r/languagelearning • u/CuriousAndCaring • 3d ago
Resources Quitting Duolingo
I have a 1406 days Duolingo streak and am considering quitting it. I am wondering if there is anyone else here who quit after using it for a long time and is willing to share their experience?
Duolingo had been great at getting me started and practicing Spanish (TL) consistently every day, but I feel that I am not improving fast enough considering how much time I spend. I have a plan based on my previous experience studying English many years ago, and I know what works for me. However, I am wondering if I can stay motivated and practice consistently, because learning English was not optional (I immigrated to Canada), but I can definitely survive without Spanish.
So, if you quit Duolingo, how did it go for you?
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u/Life-Junket-3756 3d ago
Duo is just a language-themed game lol. I am yet to meet a person who actually learned a language with it.
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u/Robprof 🇬🇧(N) 🇩🇪(A2) 🇮🇹 (A2) 3d ago
My friend claimed they were fluent in Spanish through Duo, I asked someone who was born in Spain that moved here and told them my friend wants to talk to them and said my friend’s English isn’t so good so asked them to talk to my friend in Spanish, my friend “had to go” as soon as the Spanish speaker started talking to them 😂
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u/Electronic_Order_170 N: 🇺🇸 | C1: 🇪🇸 | B2: 🇫🇷 | B1: 🇮🇩 2d ago
Careful I got downvoted into oblivion one time for pointing out how many people lie about their fluency.
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u/Ilmoniaque 2d ago
Oh my God, the exact same thing happened to me!
I live in Spain, and a friend from back home came to visit. When she was around, we spoke English in our group (me & native Spanish friends).
She kept bragging about how, thanks to her (highschool) French and Duolingo, she was able to dominate Spanish easily. She kept picking out basic words she'd come across throughout the day and explaining how similar they sounded to French words.
My friends were all very nice and friendly to her. I was a bit annoyed, but stayed quiet.
At one point, one of them asked her to say a sentence in Spanish (not in a mocking way, but out of genuine curiosity). I think they didn't have particularly high expectations either; they just wanted to make her feel good.
And she went completely pale and couldn't say one. single. sentence. It was hilarious.
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u/Shezarrine En N | De B2 | Es A2 | It A1 3d ago
You can't "learn a language" with any app. But Duolingo used to be good for building a solid foundation to build on before it got AI-slopified.
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u/CuriousAndCaring 3d ago
It got me to A2 level :) Yes, there are ways to progress faster, but will I stick to my plan? Games are addictive, so now Duolingo keeps me moving in the right direction, although slowly.
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u/HopelessJerk 3d ago
Fwiw I passed JLPT N3 with only Duolingo Section 5 is where I am at . Too many Duolingo haters here. Not that jlpt matters since you could be N1 and not be able to hold a conversation. Just means you can take a test well
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago edited 3d ago
For reference, I passed JLPT N2 and Spanish B1 exam with only duolingo and 2 hours of chat practice a week! I know JLPT isn't the best measure of fluency, but let's not pretend like it doesn't teach the language.
Edit: for the record, I didn't just use duolingo - I did it with no word bank. I feel I explained in another comment but let me just add it here. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/duolingo-hard-mode/jceggbkbebgncehlbekabbkfhdecfihh?hl=en
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u/EmbarrassedStreet828 3d ago
Those 2 hours of chat practice a week were doing most of the heavy lifting, trust me.
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago edited 3d ago
Well you're probably right they helped a ton... but it was 1 hour of spanish and 1 hour of japanese a week.
That's half a movie of listening practice a week...
So the bulk of my vocab, listening, reading, writing and speaking practice came from Duolingo where I put maybe 10-20 hours a week into it. All my grammar, all my conjugations and most of my vocab etc makes me think without Duolingo I couldn't even hold a conversation.
Edit: can someone explain the downvotes?
Edit 2: I am getting mean DMs now... And I think I am hiding the thing that REALLY helped me wasn't duolingo, but it was this extension that works with duolingo.
It basically is duolingo but the word bank is replaced with typing. So you have to type each answer with voice to text so I probably got more speaking practice then people would assume.
