Duolingo Review

If you've been reading The Pin Junkie for a while, you know that I'm working my way through Pinterest one craft, recipe, and DIY project at a time.  I also have some personal goals pinned on my Pinterest boards and one of them is to learn a new language and be fluent in it.  I took three years of high school Spanish (though it was a long time ago!) and I'm lucky to live in a place where Spanish is a dominant language.  Being exposed to Spanish and hearing it frequently makes it a little bit easier to learn. 

Duolingo is helping me with my goal of learning Spanish and it's really fun!  Duolingo is completely free with no adds or hidden fees.  (I'm not being paid to write about it either!  I just really like it and wanted to share it with everyone!)  The way it works is if someone needs an article on the web translated, they upload it to Duolingo.  Duolingo students work together to translate the document to practice their skills in the language they are learning.  Ultimately, Duolingo hopes to translate the entire web into all languages!  That's pretty amazing!

Don't worry, the translations are completely optional.  You don't have to do them if you don't want to.  I've been spending most of my time working on the practice skills and lessons.  These practice lessons are fun because they're like a game and you can even compete against friends.  Duolingo is fun and almost as addictive as Pinterest! 

Some of my completed lessons.

I'm practicing and learning Spanish, but there are many languages to choose from like French, Italian, German and more!

Duolingo is great for all ages.  If you have a child who is learning a new language in school, Duolingo would be great for students to supplement and practice what they're are learning in class. There's even a free app you can get so you can practice on the go!

Even though it's a great program, I don't think you can learn a completely new language and be fluent in it just by using Duolingo or similar language learning programs like Rosetta Stone.  It's really important to practice speaking the language and use it in every day situations.  Eventually, I plan on joining a conversational Spanish group so that I can get more practice and I'll let you know how it goes!