(This content is not AI generated.)
Duolingo is a publicly traded, language learning company. Full disclosure: I don’t own anything of theirs.
What is Duolingo? It’s a language learning app that can test you on word memorization, speaking and listening. The speaking part is pretty advanced and requires AI to tell if you’re saying things correctly. Duolingo was (past-tense) a suite of websites that sold virtual goods & merchandise, allowed a learner to take classes, and a teacher to get training and setup a virtual classroom.
Until January 18th of this year, Duolingo offered reasonably priced classes. Some were even free like the Hawaiian language courses. Unfortunately, this feature of Duolingo has been sunsetted. One of the key things for getting fluent is classes, especially one on one speaking with a tutor. This is no longer offered so you really can’t get fluent on Duolingo anymore.
But don’t let this deter you from signing up and trying it out. It’s still great for building vocabulary.
Now that classes on Duolingo are gone, what’s a self-taught language learner to do? There’s still Preply. And there’s still iTalki. The main difference in my opinion is that all iTalki tutors are certified but Preply will have both certified and non-certified. Personally, I use Preply and have been happy with both certified and non-certified tutors.