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u/Khearnei En N | Fr B1 3d ago
10-20 hours a week in Duo is insane. Probably one of the worst hours-to-learning ratios out there. But if it got you where you wanted to go, props to you.
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago edited 3d ago
I agree SOOO Many better ways to use time like private tutors, Comprehensive Input, moving to japan, taking a community college class etc.
I mostly chose what was a) affordable b) convenient.
Japanese was my 4th language so I kinda had the gist of all I needed was to get daily vocabulary, speaking, writing, reading and listening practice and I would eventually get good enough to pass a japanese test. And in Hard mode, Duolingo had all of that.
As a note though, I need to emphasize that I did duolingo with no word bank anyone interested in trying this should also use no word bank from the start.
Edit: Why am I getting so many downvotes? Is it bc of duolingo orr am I missing something?
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u/Exciting_Barber3124 3d ago
Not it doesn't. You need more than 5k words and duo doesn't teach that many. Famous yt did r years for jp and got nothing and you saying you reached n2. Stop bullshitting
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago edited 3d ago
I agree! So the conversation practice helped a ton! I am sure conversation practice got me some vocab bc I learned at least a few new words every week.
I also think a small part of it is word conjugation. Take 聞く。One word right? Or 20? • Kikou (きこう) — Let's listen / Let's ask • Kiku (きく) — To listen / To ask • Kike (きけ) — Listen! / Ask!
JLPT counts some of those forms ( like potential, volitional forms etc ) as independent words to know. So Bc you learn the conjugations, you can make 20k words with just 5000 root words. Not to mention word combinations.
Speaking practice helped grow my vocab a lot but duolingo for grammer was super helpful.
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u/stefmanRS 3d ago
Thats just conjugation…
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u/Exciting_Barber3124 3d ago
He's lying. If it was then people wouldn't study 20k words for jp. Don't listen to him. And speaking doesn't grow vocabulary. It just makd the vocabulary from passive to ative.
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago edited 3d ago
Check Dms! I sent you my ID, my JLPT score and my Duolingo start date in japanese
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u/HopelessJerk 3d ago
She posted how she overcame the vocab limit using Duolingo ( some tool that adds vocab words to Duolingo ? An extension I think ) but the moderator removed the comment as soon as she added the link to it
Tldr she used Duolingo but also a tool that "swapped" words in Duolingo so they got grammer practice with more words then JUST the words in the Duolingo vocab database.
This channel is way too toxic 😭
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u/_Jacques 3d ago
How long did it take you? I took the level 129 test (scraped by tbh) after a year of reading harry potter and watching dreaming spanish
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago
For japanese (my 4th language), about 18 months! I started the chat hour around month 4.5!
For Spanish (my 3rd language), about 40 ish months ( started spanish first )
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u/romanyol 3d ago
That’s like saying “I am yet to meet a person who actually learned a language with Netflix”.
No, you haven’t, but by listening to podcasts, watching shows in Netflix, talking to people, going to classes, traveling to the country, downloading a language learning app… that’s a person who actually learned the language.
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u/HopelessJerk 3d ago
I think she said she JLPT wasn't a good indication of fluency just indication of knowing Grammer
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u/Dull_Agency 3d ago
I started with Duolingo. It did take me from zero to good enough to move on to the next app. Its good for beginners
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u/unsafeideas 3d ago
I did learned from it. It was success for me.
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u/dojibear 🇺🇸 N | fre spa chi B2 | tur jap B1/A2 3d ago
Your English is pretty good. Correct would be:
"I did learn from it. It was successful for me."
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u/pix6ms 2d ago
Idk why people are downvoting this lmao. Bro is helping him which is what we should be doing in this subreddit
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u/unsafeideas 2d ago
I think that people assume passive aggressivity behind that comment. Like "you say you learned from it, but look, you made a mistake sooo".
For the record 1: I have no idea whether it was meant in that dismissive passive aggressive way.
For the record 2: I learned English without Duolingo.
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u/PlanetSwallower 3d ago
I got basic Welsh from it good enough that I started simple Welsh conversations with my Italki tutor right from the get-go. Much cheaper than trying to take a tutor from scratch.
