Dialogue

An dy: I’m looking forward to going to Korea but I need to learn the language. I’ve been on Duolingo and it's

helping me so much. They say I’ll be able to have a fluent conversation with a native speaker in like 3

weeks!

Gio: No, you won’t. It messes with your fundamentals because it doesn’t teach grammar and just throws

random sentences at you.

Andy: What? But wouldn't learning a bunch of sentences just teach you the grammar over time?

Gio: Hmm.. maybe, but if you don’t fundamentally understand the grammar particles they are using, it’s hard to

apply it to other situations. Korean grammar also changes depending on the ending of the words so it’s

hard to pick that up intuitively. For example, the past tense of “좋다” is “좋았다” but do you know what

the past tense of “먹다” is?

Andy: Following the same pattern it would be “먹았다” right ?

Gio: Actually that’s incorrect! It’s actually “먹었다” because the ending of the verbs are different… This is

something that Duolingo doesn’t explicitly teach.

Andy: Oh, really? Wow that’s surprising I wouldn’t have known that… Still though, they give you lots of

speaking practice and they use shadowing. Isn’t that good ?

Gio: Shadowing is really great for learning, but the voices they use are robotic and aren’t from native speakers.

You will likely pick up robotic patterns that influence your speaking which would greatly impact you if

you are trying to learn a tonal language like Chinese. Their language detection is also inconsistent, it

often flags correct responses as incorrect and accepts incorrect ones as correct.

Andy: Well if Duolingo isn’t good for learning, then why is it so popular?

Gio: People enjoy the game-like features and competitive aspects since it gives them a quick reward and a sense

of accomplishment. There’s also a lot of good marketing, but if you speak to actual language learners

they will agree that it’s not perfect.

Andy: If I can’t use Duolingo then what can I do to learn?

Gio: Well, you can still use it! But you should be using other resources in addition! It is good for keeping daily

streaks and learning random vocabulary, but since it lacks in other areas, you should use other resources

like textbooks, and talking to native speakers to account for those. You really have to immerse yourself

if you want to learn!

Andy: Oh, I was really hoping Duolingo would be a one stop shop solution.

Gio: Don’t worry, a lot of people think that since learning a new language is a long journey.

Andy: Well thanks for letting me know! I wouldn’t have thought to try other learning mediums outside of

Duolingo if we didn’t have this conversation.