What is Duolingo? A Gamified Way to Learn a New Language

What is the most concerning thing when wishing to study abroad? Of course! Language. The reason is that it serves as a pillar that helps you communicate with others while working or studying in different cultures.

What if you can’t concentrate on learning a new language? Here’s the real twist where gamification EdTech comes to help you with platforms like Duolingo.

This is a language teaching platform that allows students to learn their preferred language in virtual classes. If you are interested in knowing more about this platform, then have a look at this guide for your satisfaction.

Let’s Get Going!

Duolingo is an online language learning app that helps you learn a new language in a gamified EdTech approach.

This platform is better known for representing daily interactive short practice sessions to keep you engaged. Further, it offers an English proficiency test, which is a valid certificate that proves you are fluent in the English language.

Duolingo is dead!

This was a pure marketing strategy by the owner and CEO, Luis von Ahn. On February 19, 2025, he announced that the Mascot had died because learners didn’t take their lessons seriously.

Surprisingly, the Duolingo owl came back on February 24, 2025, which shows that it was a marketing stunt.

Here are some significant features of Duolingo, the new language learning platform.

Duolingo offers a streak feature just like Snapchat to encourage students to continue their learning sessions daily.

Through it, you can notice your consistency and dedication toward your goal. It acts as an alarm to remind you to give 15 minutes to your learning procedure.

The level adjustment feature allows users to continue learning a language from their existing understanding of the language.

Duolingo will teach you according to your knowledge level and ask relatable questions to avoid boredom.

This platform provides you with a variety of fun games to cover all aspects of the language.

For instance, for speaking, listening, and writing, you will get different gamified approaches to learning. Questions are asked in a gamified way to solve interestingly.

If you cannot understand the meaning of specific words, then you can hold a pointer on that word on the screen.

The meaning or description of that word will be shown on your display. In this way, you will be able to understand questions easily and answer them quickly.

Technically, yes. Duolingo is free for students to learn a new language, basically for a special convenience before moving abroad.

Although it offers two premium versions: Super and Super Family, which also provide you with multiple features.

• Free
• Super: $12.99/month and $59.99/year
• Super Family: $9.99/month and $119.99/year

Here are some of the pros and cons of this language learning game.

✔️ The Good	❌ The Bad
Easy to Access	Some repetition of questions
Streak Feature
Engaging Learning Approach
Enhance Vocabulary

Here, I have described some simple steps to use Duolingo.

First of all, you have to access the Duolingo website on the Internet browser.

• Open your internet browser.
• Enter and search for “Duolingo” in the search bar.

• Now, click on the official website to access the platform. Alternatively, you can access the platform through this: duolingo.com.

• Click on the “Get Started” button.

• Now, select the language that you want to learn. You can also select more than one language, but it can be confusing for you.

• After the selection of language, and small test to a series of random questions will be asked to you about the language. Now, you need to create your profile. To create a profile, click on the “Create a Profile” button.

• Here, you must put your credentials like age, email, name, and password to create your profile.

• Here, your Duolingo profile is created.

• Now, select the purpose of learning the language for better understanding and click on continue.

• Select your existing knowledge of the selected language to preserve your time starting from scratch.

• Here, you need to select the daily duration that you will spend on the platform and click on the continue button.

• In the first question, a sentence will be given to you along with some words. You have to read that sentence and the words to fill in the blanks with appropriate words.

• The second question is about listening to the question and answering with appropriate options.

• In the next question, you will read the sentence and select the best option that explains the meaning of the highlighted word.

• In the next question, you will read and understand the paragraph and answer the information in the paragraph.

There are 4 types of questions asked before creating a profile. But more than 4 questions are asked of the same type. Duolingo includes a lot of exercises, including the above.

There are two ways to check the legitimacy of Duolingo. The first way is by checking yourself, and the second is from “ScamAdviser.”

As you can see, the TrustScore of Duolingo is 100/100 on ScamAdviser. On the other hand, its rating is 1.7 out of 5. Now, the ball is in your court, whether you will use it or not.

You all have made it, Edulize Readers!

Want to learn a second language, whether to pursue a career opportunity or to study abroad? Learn about how to use Duolingo to make the most out of learning a second language.

While studying abroad, you need some interpersonal communication skills to make connections with natives. In this way, you will be able to have the opportunity to explore and make the most out of different cultures.