By meredithkreisa Last updated:
Among language students, Duolingo certainly has a reputation as being one of the cool kids.
Usingspaced repetition, Duolingo presents students with material in an organized manner designed to maximize learning while minimizing time and effort.
But there’s just one problem with Duolingo: Eventually, you’ll complete the course you’re working on, and what then?
Don’t worry! With a little effort, you can keep your learning on a roll.
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Contents
- Why Is It Important to Have a Plan for What to Do After Duolingo?
- Keep using Duolingo anyway.
- Dive into authentic media to see what you learned in a more authentic context.
- Read real materials in your target language to see the vocabulary and grammar you learned in a more immersive context.
- Research grammar and vocabulary that weren’t covered much in your Duolingo course.
- Connect with others in the Duolingo forums.
- Try a more conventional course to reinforce your skills in a different context and fill in any gaps.
Why Is It Important to Have a Plan for What to Do After Duolingo?
First of all, you’ll want to have a plan for what to do after Duolingo because without the structure of the lessons, your skills might fade. Duolingo courses offer a clear structure that allows you to study for as little as five minutes a day. This structure is important in that it encourages consistent studying, which you might miss once your course is over. And without this structure, your skills could fade, so you need to figure out some way to prevent this. After all, it’s easier to never forget the language in the first place than to try to remember it later.
Plus, without additional study past Duolingo, you won’t progress any further. Duolingo is terrific, but it has its limits. If you stop studying after you complete a Duolingo course, you”ll miss out on valuable grammar, vocabulary and listening practice, and your skills won’t progress past the level Duolingo left you at.
Without a clear course of action for what to do after Duolingo, it might be too easy to quit studying altogether. The only surefire way to never become fluent in your target language is to quit studying. And without Duolingo’s fun, game-ified learning to keep you focused, this could definitely happen if you don’t have a plan in place. So be sure to have other language learning apps, programs and other resources in line after Duolingo.
Keep using Duolingo anyway.
If you love Duolingo so much that you just can’t bear the thought of leaving it behind, there’s good news: You don’t have to.
Even if you’ve finished a Duolingo course, Duolingo can still help you continue learning.
There are two ways you can make this happen.
One way is to go back and redo all the lessons until you earn perfect scores in all areas. Your scores will fade over time, so getting them to all be perfect at the same time will require a lot of time and effort. However, the only thing as rewarding as having a perfect score in each category simultaneously may be knowing that perfect score reflects your wealth of knowledge.
Another way to keep using Duolingo to study your target language is to use the “practice” feature on the right-hand side of the page. This feature presents you with familiar Duolingo questions in order to strengthen key words and skills, so it’s a good way to reinforce what Duolingo taught you and to prevent backsliding.
Dive into authentic media to see what you learned in a more authentic context.
Authentic media is one of the best ways to put what you’ve learned from Duolingo into context.
Since Duolingo’s main focus is helping you learn vocabulary and grammar quickly, one thing it’s lacking is more extended activities. If you want to use your target language in real life, you’ll need to be able to understand much more than one sentence at a time. You’ll also need to understand your language as it’s actually spoken. Authentic media can help you acquire the necessary skills for this. But don’t worry, you don’t have to dive in with no help.
FluentU, for example, is a mobile app and website with tons of real-world videos ranging from movie clips to inspirational speeches to tv commercials that will allow you to use the language you learned in the same way native speakers use it every day. You learn the language in context, as opposed to learning words and phrases on their own like you might experience when learning from a textbook.
In addition to its curated library of authentic content, FluentU also offers features like interactive subtitles and personalized quizzes. This makes learning a language not only easier, but more fun, since you are actively engaged in what you are learning, and it comes more naturally.
You can also go right to the source and find limitless authentic material onYouTube. YouTubers speak a huge variety of languages, so it’s easy to find content in your target language.
One way to find great YouTubers is to use Socialbakers, which allows you to filter YouTube channels by country. While the top channels may not use the local language, they often do, so you can find some fun study material this way.
Read real materials in your target language to see the vocabulary and grammar you learned in a more immersive context.
Just like you’ll need to immerse yourself in authentic audio and video, it’s important to continue your education by reading longer texts.
