Soy un hombre comiendo una manzana!
How my nutritionist wishes this previous statement were true, and how proud I am to be able to say it in Spanish. A week ago I knew none of these words and it's all down to my playing around with a great smartphone app.
Duolingo is designed to give you a basic understanding of a new language. There are five languages you can learn from English: Spanish, Italian, French, German and Portuguese, or you can learn English if you speak any of those languages to begin with.
It has you learning single words and phrases, translating them back to English, translating English back to the new language, and combining reading, writing and listening all into short exercises.
But the real genius is that it gamifies the experience by giving you a set number of lives to use when completing an exercise, and if you lose them all, you have to start again from the beginning. This adds a pressure to learning that most other apps I've tried have lacked, and I'm finding it works -- for me.
Crazily, the whole thing is free. You can learn as many of the languages as you like, you can mix and match how you learn them, and there are no ads or in-app payments.
If there is one thing we don't like about Duolingo is the stern notifications that keep popping up to remind us to come back and keep learning. Just when you think you've escaped the stern gaze of matronly teachers and principals, Duolingo drags you right back into feeling guilty that you haven't finished your homework.
Download for iOS here, and for Android here.
Find a better phone plan
Thousands of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
Related Articles
Find Better Phones and Plans
Hundreds of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
