When it comes to learning a new language, many people wonder, is Duolingo good for learning Spanish? As one of the most popular language-learning apps in the world, Duolingo promises a fun and effective way to pick up Spanish through bite-sized lessons and gamified exercises. But does it actually works? Can you really become fluent in Spanish with Duolingo?
Short answer: It’s a useful tool, but it’s not enough to become fluent.
Today I’ll explain to you why this is, and I’ll give you a list of strengths and weaknesses of Duolingo so you can decide whether it’s for you or not before spending time or even money on the Premium version.
The problem with Duolingo to learn Spanish
Here are the seven biggest issues with this app and in general any language app in today’s market:
-
It teaches you random phrases, not useful for having an actual conversation.
Duolingo’s approach focuses on random sentences that don’t follow any conversational flow.
I’m sure you have repeated countless times in the app sentences such as “The apple is red” and “Where is the library?”. While they’re grammatically correct and while they may help you as an introduction to the language grammar structure, it’s not actually helping you achieve a conversational Spanish level.
Think about it this way: How does memorizing “The apple is red” help you to introduce yourself when talking to a Spanish speaker? Do you really use sentences such as “My t-shirt is green” when doing small talk with your coworkers or neighbors? Of course not!
Even when traveling to Mexico or any other Spanish-speaking country, I’m sure you’ll never use “Where’s the library?”. First of all, native speakers have other ways of asking that question. Second of all, why would you like to go to a library during your vacations? Wouldn’t it be more useful to review phrases that you would actually use while traveling, such as “How much is it?”, “The check, please”.
-
Duolingo doesn’t adapt to your needs (why you’re learning Spanish)
Some people want to learn Spanish to talk with their co-workers or employees; others, to talk with their Spanish-speakers friends; and others simply to pass their high school Spanish class.
Depending on your goal and the specific contexts you’re looking to use Spanish, is the type of topic you need to review.
Sadly, Duolingo doesn’t take that into consideration. It gives you a pretty basic general overview of the language. That, once again, even when it can be a good introduction to Spanish, it’s not actually helping you to achieve your goals. Or at least, not as fast and targeted as you may like.
We, for instance, have different syllabi depending on your goals. For instance: Spanish for travelling, Spanish for small talk with your latino friends; Spanish for work (professions that may interact with the hispanic community in their daily bases such as nurses, teachers, immigration lawyers…)
-
It doesn’t explain the difference between Spanish from Spain and from Latin America
Duolingo tried to be as “neutral” as possible and created a super weird mix. They took Spanish from Mexico and combined it with Spanish from Spain and other Latin American variations.
They do not tell you the difference between these variations; or which words are commonly used in which country. And this can create a lot of “lost in translation” situations even when it’s the same language. For instance, did you know the verb “coger” in Spain is “to grab”, but in Mexico it means “to f*ck”. That’s a huge difference that if you’re not aware of, it can put you in a lot of awkward situations!
Besides, even when people will understand you most of the time if you combine Spanish variations, consider that a weird mix will make you sound a bit off. Imagine someone speaking English combining British expressions with an American accent and Australian idioms.
-
It doesn’t teach you idioms, slang, or «real-life» talk
Duolingo teaches pretty formal Spanish. In general, all traditional books and schools teach you -what I like to call- “high school book Spanish” instead of “real-life Spanish”.
For instance, when I was learning English at school, the books and the teachers always taught us that the greeting was: “Good morning. My name is X. Nice to meet you”. It wasn’t until I started watching TV shows and talking to actual native speakers that I realized they were using other kinds of expressions or variations I didn’t even know. “Hey, I’m X. Nice meeting you”. “Hey, how’s it going?” “Mornings”. Things like that.
This point is not necessarily a downside. If your goal is to use Spanish in a pretty formal environment such as academia, go for it. But if you only want it for talking with your friends, there are definitely more natural-sounding expressions you can learn.
-
No one corrects your pronunciation
I’m aware Duolingo has audios with different speeds so you can check the words’ pronunciation. But sometimes, even when you try your best to replicate the sound, you need extra help to actually achieve it.
With Duolingo, since there’s no one there hearing your pronunciation or correcting you, you may carry on making the same mistake over and over again. Without even being aware you’re mispronouncing the word.
I’ve seen it countless times with my North American friends and students. They learned it the way they thought it was correct, and when I point out the mispronunciation, it’s even harder for them to get it right as they already got used to the incorrect sound.
-
It makes you speak with a robotic voice rather than with a human intonation
Duolingo’s and Google Translator’s audios are great for checking how to pronounce one single word. The problem comes when you use it for longer sentences. The “voice” of these apps sounds pretty robotic. They don’t follow the natural intonations and volume variations of the language. For instance, as humans, we tend to elongate the sounds when using fillers. “Soooo”. “I meeeean”.
I’ve seen it countless times with my students who have used Duolingo for a long time. They may be able to read the word with a decent pronunciation, but their voice shows zero emotions. It just sounds unnatural.
How Duolingo can actually help you with Spanish
As I said at the beginning, is Duolingo or any other language app good for learning Spanish? Well, it has downsides. However, it can be a great complement for your Spanish lessons. In fact, I always suggest all my students use it in their spare time as a little extra help besides their lessons.
-
It keeps your motivated
Learning a new language is more like a marathon than a speed race, and it sometimes can be challenging to keep yourself motivated during the journey. Wanting to beat your day record is an amazing way of staying on the right path and be proud of your progress.
-
It helps you build the habit
Duolingo’s daily reminders and its day tracker helps you to actually make the time during the day to keep learning. Learning Spanish it’s like going to the gym for the first time: you need to practice showing up. Make it part of your routine so you don’t drop it after a couple of days.
Conclusions
Duolingo is good for learning Spanish as an introduction and a complement, but by itself is not enough to become fluent. I’ve had students that have been using it for more than a year, and when the time comes to talk in Spanish, in a real life conversation, they simply struggle a lot. Besides this, I’ve checked it out by myself and, as a bilingual person, I can see why it doesn’t do the work.
Do not get me wrong: I’m not saying it’s completely useless. On the contrary, it can be a useful and practical tool to keep yourself motivated and immerse in Spanish!
To achieve a fully conversational level though, I recommend you take lessons based on your needs and in practicing real life conversations instead of memorizing random words. You can check our private lessons here.