Most Duolingo texts are quite brief, so if you rely on Duolingo alone, you might not have the skills you need for more in-depth reading.
One way to improve your reading is to read online content in your target language. For instance, you might read a magazine’s website or a news site in your target language. BBC News offers coverage in a delightful array of languages that will suit most language learners.
If that seems too daunting, check outReadlang. Readlang is an excellent tool to transition to reading longer texts in your target language. It allows you to click on words or phrases as you’re reading to get a quick translation. You can even turn the words you look up into flashcards.
Regardless of what content you’re reading and how you’re reading it, pay careful attention to what you’re struggling with. If you notice you’re struggling with a particular rule or theme, go back to the corresponding lesson in Duolingo and do it again. Also, pay attention for words or rules that weren’t addressed by Duolingo and…
Research grammar and vocabulary that weren’t covered much in your Duolingo course.
Duolingo can’t possibly cover everything about your target language, so to continue your education past Duolingo, try researching key areas that Duolingo didn’t cover as much.
For instance, what grammar rules were barely touched on that you could stand to learn in more depth? What specialized terminology could you learn? For instance, would you like to learn more regional slang? Would some business vocabulary broaden your horizons?
There are resources available that can help you with virtually any content. All you need to do is find the weak points you want to work on.
If you want to work on slang, there are plenty of slang dictionaries out there.
If you want to work more on grammar, you might try a handy language textbook, like one of manyoffered by Barron’s.
Connect with others in the Duolingo forums.
The Duolingo forumsmay be your go-to destination when you have questions about the material you’ve learned on Duolingo, but can they help you keep learning when you’ve completed a Duolingo course? Absolutely!
One way to keep learning your target language through the Duolingo forums is to find native speakers of your target language. People around the world use Duolingo, so you might be able to find a speaker of your target language in the forums who would gladly help you practice your target language in exchange for some help with your native language.
This language exchange can give you valuable reading, writing, speaking and/or listening practice, depending on your preferences. Plus, making a friend who speaks your target language can increase your motivation to improve your language skills.
Another option for using Duolingo forums to continue learning is to connect with other alumni of your language course. Every day, more students are completing Duolingo courses and are probably in the exact same spot you are, wondering what to do next. If you connect with these students in the forums, you can work together to find the best course of action to continue studying your target language. And best of all, having a study buddy can improve your motivation and keep you accountable. No quitters here!
Try a more conventional course to reinforce your skills in a different context and fill in any gaps.
Since Duolingo has given you the foundation you need to approach studying your target language confidently, you might now try taking a more conventional course. Conventional courses can help you understand the underlying rules of the language in more depth while reinforcing your skills and filling in any missing material.
Oregon State Universityis one terrific source for courses that are offered online. Through OSU, language learners can study American Sign Language, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.
If one of your favorite features of Duolingo is its affordability, you might like MIT Open Courseware. MIT Open Courseware offers free online course materials to help students study an array of languages and language-related topics. Languages offered include Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.
So once you finish your Duolingo course, keep going with these easy ways to keep your language learning on a roll.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
FAQs
Can you ever finish Duolingo? ›
Duolingo is terrific, but it has its limits. If you stop studying after you complete a Duolingo course, you”ll miss out on valuable grammar, vocabulary and listening practice, and your skills won't progress past the level Duolingo left you at.
What's the best way to progress through Duolingo? ›“Hover” around several skills – spreading your time across a handful of nearby skills – and alternate between gaining crowns and doing new lessons. Hovering across multiple skills helps you maximize learning by practicing what you've already studied while continuing to learn new material.
What percentage of people finish a Duolingo course? ›Unfortunately, there is a wealth of difference between installing an app, and learning a new language. An informal study estimates that course completion rates fall as low as 0.01% for Spanish learners (second most popular language on Duolingo), and peak at 0.24% for Ukrainian learners.
What is the hardest course on Duolingo? ›Anyway, based on this linear regression, French is definitely the hardest language, insofar as it takes more instances of seeing a certain word before reaching the same number of correct productions as one of the other languages.
