Hao did I encouter Duolingo?

First Encourter

It is so quite a surprise that I can see a tool that I used to use  before in ICT class. Actually, I saw Duolingo quite often in China and heard of it many years ago. Like the Duolingo English ability test for applying colleges, learning a language, the advertisements and so on. And  the first time I really saw how it was used was when  I was watching a game streamer, Mayumi, who is from Brazil but streams on a China streaming platform. She didn't know Chinese at all, yet she needed to communicate with the audience. So she opened Duolingo and tried to learn Chinese there. Thoug we are talking about learning English through Duolingo in ICT, I think we can also learn something from others' experience of learning other languages.  

Mayumi's experience of learning Chinese

I firstly thought it was many years ago when I saw it. However, when I wanted to search for a video （start from 16s） about Mayumi learning Chinese with Duolingo just now, I found that it was in 2020 😮 From this video, I can see that she has already learned something.  We can see the mode of learning a language on Duolingo through this video. ( FYI: I don't usually watch this streamer, I found her using Duolingo accidentally. 😊) 

There are many forms of exercises to help you memorize the words and characters in it. 

Translation

We can see from the two screenshots below that translating the given word is one of the main ways of learning a language on Duolingo, both Chinese-English and English-Chinese translation. And no matter which way it is, it will only provide the pronunciation of the language that you want to learn. 

For example, in this picture, when you click the Chinese characters, it will tell you how to read this two characters so that you can learn not only written Chinese but also oral Chinese. What's more, if you forget the meaning of the word, just move the mouse and stay on it, then it will show you the answer. 

Vice versa, it is the same in English-Chinese translation. (The bullet chatting in this picture says "it is so similar to the way I learn English". 😆So learning languages is somehow the same)

So in this way, you need to memorize the spell of the word, the pronunciation, and the meaning. Ideally, it is very comprehensive.  And the translation is not only about words but also can be sentences like below. Also, if you forget the meaning of any part of the sentence, just move your mouse onto it. 

Listening

Except for transaltion, listening and speaking is also important. Because nowadays, many people may not even need to read a language, speaking and listening is more practical for some people. And I think listening is very commonly seen in a language learning tool and so is in Duolingo. 

When you click the speaker button, it will show you the sound in normal speed and the turtle means a slower speed which is very learner friendly to follow, listen and speak. When you choose the answer, the answer will repeat the pronunciation again to strenthen your memory. And of course there is sentence listening, it's just because Mayumi is a very beginner of learning Chinese. And also, there will be exercises for you to spell and type the words and sentences after listening. 

Vocabulary

For vocabulary, I think the way of learning it is based on the language itself. But basically, it is learned through matching. In learning Chinese, you need to match the character with Pinyin (the standard system of Roman spelling in Chinese). In English learning, it can be match the picture with the word, with the meaning, type the word and so on. 

Core method of Duolingo

I think the core method Duolingo uses is memorzing through repitition over and over again. 

Every module need to be practiced for many times to get the crown and only after that you can unlock the next module for further learning. 

Advantages and Disadvantage of Duolingo

Except for the multiple and interesting ways of learning a language I mentioned above, there are also some drawbacks of this tool. One of the advantages of Duolingo is exactly the repetition it provides, which, on the other hand, is also its disadvantage. I also have the experience of using Duolingo myself to learn Japanese and I persisted for 48 days. One of the reasons that I quited is because I am tired of the repititions and I found it very boring. Plus, it is so depressed that I can't remember the katahana. (Evidence of my learning Janpanese below) But Duolingo seems to know that people are easy to give up, so they text you day and day to remind you that it's time for you to study on Duolingo, which may help you to keep learning. 

Another drawback is that even thought it provides the pronunciation of the words and sentences, you may not speak it correctly, which is proved in the video of Mayumi. 

In the end...

I must claim that I am not a fan of Mayumi and I don't usually watch her streaming. It was an coincidence that I saw her studying with Duolingo and the instinct of a teacher made me stay for a while. 👀 And Duolingo is generally a good tool to learn a language. I apologize for so many screenshots in this post😥.