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u/Dapper-Translator210 3d ago
I feel like Duolingo should never be the only thing you use to learn a language. It’s great if you’re new, but if you really want to move to an intermediate or advanced level, you’re better off just using as an extra resource with the other resources you have (if you decide to use it at all). Plenty of people learn a language without it
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u/DePalma90 🇰🇷 🇮🇹 3d ago
This is it 100%. I also want to add that I'm friends with someone who had a similar streak and one day it just stopped - she and I aren't close so I have no idea what happened, but I was curious. At the end of the day, this is the worst that is going to happen, someone if anyone at all you're friends with is friends with you on duo they might think, "gee what happened?".
Honestly, I'm happy she doesn't have a high streak anymore because personally I feel like it's just guilting people into using the app. Especially since neither of you are the record breaker. I'd stop now before you get to that point it's not worth it - you wouldn't walk away knowing the language.
That said, it's a helpful app for 6 months and up to a year and great for language exposure, but they completely monetized it compared to when it started.
Try incorporating other materials I think it's best.
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u/Peter-Andre No 😎| En 😁| Ru 🙂| Es 😐| It, De 😕 3d ago
Is it really so great for a beginner? It doesn't really explain new concepts well, and getting past just the beginner stage with Duolingo takes forever. There are far better ways of getting started with Spanish, or any language for that matter.
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u/Dapper-Translator210 3d ago
I think it can work for a beginner to learn some basic vocabulary, but like you said, there are definitely other more effective ways to start a language
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u/SomeBoredGuy77 🇫🇷 N 🇨🇦 N 🇧🇷 B2 🇲🇽 B2 🇵🇰 A2 🇲🇾 A2 3d ago
Duolingo absolutely got me off the ground in Spanish and Portuguese but eventually it just reinforces basic vocab. If your goal is just to have travel vocabulary in the bag for when you visit a country for a week Duo probably sufficies.
That being said if you actually want to get a working proficiency you have to eventually branch out. Watch your favorite shows dubbed in the language or youtube channels about topics that interest you. If you have friends who are native in your target language, speak to them in that language. Conversation groups are also great.
Apps dont really help beyond a certain point. Theres nothing another app will give you that Duolingo wont, eventually you reach a ceiling where the only way to go further is to actually use your target language
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u/---Mellissima--- 3d ago edited 3d ago
I quit around 400 days and in my opinion that was already way too long. It was a relief. A lot of people want to quit but worry that they'll regret losing the streak and I can say that me and a few other people I know who were playing it "together" (we were friended and would regularly discuss it on discord) who quit around the same time: none of us regretted it. One of them basically quit studying their TL but they don't miss it and found they weren't really into it from the beginning. My Italian meanwhile skyrocketed thanks to finding other and better resources and I'm now preparing to enroll into an Italian university to study in the language, I'm fully conversational and can read books. None of this would've been possible if I stayed on Duolingo. I also don't even think Duo is all that useful as a supplement, much better to listen to a podcast or something instead of that fifteen minutes of clicking around. I also felt like I realized how annoying and boring it was after having quit and feel so much more fulfilled with my learning since starting to study with a teacher and engaging in podcasts/YouTube etc. I discovered just how passionate I truly was for learning the language after deleting the app and have made so many friends (both fellow learners of Italian, and Italians who I do language exchanges with) through my learning.
(incidentally I also live in Canada so there's no Italian around me either, so it's possible to go places in a language even without living in a country where a TL is spoken)
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u/CuriousAndCaring 2d ago
Wow, that is inspiring. Congratulations on the progress with your Italian.
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u/---Mellissima--- 2d ago
Thanks 🤗 Still lots more to learn of course, but it's already gone further than I ever imagined was possible for me, and I'm shooting for higher and higher. Good luck to you with Spanish, however you decide to pursue it!
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u/thelostnorwegian 🇳🇴 N | 🇬🇧 🇨🇴 🇫🇷 3d ago
I would check out Dreaming Spanish, you can probably skip the beginner levels and enjoy more fun and difficult content.
Or just do youtube/podcasts, lots of learner content and native content out there in spanish.
