Learning a new language, especially at an older age, is said to be quite a difficult task. There are probably thousands of different services that will teach you a language, all for a pretty hefty price. Well, if you are attempting to learn a new language, but don’t feel like shelling out cold cash, you should check out Duolingo. This app, which launched for free on Google Play this week, will teach you either German, Spanish, French, Portugese or Italian for free and it’s actually fun.
I downloaded it to make sure I could speak honestly about it and I must say, it’s actually quite good. The app is made very well, as everything is laid out perfectly with large buttons and swipe controls. I started out with German basics, learning nouns and simple sentence structure. If you get a question wrong, the app corrects you, but also takes away one of your hearts. Another advantage to using Duolingo is that you create an account or can log in using Google+ (which I did), so saving progress is a total breeze.
The app is receiving a ton of praise from the Android community already, so that’s a great sign. Again, it is completely free to download through Google Play, so check it out and start impressing your loved ones and co-workers. Auf Wiedersehen!
[youtube]http://youtu.be/WyzJ2Qq9Abs[/youtube]
I really love this app. It appears that you can’t log into the desktop version with your Google account. Anyone want to correct me on this?
This is a pretty good app, especially for free. I’m in my 3rd year of German but summer is here and if you don’t use it you lose it.
Tengo un gato en mis pantalones!
Ok admit it, How many people through this into Google Translate?
I’m hoping that Dutch &/or Finnish will be added down the road. I look forward to trying this out.
It sort of stinks that they don’t have Dutch. I started learning German and Dutch using the Babbel apps, but the apps don’t do grammar, just vocab. I did get an email from Babbel saying they are offering one year web access (which does sentence structure and grammar) to all 12 of their languages for $126. I’ve been tempted to do that, but I’m not sure yet.
“Stinks” is a bit strong, perhaps? Anyway, they’re planning to release a toolkit within the next year or so to allow third parties to create Duolingo courses, which should result in a lot of new languages. At present they’re limited by the size of their development team.
Says it’s not compatible with my Note 2 🙁
I had no issues downloading on my N2. Downloaded from the web play store. Working well so far.
Hmmm, it’s not working on my Verizon Note 2. Doesn’t show up at all on the Play Store on my phone, and online it says only my Thunderbolt supports it (and not the Note 2 or Nexus 7).
Really weird.. I just did a search in the play store for it on my phone and it showed up. I’m on Vzw as well, running a custom rom, but that shouldn’t be a big deal I wouldn’t think. No build.prop edits or anything of that sort. It doesn’t show up on my N7 though, which IS quite disappointing. :/
That’s weird. I was able to install it from the mobile play store on my VZW Note.
I like this design alot.
I like the alot.
Bummer, no Nexus 7 or 10 love.
…or nexus 4. wtf? what is it supported for?
This app is compatible with all of your devices.
Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Verizon Motorola Droid
thanks. hopefully, they expand this quickly so i can learn spanish on my commute.
It is not available in Play store fro N7 but 1Mobile.com had it and I’ve plowed through dozens of classes, so it seems to work on Nexus 7. It doesn’t do the speech testing which the desktop version does but with the Google Voice recognition I do all the typing via voice so it checks my pronunciation (you have to add the language of your choice in settings) that way..and I must sayI get much better typing from my pronunciation vs cheating and playing the computer voice. THANK YOU DUOLINGO!
–an addict
Once i download this i can shop at J-Lo’s store for phones!
Haha. Nice.
I see that J-Lo/Viva-Movil is becoming the new “FACKWORS!” ’round these parts.
I like 😀
Speaking of FACKWORS…
The company who made Duolingo is run by the same guy who invented CAPTCHA.
So I’ll probably have to enter a captcha for every word it teaches me?
BTW what language is captcha from? Sounds Klingon
No and it is an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
Wow, that’s an amazing idea. I wonder if they’ll be able to translate idioms at some point?
Hopefully they keep adding more languages!
Hola, Moto
Ciao, Moto!