lThe trigger usually occurs during vacation, during a few days spent abroad or right after showing tourists the way to the Eiffel Tower. At the start of the school year, we vow that we will return to English. Or Spanish or Italian or Swedish, even! Nothing could be easier with Duolingo. We learned about it this summer when a friend walked away for five minutes with his smartphone explaining that he was in the process of becoming quadrilingual or when a pre-teen was looking to get some screen time (“Dad, can I borrow your phone? I’d like to learn Japanese.”).
The most downloaded language learning app is based on video game features (levels, badges, trophies!) with two-minute exercises because that would be the maximum attention span and it also decreases, explained Luis von Ahn, founder of the company, in an interview with New YorkerThe latter added that the tests offered to the user are personalized so that they obtain an 80% success rate because, above that, we get bored and, below that, we get discouraged.
In the first few days of using the app, new converts marveled at how easy it was to learn Ukrainian and Finnish and promised themselves they would supplement their efforts by watching Spanish-language series and Deutsche Welle TV news at the start of the school year. They are already imagining the trips to come, new careers to embrace, the K-pop songs they will soon sing along to. Barely a while later, like Perrette and her milk jug, they said goodbye to Portuguese, Koreans or Dutch and, like followers of a new regime, avoided the subject, concluding that “Japanese is still very difficult”.
How do we recognize them?
They can identify the little “ding” of the app if a passenger uses it within 10 metres of them on public transport. They tried Esperanto and Latin because it was free. They switched to the paid version, telling themselves that it still costs less than private language lessons, even though they never intended to take private lessons.
After a few days of use, they know how to translate pizza for pizza in Italian. They wonder when they will be able to place “What is your horse thinking?” in Russian or “the cow weighs” in German. After being flattered by the messages on the app (“you reach a legendary score”), they began to find them as painful as those of a slightly toxic ex (“You’re avoiding me”, “Did you work hard to get here?”, “When will you be back?”). They gradually removed notifications, then the app itself, and concluded that with a little English, you can finally get around everywhere. They also stopped going to the gym without realizing it.
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