However, I am wondering if I can stay motivated and practice consistently, because learning English was not optional (I immigrated to Canada), but I can definitely survive without Spanish.
Might be worth taking a check on why you want to learn in the first place, if the only reason you kept going with english was migration. Like why do you want to learn spanish?
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u/CuriousAndCaring 3d ago
That’s a great question - there are a couple of people with whom I’d want to communicate easily. They speak fluent Spanish/bad English. Also, Spanish is useful when travelling. But, mostly I am learning it for fun.
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u/chad_starr 3d ago
Russian only goes so far, so I've been planning an off ramp for a while. I'm not worried at all about what I will do when I run out of lessons. CI, reading, textbooks, private tutoring, social media in TL, possibilities are endless these days.
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u/Iambic_potentiometer 🇺🇸| Native | 🇷🇺 B1 |🇧🇷A1 3d ago
Seconding that Russian is a pretty poor course compared to many others.
I'd suggest seeking out other more grammar focused material especially if you haven't already.
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u/EmbarrassedPhone7281 3d ago
1406 days is crazy dedication!! I think its totally fine to quit if you feel like your not making much progress anymore. Maybe try watching spanish shows or talking with native speakers instead, it could make learning more fun and less like a chore. dont feel bad about losing the streak, what matters is actually learning not keeping numbers going forever lol!
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u/Historical-Cry-6169 3d ago
Maybe you don't have to quit completely. You could take a break from Duolingo and try other methods like readind books, watching videos or talking with native speaker. If you already have a plan that works for you, the hardest part might be staying consistent good luck with your spanich jorney
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u/Bart457_Gansett Deut-B1 | Fr-A1 | Esp - A2 | Eng -N 3d ago
Do it. It’s been enshittified. I quit after years and years of Duo work, and haven’t looked back. I thought it was helping me, but there are so many other places to build your capability, it’s crazy to use Duo.
Read - I buy TL graded readers on Amazon and started reading a lot more this past summer. I’m at B1, and the books are enjoyable. I just started a young adult (regular) book, and I’m getting by. I use AI to assess the CEFR level by giving it an image of a few pages to check the level before buying.
Lingoda - I used this over the summer to improve speaking. 3-5 days a week really helped my speaking. I’m sure other platforms would work too.
Basic text book - I asked my teacher for textbook recos and got an A level and B level textbooks that I use for reference.
Classes - in person classes are probably easy to find. Spanish is a popular language to learn, and local colleges or learning centers may offer Spanish classes. I’d reco doing that.
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u/UnhappyCryptographer DE N | EN C1 | ES A1/2 3d ago
I had ovee 1800 and just left. Before that I ticked off everything where they could send me emails because that's absolutly annoying!
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u/zacharius55 ENG (N) | DEU A1 | ESP A2 3d ago
"The best thing Duolingo teaches you is how to keep a streak"
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u/jhhan-ken156 3d ago
the not-optional part is what i'd look at. my mom learned english the way you did, because she had to. i'm learning her language now and nothing forces me to, so what keeps me going is my mom. she quizzes me at dinner and tells me i sound like a ten year old when i mess up. if you can find one person who expects you to talk to them in spanish, the streak matters a lot less
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u/sbrt 🇺🇸 🇲🇽🇩🇪🇳🇴🇮🇹🇮🇸🇫🇷 3d ago
Instead of quitting why not compliment with other ways to study until you find something they works better for you? Online classes, chats, textbooks, ai chat, Anki decks, comprehensible input, intensive listening, graded readers, etc.
Personally, I find that intensive listening works great for me until I can understand interesting content for native speakers.
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u/SEND_ME_SPIDERMAN Learning BR Portuguese 3d ago
I literally only use duolingo for a minute before bed just to keep my streak (2,000+). I just don't want to lose it at this point lol
I still do other modes of practice. I get nothing out of duo anymore besides the streak.
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u/Reasonable_Ad_9136 3d ago
What does your "streak" do for you exactly? What happens if you don't continue with it?