Is it OK to skip levels in Duolingo? ›Skipping levels on Duolingo's new learning path is really easy. Well, so long as you know enough of your target language! If you're finding the levels and units too easy, then you can easily jump forward to a position further along the path. To do this, simply scroll down to your desired unit, then tap the first level.
How many hours of Duolingo is equal to a college course? ›We have a team of PhDs dedicated to this. According to an independent study conducted by the City University of New York and the University of South Carolina, an average of 34 hours of Duolingo are equivalent to a full university semester of language education. You can see a full report of the study here.
Is Duolingo good for your brain? ›Understanding the study
Duolingo learners and BrainHQ learners both demonstrated improved executive functioning and working memory, despite only one of the apps being an explicit “brain trainer”!
Congrats to John Arnold, who has the highest-ever Duolingo streak of over 2000 days! He's a horse farmer and chemist.
How long does it take to become fluent in Duolingo? ›A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the "Fluent in 3 Months" method. All it takes is 90 days.
How many Duolingo levels should I do a day? ›Casual is one lesson per day, Regular is two, Serious is three, and Insane is five lessons in a day. I have my daily goal set to Serious, which requires completing three lessons daily, but I'll often do more lessons if I have the time, typically around five or six.
How long should I be in Duolingo a day? ›
You don't need to spend hours on Duolingo each day. However, you must put a reasonable amount of time into learning. If you log in to complete one lesson and sign out as soon as you've reached 10XP, you won't get very far. To optimize your learning, aim to spend between 15 and 30 minutes on the app each day.
How long should it take to complete a unit in Duolingo? ›Each module is made of up 6 levels, and within each level, there are 3 to 4 lessons. That may sound like a lot, and it is, but know that each lesson is very short, taking only about 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
Which country uses Duolingo the most? ›A common question we get at Duolingo is: “Can I learn more than one language at a time?” Duolingo offers over 100 courses in more than 40 languages, and learners in some countries are taking advantage! The countries where the most learners study three or more languages on Duolingo are Finland (#1) and the U.K. (#2).
What is the easiest language to learn on Duolingo? ›Overall, it's typically easier to study a language more similar to the one you know best. For English speakers, that means many languages from Europe — like Spanish and German — will be easier to learn on average than languages that aren't related to English at all — like Arabic and Chinese. But even this can be murky!
What happens if Duolingo is too easy? ›If you have previous experience with a language and feel that lessons are too easy, you can scroll to the next locked unit and tap the circle that says “Jump here?”. If you pass the test, you'll unlock that unit! NOTE: This will complete all levels up to that point.
Who is the person with the most XP on Duolingo? ›The user with the most XP on Duolingo is Pat159978 with 7,918,158 XP and the user with the second most XP on Duolingo is Faeryeye with 6,877,711 XP.
Do Duolingo streaks do anything? ›A streak is the number of days in a row you have completed a lesson. Once you complete a lesson through the app or web, your streak will increase by 1 day. You will receive your daily reward when you meet your Daily XP Goal.
What level will Duolingo get you to? ›The levels are labeled A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2, and they cover increasingly complex language needs. Most people don't need to master all, or even most, of the levels. It's all about what you want to do with the language.
What happens if you get top 3 in Duolingo? ›What happens to the top 3? Congrats! You are promoted to the next league. There is no league higher than Diamond.
Is Duolingo as good as college? ›New data shows that those who use Duolingo — a popular language app — can learn the equivalent of four semesters of university study.
Do colleges see Duolingo interview? ›
The video interview and writing test
This section of the exam will not be graded but will be available to any institutions that receive your score.
What is a good Duolingo score? A good score in Duolingo is anywhere around 120 or even more. It is usually taken as a good score in the Duolingo English Test (DET) globally at leading universities and educational institutions. Anything around 115-120 is also acceptable at most universities.
Is anything better than Duolingo? ›We have compiled a list of solutions that reviewers voted as the best overall alternatives and competitors to Duolingo, including Rosetta Stone, Lingvist, Busuu, and Mango Languages.
Is Duolingo strict? ›You'll receive your results within 48 hours, and those results remain valid for two years. Duolingo has strict testing rules for all test-takers to follow. These rules include the following: Keep ears and face uncovered and visible to the proctor at all times.
