Spanish was one of my favorite courses starting from a young age. I started learning Spanish in 4th grade when a Nun teacher started the Spanish program at my elementary school. When I was in 5th grade I started teaching the basics to the younger students. I took Spanish all through high school and then a couple of courses in college, but stopped there and haven’t used it in a couple of decades.
Recent Reintroduction
75 Days ago I picked up Duolingo to seriously dive back into Spanish. I had a team member in Argentina which started me on the path, but now with the COVID-19 pandemic I found some time to get a 75 day streak on the app. I have ascended to the top league, Diamond, and have over 10k XP’s and 100 crowns. I started off by cruising through the level 1’s on the lessons, but really loved the stories. I had great success early on and breezed through until the stories were now asking questions in Spanish also. I found that I was using up my hearts so often that I upgraded to Plus. That allows you to learn more freely and make progress without waiting for your hearts to replenish.
What I liked and Tips
I liked getting back into Spanish and there is sufficient gamification of the app to make it competitive and fun.
Installing the Spanish keyboard was key in typing out the Spanish translations free hand. It allows you to go faster and you still learn.
Testing out of the lessons was one of the ways that I was able to get to the challenging part and actually start learning new material vs relearning things I used to know.
Conclusion
Will I continue to use the app? My goal is to get to a 150 day streak and get in first place in the top league. I am not sure that I will ever become fluent using the app only, but they do have a podcast that I can also listen to that can be helpful. I wish they had some lessons and you if you complete the lesson you would get XP’s. I think that would fit into the gamification more and help with the learning.
Ultimately my goal was to get back into Spanish and this app got me there. If my goal were fluency then I believe the app would be only one piece.