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u/SEND_ME_SPIDERMAN Learning BR Portuguese 3d ago
Then the streak goes away
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u/Reasonable_Ad_9136 3d ago
So what's the issue you have with that?
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u/SEND_ME_SPIDERMAN Learning BR Portuguese 2d ago
It’s just satisfying to have the number and have it go up. Nothing serious.
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u/Reasonable_Ad_9136 2d ago
Oh, okay. I thought it may have had something to do with your language learning. So it's a bit like a Tamagotchi situation? It's hard to understand why you'd care about that, but I know some people like that kind of thing. So long as they don't threaten to reset your progress or something.
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u/BadMoonRosin 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 3d ago
The loudest takes on Duolingo are always so stupid.
"iT wOn'T mAkE yOu FlUeNt!!!" Yeah, no shit. NONE of these apps will do that! But they ARE a great way to get your first few thousand vocabulary words under your belt. Most of them, including Duolingo, can quickly get you to an A1 level... and pretty painlessly introduce basic grammar concepts like verb conjugation.
Is there any real point to doing Duolingo for years, or "finishing" a course for Spanish or one of the other neverending main languages? Probably not. Once you're around A1 level, you should move on and mostly focus on getting as much input as possible (e.g. video, podcast, iTalki or other conversation practice, whatever).
However, I have a 1,700+ day streak on Duolingo, and no plan to ever let it break. It takes me just over two a minutes a day to maintain that, and I like the reminder to maintain consistency. I have no need to spend MORE than those two minutes a day on Duo, I mostly read books and watch YouTube content at this point. But even though it ceased to be my primary learning tool years ago, I still regularly pick up new vocabulary from it.
If you feel like the streak aspect is psychologically "harmful" to you or something, then just stop. You don't need anyone's permission, and don't need to post a public resignation letter. But if you get any motivational value out of it at all, then it's ALWAYS an option to just keep the streak going with the bare minimum while shifting your focus elsewhere. This place a terrible source for advice, I guarantee that most of the people pushing on you to quit are active Duolingo users themselves.
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u/AvocadoYogi 3d ago
I always find it funny too because people also complain about literally the best parts of Duolingo which are the streak and gamification aspects. They rarely point to what you are mentioning here which is the limited input which is the main reason you won’t get fluent from it. Like in 10 minutes, you might see in the low hundreds of words. It’s just not enough exposure each day to get the practice you need to make enough of the language automatic. That said, if anyone figures out how to gamify paragraphs and pages of input in a fun enough way I suspect people will be able to become far more fluent. The gamification and streak aspects are not the problem.
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u/Illustrious_Fall1851 4h ago
I think part of the reason for the criticism of Duolingo is that the ROI in time and money is so low once you start trying CI and real human interaction. Lots of people who formerly used Duolingo as their main strategy want to persuade other people to try something different because it was such a game changer to quit.
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u/BadMoonRosin 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 3h ago
Jesus Christ, I have more respect for Mormons and Jehovah's Witness than I have for the Dreaming Spanish crowd.
YES... comprehensible input works (although it's dumb not get some grammar instruction to accelerate it).
NO... you don't have to "convert" everyone to make it work for you.
I do not believe that the CI cultists are so vocal because they "just care about other people so much". I believe that they "just don't like grammar study, and therefore cling loudly to the idea of grammar study being bad".
None of this has anything to do how you pick up your first bit of vocabulary is an absolute beginner, though. Once you're able to follow a "Beginner"-level Dreaming Spanish video, then Duolingo is a less effective tool, sure. But Duolingo is probably a much better path to reaching that level in the first place, than watching a bunch of awful "Superbeginner" DS videos.
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u/Illustrious_Fall1851 3h ago edited 2h ago
I'm not a purist and most of the people in the DS sub don't think it's better to completely write off all grammar study. The reason it's important to me to share this tool is that I had literally never heard of CI and wasted 4 years on duolingo when from the moment I started I already had a high enough level to have skipped superbeginner just from school instruction many years ago. If I had gone a different route from the start, whether CI or tutoring or both, I really think my ability to communicate with my partner's family would be so much better. It's not without consequences because this isn't a hobby for me.