Does Duolingo listen to your conversations? ›Since Audio Lessons focus on listening and speaking skills, you can study hands-free without even looking at your phone. The lessons automatically listen for your voice when it's your turn to speak, so you can make the most of your morning walk, doing laundry, or just some down time on the couch after a long day!
What happens when you hit 365 day streak on Duolingo? ›One of the coolest things I discovered was Duolingo's exclusive Streak Society! You get automatically inducted into the club once you get 365 days logged.
What is the fastest growing language on Duolingo? ›In 2021, Asian languages—especially Japanese and Korean—attracted learners worldwide, building on the impressive growth observed in 2020. Japanese surpassed Italian globally to become the 5th most popular language to study, and it's the fastest-growing language in the U.S. and U.K.
What happens when you get a 100 day streak on Duolingo? ›Reaching certain milestones (such as 100 day streak) can earn the user 3 days of free of SUPER Duolingo.
Which is better babbel or Duolingo? ›Is Babbel better than Duolingo? After thoroughly testing out and reviewing each language learning program, we feel that Babbel is better than Duolingo for multiple reasons. Based on the strength of their curriculum, teaching style and delivery, we rate Babbel as the superior app over Duolingo.
Can you actually learn a language while sleeping? ›Not a lot, unfortunately. As Jennifer Ackerman notes in her splendid 2007 book Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, learning a language while sleeping “is probably impossible, [and] attempts to teach slumbering adult subjects vocabulary of foreign languages or lists of items have failed miserably.”
Which is better Duolingo or Rosetta Stone? ›
Yes. After thoroughly testing out and reviewing each language learning app, we found Rosetta Stone to be a superior program to Duolingo. While we like Duolingo's gamification of learning, Rosetta Stone is simply more comprehensive and effective.
What is the waterfall method in Duolingo? ›The waterfall method is a method used for learning a course, also called the hovering technique.It has been studied by many researchers as a way to maximize the retention of vocabulary and grammar while making progress through the tree.
Why is Duolingo so repetitive? ›Duolingo's design largely relies upon a system called “spaced repetition,” a technique in which learned information is repeated at regular (usually short) intervals. And it's true that spaced repetition combats what's called the “forgetting curve,” thus allowing for easier and longer-lasting memorization.
What is the average Duolingo score? ›115 is considered a good Duolingo score. A score above 110 is considered good, and that above 120 is considered excellent in Duolingo. Is 120 a good Duolingo score? Yes, 120 is considered to be an excellent Duolingo score.
Can I take Duolingo at night? ›You can take the Duolingo English Test any time, anywhere.
Can I take duolingo test twice a day? ›You may take the DET as many times as you want as long as you don't take it more than twice during a 30-day period.
What happens when you finish all the Duolingo lessons? ›Once you complete all the levels in a unit, you'll complete a challenge to earn your unit trophy. You'll also have the option to earn the Legendary trophy for each unit.
What level is Unit 7 in Duolingo? ›Measuring reading and listening abilities
The proficiency level of each unit is based on international standards set in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR); at the end of Unit 7, learners have completed all of A1 and A2 and half of B1.
Duolingo Classes will wind down and retire on January 18th, 2023. This means hosts and learners will no longer be able to host or attend classes, and the Classes website will not be accessible.
What is the success rate of Duolingo? ›The 95% Confidence Interval for the effectiveness is from 5.6 points to 10.7 points gained per one hour of study.
Why is Duolingo not certified? ›
I received an email stating that you were unable to certify my test results. What happened? If you are suspected of violating any of the rules of the Duolingo English Test, Duolingo reserves the right to not certify your test results. In this case, please review the test rules and requirements before retaking the test.
What's the hardest language to learn? ›Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
What is the shortest Duolingo story? ›The shortest course on Duolingo is Navajo with only 11 skills.
Which Duolingo course is the longest? ›Indeed, Figure 2 shows that the longest courses (German for English speakers and Norwegian for English speakers) do have a very low proportion of users finish the course within the first few months.
How many hours a day should I do Duolingo? ›You don't need to spend hours on Duolingo each day. However, you must put a reasonable amount of time into learning. If you log in to complete one lesson and sign out as soon as you've reached 10XP, you won't get very far. To optimize your learning, aim to spend between 15 and 30 minutes on the app each day.
