These apps that have changed our lives. Duolingo, the playful learning of a foreign language

Here is a very useful application if you are planning a trip abroad this summer. Duolingo, with its green owl, makes learning a language on your smartphone free and fun. No lessons but series of thematic exercises, sometimes oral, sometimes written. A method which corresponds well to people who did not really like language lessons in class, explains Agathe, who is learning Italian.

Agathe never spends very long there, she says: sessions of 5 to 15 minutes maximum. Duolingo has replaced Instagram in his daily life and on his smartphone. Thanks to the application’s progression system – with each completed module, you earn “diamonds” – you can take a break from learning without losing all the points acquired.

Short sessions and a feeling of playing

A green owl and small characters make the app look like a little game. What the owl wants is to make you work every day, explains François, who has taken up Spanish. In three months of practice, he has achieved his goal: to share a dinner with the Ecuadorian parents of his son-in-law… But he has no illusions about his accent. For François as for Agathe, Duolingo is a good tool for beginners, but it shows its limits when you reach an intermediate level.

With over 72 million users worldwide, the app is the industry leader. It offers around forty languages, some of which are unexpected, such as Guarani from Argentina, Swahili and Gaelic.