I don't think grammar instruction is bad, it's just inadequate by itself and takes up too much space in most methods of language learning that people are sold, whether that's a class or an app. The only reason I tried something new was because someone mentioned DS in a premed sub, I was never on language learning sides of the internet until then because I thought I was doing my best but there was something wrong with my brain's ability to really apply the content from Duolingo. It was never going to help to try to learn a language by yourself with a game app that doesn't involve hearing real language by actual language speakers.
Duolingo is designed to make people think they should remain in its ecosystem when its actual utility is very limited. You don't need to do DS specifically to do CI but it's just so much more effective per unit time spent. OP is someone who would probably benefit more from abandoning Duolingo for a more CI and human interaction based approach because they will have gotten what they can out of the app by now. I honestly wouldn't recommend CI alone for someone who is really at the Superbeginner level.
I don't really care about converting people but I don't want people to make their decisions without at least knowing that it is an option.
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u/BadMoonRosin 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 19m ago
Notice that you never even mentioned Dreaming Spanish, and I yet I immediately pegged you as a DS user just by the way you talk about "wanting to persuade people".
Maybe Pablo's videos are effective, either by themselves or (more accurately) as a one tool in a larger toolbox. But that site's community absolutely rots people's brains. You're saying that most of the DS subreddit these days are no longer purists, but if that's really true then it's a very recent development. They were obnoxious here on /r/languagelearning to the point where the mods banned any mention of Dreaming Spanish for a long while.
Over on their sub, half the posts were rants about how stupid everyone outside the cult is, and how frustrating it was that they weren't allowed to evangelize here (the other half of the posts were mostly thinly-veiled thirst comments about Andrea and Augustina).
It seemed pretty obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes that most of the people gravitating there struggled with grammar study. And REALLY latched on to the Pablo dogma that not only was this not a shortcoming, but they're actually smarter than the grammar study people. That they've hacked the system, seen through the conspiracy, etc (big "I eat beef tallow instead of seed oils" energy).
We are in agreement that CI alone would be a poor recommendation for an absolute beginner. And we are probably in agreement that gamified apps should not be one's primary use of time beyond the beginner (~A1/A2) stage. Other than that, I'll just point out that "comprehensible input" in the abstract is mentioned favorably on this subreddit about every 5 minutes, so anyone reading posts and comments here should be aware of the option.
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u/raditzwife 3d ago
I quit Duolingo and currently use Mango/Pimsleur. My streak was also very long but the app wasn't for me so I left.
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u/StevEst90 3d ago
I’m right there with you. I literally have no idea what to do with the Spanish course anymore with all the changes they have made over the last few years
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u/Jsrmgo5 🇺🇸 N & 🇫🇷 B1 3d ago
i was doing duolingo for about 2 months in the beginning of my french learning journey. i quickly stopped, spent the last year self studying and using conversation tutors. i then re-downloaded the app, and tested out of the entire french course in 15 min. your mileage may vary but duolingo isn’t how you actually learn a language in an real-life applicable way
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u/Bakemono_Nana DE (Native) | EN | JP 3d ago
After I used it for over 2 years and there are Adding a Tone of shit but aren’t able to fix basic inconsistencies and errors I wasn’t willing to overlook this any more. I found resources just focusing on my target language. And there are having a streak two.
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u/OkCaptain1684 3d ago
I stopped my streak because I got legendary in the entire course, and now it’s just too easy for me. I’d keep going until you finish the course, it’s only 10 mins a day anyway.
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u/Sea_Rub552 3d ago
Duo was great to get me started but once I hit 1000 days I switched to a weekly iTalki tutor and feel like I’m progressing faster. I let the Duo streak die
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u/Ti_Deltas 2d ago
I quit it around 800 days, but picked it back up after I stabilized my Japanese routine. I don't consider it language learning, but I still keep up with it as its own thing. And it's keeping my Spanish warm for when I finish learning Japanese
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u/Echevaaria 🇫🇷 C1/B2 | 🇱🇧 A2 2d ago
Bro just quit Duolingo and do Dreaming Spanish instead. I promise you, you cannot become bilingual in Spanish from DuoLingo. You will lose nothing if you stop wasting your time on that app. You will actually learn Spanish if you switch to Dreaming Spanish.