What is the 2 hardest language to speak? ›2. Arabic. Arabic is the queen of poetic languages, the 6th official language of the UN and second on our list of toughest languages to learn.
What is the least used language in the world? ›Chamicuro. Chamicuro, also known as Chamicura or Chamicolo, is a traditional language in Peru. There are only two known speakers of the language today.
What is the 3rd most spoken language? ›3. Hindi (615 million speakers)
Who has the longest Duolingo streak ever? ›The longest streak on Duolingo is over 9 years long (3,285+ days) and was earned by user christi3. However, multiple users have accomplished this feat of a world record Duolingo Streak and have made it onto a Streak Hall of Fame. Above you can see the list of users who have completed a streak of over 2555 days.
What does 365 mean in Duolingo? ›What is Streak Society? The Streak Society is described as Duolingo's most exclusive club. When it first launched, it was only open to users who had a streak of 365 days or more. So to become a member, you had to hit your daily XP goal every day for at least a year.
Who is the highest person on Duolingo? ›
Congrats to John Arnold, who has the highest-ever Duolingo streak of over 2000 days! He's a horse farmer and chemist. What's better than singing along with Duo?
Can you skip to a higher level in Duolingo? ›Yes, you can start your Duolingo language course at a higher level! To start at a higher level, you'll need to take Duolingo's placement test when you start a new language course.
Does Duolingo use bots? ›There is also a “help me reply” button in case you get stuck. Duolingo says that their bots “are powered by artificial intelligence and react differently to thousands of possible answers.”. The bots feature is currently available for Duolingo's Spanish, French and German courses.
What happens after 365 days Duolingo? ›Creating a “Broken Streak Society”
One of the coolest things I discovered was Duolingo's exclusive Streak Society! You get automatically inducted into the club once you get 365 days logged.
The Duolingo English Test is a convenient, fast, and affordable way to get an accurate, certified English proficiency score that can be easily added to your LinkedIn or CV!
What happens when you win Duolingo? ›Once you win the Diamond League, the only thing that will happen is that you will have earned a new Achievement Badge for getting #1!
Do you get anything for finishing top 3 Duolingo? ›Also, players who earn either 1st, 2nd or 3rd position in their groups will also earn lingots, denoted in the league area by a gold, silver, or bronze chest by their name, by an amount which increases as they progress through the leagues, as shown in the following table.
What is the longest Duolingo streak ever? ›Congrats to John Arnold, who has the highest-ever Duolingo streak of over 2000 days! He's a horse farmer and chemist.
Can Duolingo make you fluent? ›We see this question a lot and the answer is: yes. Duolingo is a free language-learning platform, and every language and lesson is totally free!
Is it hard to get a job at Duolingo? ›The Duolingo team is made up of people from over 20 different countries. According to employees, the hiring process is very selective, so it's only A+ people at Duolingo.
Do colleges accept Duolingo scores? ›
Yes,Duolingo English Test is accepted inUSA universities as proof of English language proficiency for the purpose of admission of international students. Apart from the other popular English proficiency tests like IELTS, TOEFL, PTE and Cambridge Assessment tests, Duolingo exam for USA is also preferable.
What happens when you get a 7 day streak in Duolingo? ›Simply put, if you have a seven-day streak, then you've done something for seven days in a row. Miss a single day, and your streak resets to zero. Streaks are not new, and people use them as a source of motivation for many different situations.
How long does it take to beat Duolingo? ›(You can test out of levels to speed things along, but we're keeping things simple for this thought experiment!) To finish a language tree on Duolingo in 6 months, you will need to spend a minimum of 130 minutes per day on Duolingo, for a full 180 days. That's 2 hours and ten minutes.
What happens when you get to the last checkpoint in Duolingo? ›What happens when you complete a checkpoint. Once you complete a checkpoint on the Duolingo tree, the main thing that will happen is you will unlock the next unit, and therefore pass through to the next big chunk of the course. You'll also earn a solid 50 XP!
What happens after diamond in Duolingo? ›Congrats! You are promoted to the next league. There is no league higher than Diamond. If you reach the top 3 of Diamond, you will remain in that league.