Do you want to speak
a new language for free? Tal vez un poco de español
(Maybe a little Spanish) O forse vuoi imparare l'italiano
(Or maybe you want to learn Italian) Même apprendre le français,
(Even learn French) la langue de l'amour
(the language of love) Speaking a new language can significantly
turn the odds in your favor, and one of the easiest ways to learn
one is with a language learning app. And for many years, Duolingo
has been the most popular. Here you can learn over 40 languages,
including popular languages like Spanish, French, Japanese, German and Chinese,
and even fictional language like Klingon from Star Trek and High Valyrian
from Game of Thrones. Each course is divided into different modules, each one with many
lessons about a specific topic. For example, this module has eight lessons that teach you phrases, present tense and
vocabulary related to family and school. These lessons have six levels consisting
of three to five classes each, and completing them gives you experience
to track your progress, crowns to unlock additional features,
and gems to buy powerups or hearts. And since we're at it,
hearts represent your life, just like a video game. The number of hearts you have is how
many incorrect answers you can make. If you don't have hearts,
you can't start a lesson. Now the question is,
can you learn a new language? Well, we used it and this
is what we learned. Non dimenticare di mettere mi piace a questo video
(Don't forget to like this video e iscriverti al nostro canale
(and subscribe to our channel) Pretty neat, right? We chose to study Italian and use
Duolingo for a few weeks. This is what we can share
about our experience. First we had to complete the intro,
which ask easy and basic level questions to see how much you know about
the language and balance your level out. In the classes, we found exercises where we needed to fill in words to complete
sentences, match pairs, translate sentences, listen and write what
we heard, and repeat phrases out loud. Unlike traditional classes, where you first get an explanation
and later prove your understanding by completing the activities, in Duolingo
you learn while practicing. In every exercise, you can see the meaning
of a word by tapping on it. So this makes every exercise
relatively easy to complete. You have to tap each word, find a coherent translation
of the sentence and write it down. It can initially feel repetitive and as
if you aren't actually learning anything. But the truth is that this is exactly how
Duolingo's learning experience shines. By repeating and seeing the same words over and over again,
they stick to your head. It's reliving the same learning
process we went through as children. So the first few classes
are basic lessons. But as you progress, each course adds new words and becomes
more complex as your vocabulary grows. Completing the first checkpoint exam wasn't hard, but the difficulty in the
second module became more challenging. More and more new words came up with some concepts from previous lessons
that we could have remembered better. Another way to learn is with their
Tips option, where they formally teach you some
of the concepts included in that class. It's a simple explanation, but we think it could be more thorough as
an alternative for students who wish to read first and have a look at the
content before completing the exercises. Still, despite its increasingly
challenging method and simpler explanations, Duolingo delivers a joyful
and dynamic experience that effectively helps you create the habit of completing
the course one step at a time. You can set your personal goals depending on how fast you want to progress,
and once you set them, the app will constantly encourage you
to meet your goal and even exceed it. It will do it through different frequent notifications on your phone, streak
counter, achievements and challenges. Duolingo also has a League where you can compete with
other people worldwide. The top 20 users with the most experience move to the next category and if you make
it to the top three, you will get a chest with exclusive
rewards, more experience and gems. Now, its courses are not the only
way you can learn a language. As you progress in the classes and win
crowns, you unlock Duolingo stories. This is a comprehension and listening
exercise where you follow a conversation between two people and prove your
understanding of what they are saying. It's a dynamic and entertaining exercise
that also gives you experience. One of our favorite alternatives
was Duolingo classes. These are meetings hosted by native
speakers of your desired language with techniques that range from one to one
live conversations to group meetings where you all get to talk,
ask questions and make mistakes. There are plenty of free classes,
but to join most of them you'll have to pay anywhere between $5
and $20 depending on each class. What's best is that these classes are
more than just common teaching events. You can also find game groups
and even unique experiences. Joining is super easy and we highly recommend it if you
plan on using Duolingo. Now here is something
interesting we found. For this review, we used
Duolingo's app and online version. While the learning process is the same,
the experience feels a little different. The mobile app is more like a game. It's easier and quicker to use, and because of all the frequent
notifications and rewards, you're more tempted to complete
a class whenever you have free time. On the other hand, the online desktop
version can feel less dynamic. You can take the same classes,
but completing them can take more time. However, there is a big difference: In the online version
you don't have hearts meaning you
can fail all the times you want. This is a HUGE advantage for Duolingo Online, as you can
use it for as long as you like. Overall, the experience of using Duolingo on your phone can be faster and more
dynamic, but the opportunity of making as many mistakes as you need
to is too good to waste. That's why we recommend
using both versions. The App when you don't have much time and the desktop version when you can
dedicate more hours to learning and completing the exercises
on your own time. So, Duolingo has an interesting
and effective learning experience, but to fully take advantage of it,
is it necessary to pay? Well...
Actually, no. Duolingo is 100% free, meaning you can complete a full
course and never pay a dollar. It might take you more time as hearts regenerate over time and you
have limited test outs. And yes, you'll have to endure
those unavoidable Ads. But aside from that, there's no reason you can't take a full
language course for free. However, if you want to do it faster
and with additional features, you can pay for Duolingo Plus, which costs
$12.99 per month, or $83.88 per year. And if you have family or friends who also want to learn a new language, you can
get the family plan for $120 per year. This way you pay an overall cheaper price and get up to six users
included in one plan. We think Duolingo is a great alternative for anyone who wants to learn
a new language for free. They offer classes for dozens of languages
with different types of exercises to train you to improve your listening,
speaking and writing skills. What makes Duolingo so interesting
and worth it is that IT'S FREE. Maybe you'll have to endure a few Ads
here and there and you'll be more likely
to watch one to earn an extra heart. But they never feel too excessive,
as they never interrupt the class. And if you can afford it and want to get the benefits of Duolingo Plus,
their prices aren't that high either. They are affordable if you
plan on using it every day. And it's even better if you
want to get the family plan. It doesn't necessarily have
to be for your family. You can use it with your
friends and split up the cost. But the best asset Duolingo
has is its learning process. It's an easy to follow experience that you can learn much from if you
truly understand how it works. However, if you're looking for a more
personalized and traditional learning approach, then Duolingo
might not be for you. The only human interaction you can get is optional, but overall,
you never receive external help, so you have to rely a lot more on yourself. To continue the classes you must truly want to learn
the language and have strong willpower. You must develop the effective habit of joining and completing
at least one class per day. If you fail to catch up with the daily
exercises, you will likely abandon the course and your dreams
of acquiring a new skill. Fortunately, Duolingo has many techniques to achieve this and constantly
encourages you to keep learning. Once you see that the best way to learn with Duolingo is by taking your time
and making mistakes, the experience becomes less
boring and more entertaining. That's it for today, or well,
eso es todo por hoy! Remember to, like, subscribe and share this
video with your friends. If you have already tried Duolingo or are
about to, please let us know in the comments how
your experience was and what you have to add to what we said. Thanks for watching
and we'll see you next time! We hope this review helps you decide
if Duolingo is right for you. If you want to discover more helpful apps
and services, learn about Speechify and its useful auditory features,
or see what Chegg is all about.