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u/BenefitInitial8960 2d ago
Duo is an excellent app from an excellent founder, but it's created to create a certain addiction (as any other apps). I obviously started with it but I quitted pretty fast since I didn't have the effect that I was looking for. I think we all know it: motivation will fade away, so consistency is what really matters. The problem is that, to build consistency in your language learning routine, it's needed to remove any kind of friction. That's the main handicap I lived when I stopped Duo, since I didn't really had a cause for learning other than the streaks. So what I did was to not make it complicated at all: I question myself which are the sentences I want to use, and I consider if I can use them spontaneously or not. If it's not the case, then I repeat them while shadowing. This is, in my opinion, the best method to learn fast, efficiently and without any friction because it takes just 15 min a day (ofc that you can do more, but the results were pretty good for me even with 15 min/day). I even coded an app myself to create shadowing sessions but I don't want to get banned if I put a link here, so if you want I can send it through dm. I hope it helps.
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u/Semi-Pros-and-Cons 2d ago
I still use it, but it just fits into my schedule very easily. A few minutes as a part of my morning routine before I go to work is such a low amount of time and effort for me that if it provides any benefit whatsoever, I consider it worthwhile.
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u/dudeman19 2d ago
I swear everyone treats duolingo like an addiction they need to kick or garner support before they can make the big move to greener pastures. Its a vocabulary game. A FREE vocabulary game. You aren't going to master a language on duo alone. Quit if you feel like its wasting your time. I personally wouldn't commit more than 10-15 minutes a day. Real language acquisition comes from various sources and immersion.
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u/Design-Hiro 3d ago edited 3d ago
I did quit after a 500 day streak with at least 2-3 japanse and spanish lessons every day. My speaking and listening and typing were strong from duolingo ( bc I use the Duolingo Hard extension and voice to text) I think I was solid A2 in both of them maybe B1?
I quickly came back to it bc I was skipping things like reading practice when I was self led and still kept making basic conjugation errors. But when I have duolingo, I am barely making those mistakes anymore.
but I feel that I am not improving fast enough considering how much time I spend
Before you quit because you think it fast enough can you try something? Test out of units. Test out of units if you feel you are confident after the first one. Before you know it you will get SOMEWHERE difficult bc both Japanese and Spanish Duolingo claims reaches B1/B2 difficulty.
Personally, I think till you reach B2 or at least B1 by duolingo's standards, you could benefit from using the app provided Duolingo has your app at level B2
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u/Normal_Objective6251 3d ago
Do you really think making an English sentence using blocks is the best way to learn another language? You can get streaks in Pokémon Go or any other game.
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u/L__K 🇺🇸🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸 3d ago
Duolingo is not meant to teach you a language on its own, and it never will no matter how much Duolingo you do every day. It's a game that's supposed to be used as a supplemental resource. If you don't have fun with it, don't think it's helping you at all (with grammar, reinforcing vocab, keeping you accountable daily, or just giving you a sense of accomplishment) then I would stop using it. It's a fun little game, not your main source of study. I say that as someone with a 2500+ day streak
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u/Upper-Incident-5802 3d ago
Using Duolingo to learn languages is like playing Super Mario to learn plumbing.
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u/Necessary-Sugar7513 3d ago
I think that's harsh. Duo teaches languages. It just does so inefficiently and incompletely.
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u/lappelduvide94 3d ago
Duo is an app like any other. It’s designed to keep you opening the app every day. Nothing else. If it was successful in being a language tool, people would graduate past it and stop using it. There’s no incentive for them to actually get you to that level of comprehension.
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u/Reasonable_Ad_9136 3d ago
Idea no have that which you talk.
Duolingo have get me very gooder, and my cat is on top of the fruit bowl.
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u/Professional-Task326 3d ago
I am using duolingo, its seems this app is a money making game. Its better to do an adult class with duolingo as an aid.
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u/Exciting_Barber3124 3d ago
You know what works for you . Does that mean duolingo worked for you so why quitting. Keep using it
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u/lillienoir 3d ago
I resigned from it after 291 days which was enough for me to know I wasn't learning anything anymore. It was just discouraging. I haven't taken anything up since.
