LThe turning point usually happens during the holidays, after spending a few days abroad or just after showing tourists the way to the Eiffel Tower. When we get back, we promise, we’ll start learning English again. Or Spanish or Italian or Swedish, even! Nothing could be easier with Duolingo. We heard about it this summer when a friend walked away for five minutes with his smartphone explaining that he was becoming quadrilingual or when a preteen was looking to grab some screen time (“Dad, can you lend me your phone? I want to learn Japanese.”).
The most downloaded language learning app is based on a video game operation (levels, badges, trophies!) with two-minute exercises because that would be the maximum attention span and it also decreases, explained Luis von Ahn, the founder of the company, in an interview with New YorkerThe latter also added that the tests offered to the user are personalized so that he obtains a correct response rate of 80% because, above that, we get bored and, below that, we get discouraged.
In the first few days of using the app, the new converts marveled at how easy it was to learn Ukrainian and Finnish, and vowed to supplement their efforts by watching Spanish-language series and the Deutsche Welle news when the school year began. They were already imagining future trips, new careers to pursue, and the K-pop songs they would soon be singing along to in the text. Just a short time later, like Perrette and her milk jug, they were saying goodbye to Portuguese, Korean, or Dutch and, like followers of a new diet, avoiding the subject, concluding that “Japanese is still super hard”.
How do we recognize them?
They know how to identify the little “ding” of the app if a passenger uses it within 10 meters of them on public transport. They tried Esperanto and Latin because it was free. They switched to the paid version, thinking that it still costs less than private language lessons, even though they never intended to take private lessons.
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After a few days of use, they know how to translate pizza by pizza in Italian. They wonder at what times they will be able to place “what is your horse thinking” in Russian or “the cow is heavy” in German. After being flattered by the messages in the app (“you reach a legendary score”), they began to find them as annoying as those of a slightly toxic ex (“You’re avoiding me”, “Have you worked hard to get here?”, “When are you coming back?”). They gradually removed the notifications, then the app itself, and concluded that with a little English, you can finally get by everywhere. They also stopped going to the gym without realizing it.
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