i want

I started learning French on Duolingo in November of 2022. Two years later, I finished the entirety of the French course – something less than 5% of users accomplish.

Why Duolingo?

Everyone knows Duolingo.

I tried out other language learning apps, like Babbel. But none of them compared to Duolingo in terms of design and ease of use. Plus, I was already familiar with it from having tried and failed to learn Spanish several years earlier.

Why French?

Besides the fact that, like most people, learning a second language was always on my bucket list, I chose to learn French because I was planning on moving there to become an au pair after I graduated from university.

When I was first deciding where I wanted to go, I had narrowed it down to France, Italy, or Spain.

Spain was actually my first choice since I had taken two years of Spanish classes in high school, so I had figured that would be easiest for me. However, the host family I found in France ended up being a better fit, and so I chose them instead.

And I was quite happy with my choice – French is such a beautiful language. It is similar structurally to Spanish, and it is one of the most common languages spoken around the world.

Plus, it just sounds so freaking chic.

The most important thing you need

Motivation.

I was able to keep my streak because I was motivated. That’s really it.

The most vital part of learning a language – you have to have a reason. Everyone wants to be fluent in another language, but if you don’t have a concrete, permanent source of desire to do so, you will quickly fail, I fear.

My motivation was that I wanted to live in France. Not only that, I had an actionable plan in place – I was going, and I was super excited about it. So in all the months following up to my flight, I looked forward to learning new words, and I had zero problem keeping my streak.

Of course, I realized after I arrived in France that I still essentially knew nothing. I wasn’t even confident that I was pronouncing “Bonjour” correctly, and I basically became mute.

So now that I was in France and my previous motivation no longer worked, I needed something new to motivate me. And I found it!

Embarrassment.

Not speaking French when you live in France is so embarrassing. Just absolutely cringe.

Obviously, I tried not to beat myself up too hard – I knew logically it takes time, and I had never learned a language before. Not only did I have to learn French, I also had to LEARN HOW to learn French.

I had to figure out what worked for me, how to stay consistent, and how to learn all the different aspects like reading, speaking, grammar, etc.

My progress in French was never linear. Some days I spent 4 hours straight playing Duolingo. Some days I only spent 2 minutes.

And that’s okay.

I was able to do at least one lesson a day, because I knew I wanted to stay in France long-term. And I wanted to immerse myself in the culture – that was the whole point of uprooting my life and living abroad in the first place.

Use the widget

This is the easiest way I remind myself to do Duolingo. I replaced the app with the widget version, and I put it on the first page of my phone. That way, every time I open my phone, I can see the threatening, angry bird, and it reminds me to keep my streak.

Make a physical reminder

When I was living with my first host family, I hung up a piece of paper on the wall next to my bed. It was the only thing on my wall, so I was forced to look at it every day.

It had a bunch of empty hearts, and every time I completed a unit on Duolingo, I got to fill in the heart – until eventually I had completed the whole course.

Schedule time to do it

For many months, when I was alone every day after dropping off the kids and before having to pick them up in the afternoon, I scheduled 4 hours of Duolingo on my Google calendar.

Obviously, you don’t have to do 4 hours a day – that is pretty excessive. But the point is to specifically block out a chunk of time each day to practice, when you know you won’t get distracted by something else.

Add to an existing habit

Psychology teaches us that one of the tricks to learning a new habit is to attach it to an existing one. Over time, I have changed the associated habit, but I have always had one.

For example, for a few months, I would do Duolingo at the same time as I brushed my teeth in the morning. Right now, I do Duolingo at night at the same time I write in my journal. It can be anything. I recommend whatever has the least friction and works for you.

Compete with your friends

When I first started, very few of my real-life friends used Duolingo. At least, not consistently. So I befriended a whole bunch of random people and then pitted myself against them.

For example, I picked a random guy and tracked his progress on the graph on his profile every day for how much XP he had earned, and I made a point to earn more than him.

Eventually, this stopped working for me as motivation, but for many months, I spent hours a day on Duolingo, determined to beat this stranger.

Buy the paid subscription

Listen, I am really not a fan of subscription services. I fought with myself a lot before I finally decided to bite the bullet and get the paid version of Duolingo.

It is the only app I pay for on my phone. At the time, I considered it an investment – not that much different than paying tuition for classes at my college. Plus, I knew I would get my money’s worth from it.

Later, I even bought the family subscription, since it wasn’t that much more, and I wanted to allow my friends and family to learn whatever language they wanted to.

For me, it was well worth it, because the ads and hearts system would have gotten in the way of me practicing – sometimes multiple hours a day.

What Duolingo can accomplish

I know many people don’t like Duolingo. They argue that it teaches seemingly random phrases and nonsense sentences that they would never actually use.

I get it.

When learning a new language, it is important to learn phrases you actually plan to use.

But learning random words and phrases is important. It exposes you to a wide range of vocabulary, and, slowly over time, you start to recognize how different types of words are used and conjugated.

It is also great at giving you a solid working vocabulary. And at establishing a daily habit of learning. Even if you only learn one word a day, progress is progress.

The hardest part is consistency.

Because as soon as you skip even just one day, it can easily become two days. Then three, then a week, and a month, and a year, and suddenly you’ve completely lost the plot.

What Duolingo can NOT accomplish

Duolingo cannot teach you how to speak French.

I wish I had internalized this earlier. My speaking abilities lagged far behind my reading comprehension for years. They still do, honestly.

I wish I had forced myself to start practicing speaking and having conversations with people much earlier.

It is SO hard to start speaking. Which is why it is so important. I had to learn how to get comfortable with the embarrassment.

Duolingo is also very limited in teaching you many of the words, phrases, and cultural references used by actual French speakers.

It should be fun!

There is really no point to life if you are not having fun. If doing a daily lesson on Duolingo is more of a chore than it is exciting to learn, then honestly, it is not worth it.

Personally, I love to learn.

So the streak was never what gave me dopamine. My dopamine comes from being able to recognize a new word in a conversation, or being able to speak a new sentence or phrase because of it.

Each one of those instances is so highly rewarding, and I know they were possible because of the effort I put into Duolingo.

So my advice is to find what is fun for you. Whether that is using Duolingo or not, do what makes you happy.