I am going to keep this short and simple. I have been teaching for 15 years and I have never in my life come across a student who used or was currently using Duolinguo and didn’t like it or love it. But I can also tell you that I have never met a student who really learned how to speak Spanish thanks to this App.

Don’t get me wrong. I totally get why Duolinguo is successful. It is designed to be fun, to give you clear challenges you have to achieve and to show your progress with incredible clarity. It is the Holy Grail in a world where students have to face boring grammar activities, don’t always know what to do next when they sit down to study and where progress is such a tricky thing to track and they can’t help but wonder… am I really getting better?

So yes. I get the success of Duolinguo. Just like I get the success of fast food chains and their concoctions of sugar, salt and saturated fat. Taco Bell is tasty. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for you (or authentic).

Am I saying Duolinguo is bad? Not at all. It’s a fun way to build some vocabulary and kill some time when you are riding an Uber or waiting for someone. The danger is when this becomes your Spanish safety blanket and that is all you do (which is what ends up happening to a lot of people). Having Taco Bell once in a while is ok if your diet is mostly healthy and well balanced. But don’t eat Taco Bell every day ok? Same thing applies to Duolinguo. At the end of the day you will have to put yourself out there and do some heavy lifting if you really want to learn how to speak Spanish. No real shortcuts there. And that’s ok!