that interrupt. It is designed to be a highly competive app in which you progress to different levels while competing with others. People can pay to assist with accumulating mega points. You unfortunately cannot choose to forego being dragged in to the levels. It teaches you to read the language but not really to be fluent. They dont adequately explain grammar rules, and you cannot hit a back button to review your previous screens while going through lessons.at least Ive never been able to do so. It does teach vocabulary in the language you choose. They also have many different languages to choose from. You can pay a small monthly fee to eliminate the adds, which is worth it and means the overall cost is reasonable.

After spending 166 consecutive days on the Duolingo app, the voices used are increasingly difficult to understand. When using the slow option to hear the phrase, the pronunciation is even worse. In particular, a young girls voice is the most difficult to understand. Keep in mind that you are trying to learn a new language and you need to clearest pronunciation of the words. I am not sure the frustration is worth the insignificant daily progress. I suggest that Duolingo change the voices, especially the young female voices.

Now you have to buy hearts to use the language course unless you already know how to speak the language! So much for a free language app.! What a dirty misleading trick!
1

Do not waste your time with this now worthless program. I joined Duolingo 6 years ago and currently have a 1337 day streak. About a year ago, Duolingo changed the platform into what now is a piece of crap. The old platform, in my opinion, was good. The new platform is more of a video game in which you compete with 30 random people every week. There are "Leagues" with the "Diamond League" being the highest. I've been in that league for about 2 years. I was "following" 2 other students who, once the platform changed, essentially quit using the program. It is free, but even at free it is over priced. You will be far better off paying for a language program, any language program EXCEPT Duolingo Plus. It is even more worthless than the free program because you are paying for NOTHING--literally.

Duolingo used to be very good up to 2021, there were forums were one could discuss learning topics and resources, there was some form of grammar too. Now it's completely brain dead repetition, just sentences you need to learn by heart, no guidance on what is wrong and what you need to learn, no access to forums, only bug reporting. It's like a competitive game where quantity is above quality... much like the trend in education of the last few decades. I now prefer free youtube lessons instead of duolingo. Also duolingo pushes you tons of ads to convince you that if you pay you get something more. That is largely false. You only get infinite lives and infinite chances to learn by heart, yes, ads free, but still without true didactical value. I am rather disappointed by the loss of value which could have been avoided. Add a grammar section to each unit please and bring duolingo back to its original shape!

Since there is no true alternative to duolingo which isn't boring like hell, i am forced sticking with it, but not as a single resource. You won't learn anything without self organized effort from multiple resources, including a good text book.

I would like to say that Duolingo is a very nice website, my only complaint is that it is extremely laggy
I finish a lesson then it loads then i brings me onto the home page and says that I did not do the lesson. Other than it being laggy I give it a 5 stars

Support is none existent, There was a discussion forum but that has gone. Correct answers are marked wrong.

Registered only for 1 test and was charged for 2. Sent endless emails even screenshots but up until now no refund

This use to be a good app. You could always go back to previous lessons to refresh. Not anymore. Make a mistake, lose a heart. Lose 5 hearts and you're done. Can't go any further unless you sign up and then you can use gems to get more hearts. Up until this change I thought duolingo was good but now I'll search for another free app.

I would never pay after using the free for a period of time. It failed to bring me up to speed and I'm now having more success with another free site. I also really hated how they penalize you for making a mistake. I find that I learn best from my mistakes, if I'm discouraged from making them I'll never learn. After completing 20 lessons I had to stop because I continued to test at a beginner level. I am making progress with two other sites.

I used the app for free and it appears if that is the case you will not be in any advance placement classes. Very basic. Very redundant. Doesn't define words I advance of using and testing on them. Pronunciation tests are a joke passing me at times before I even finished speaking and failing me over one word repeatedly for multiple days no matter how I tried to alter the pronunciation. Too befrank, if you use the app for free you won't get far.

Un-necessary animals, frequent notifications and the obvious spying are just some of the reasons for deleting duolingo.

I highly recommend you to turn away from duolingo and select other language apps

The learning tool is basic and really only good to build and reinforce vocabulary. The pronunciation tool needs a lot of work and the voices used to speak range from comic to inaudible. No matter how many times I make my profile private and turn off leaderboards duolingo makes my profile public again and turns leaderboards back on. I hate the cartoonish displays and the leaning paths. If you're using it for free and don't mind your privacy violated and info exposed have at it. Don't pay for it. You will not "learn" much if anything. I've used the program regularly since 2016 and while I appreciate that it's help
Me build vocabulary it works against grammar, pronunciation and real learning.

I've learned a lot of words and phrases with Duolingo. The thing I'm most concerned about is the stories are often about « friends » lying to each other and taking advantage of each other. I don't think this is an okay subtext to be teaching especially as the app brags about teaching more kids a language then they would be learning in school. How to lie and bully? Really?

I have used this app since 2019 and it used to be a great app for neurodivergent learners but they completely changed it so you can no longer personalize your learning experience and learn at your own pace. Every recent design choice seems like an FU to neurodivergent people. The new layout is visually overwhelming. Nothing is clearly labeled or distinct and it's very difficult to see how far along you are in your course or go back a review a lesson without scrolling for an hour and simply getting lost. Good luck trying to remember which unit including the color names in because it's nearly impossible to figure out, Opening this app depresses me.

Duolingo is a pretty good app for learning the basics of a language, however, they aren't really trying to make it free. They do many things to cause you to use your hearts so that you have to buy them.
First of all, I would suggest the way to get the most out of Duolingo would be to learn a language with a friend. If you and a friend are learning together and are staying on similar levels then you can begin to speak to each other and that will greatly enhance your ability to learn language and recall what you're learning in a conversational manner. Duolingo tries to do that but I don't think it's very successful.
Second, they use this heart system which doesn't work very well, and they say they're trying to keep the app free, but they will do things to make you lose your hearts, like add words that you have never seen before in the answers. I've had many times when I've had a fill in the blank question, and the answer was a word that I have never seen in any of my lessons. They do this so that you lose your hearts and you have to either wait or do something to get more hearts. They hope that you will buy them. I would not suggest that. There are other ways