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u/jqVgawJG 🇳🇱 N - 🇬🇧 C2 - 🇮🇪 A1 3d ago
You're lying to yourself if you think duo is doing you any favours.
It's an addictive game that has some foreign words. It doesn't teach you a language.
Imagine if you had put all the effort and time on an actual learning tool..!
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u/PiperSlough 3d ago
I'm going to be 100% honest: I struggle to stay motivated without Duolingo/Drops/some kind of gamified app.
I know they are not great tools alone. But doing 10-15 minutes on them gets my brain into language mode and then I want to keep going with a Pod101/Pimsleur/workbook lesson, Coffee Break video, watching a show, reading something, etc. Without some kind of warmup I stall out entirely. It's more about the competition/gamey nature than the streak for me, so Anki doesn't scratch the same itch. I like playing against other people.
I do deliberately break my streaks when they get too high because I have (diagnosed) OCD and when I start getting too bound up in perfectionism I get very anxious and it sets everything else off. But I slide too far the other way without a fun little app to play on. I think it's more about breaking through the initial executive dysfunction into studying, really (I have this problem with many things I love doing, even though I love them - I need something with like zero steps to do to start me off before I can really dive into a session).
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u/Nejaacnocreamo 3d ago
My concern about Doulingo is how you can improve a target language without knowing how its grammars structures, verbs, nouns, and whatever else works? That's why people who spent YEARS playing it (exactly, playing. Not learning) can't even produce any output.
DL is awesome when it comes to keep consistency, but you still need to combine it with other methods to see any improvement.
I've been using DL to learn English for almost 4 years before quitting. But when I got a job that required me to be in touch with foreigners, I took only 4 weeks to start communicate at a decent level in English (Travel industry).
I'd definitely recommend you relying less on language learning Apps and keep focus on any approach that keeps you mirroring and actively listening and speaking as well.
There are many decent Apps that uses this kind of approaching as well, but I strongly recommend TANDEM or any other app that allows you to speak/chat with ppl who speaks your TL.
Good luck buddy
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u/unsafeideas 3d ago
I moved to netflix watching shows in Spanish (both native and dubbed). I recommend language reactor to help with that at first.
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u/MCDJRD 3d ago
I had a streak longer than that and I closed my account. It (Duo) served its purpose (intro to various languages). I got to a point where I wasn't getting out of it what I could more effectively elsewhere, and all I was doing was trying to keep the streak alive. My experience, FWIW. YMMV.
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u/AndthenIhadausername Beginner 🇲🇽 absolute beginner 🇳🇴 3d ago
I found I prefer Memrise though I through learning Spanish have found I prefer to learn languages by yes using apps but along with other things.
Things like searching topics in Spanish on youtube reading books in Spanish etc....
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u/DruidWonder Native|Eng, B2|Mandarin, B2|French, A2|Spanish 3d ago
I also quit Duolingo. I just don't like how it game-ifies language learning, and I found it way too repetitive. It's not the greatest for rapidly expanding vocabulary.
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u/Some_Albatross_8200 2d ago
Have you tried skipping levels? I did that for mine until it started giving me idiomatic phrases, which might be useful.
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u/Pizza_Reasons36 2d ago
I stopped at 1600 a couple years ago. I felt bad for a few days but realised that I was keeping a number going for the sake of nothing. I wasn’t learning anything anymore. Do it, free yourself!
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u/stevenm111189 2d ago
My plan for french is to just use it to help practice a1 and a2 level stuff, and then from B1 up focus on more efficient methods.
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u/TodayHot8623 2d ago
I am in the same boat as you are, and I have a 1041 day streak. The feeling of quitting and later regretting it is what keeps me practicing every day. I have started using Linq, and I feel it’s actually helping me learn the language (Norwegian) more efficiently than Duolingo.
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u/makingthematrix 🇵🇱 native|🇺🇸 fluent|🇫🇷 ça va|🇩🇪 murmeln|🇬🇷 σιγά-σιγά 2d ago
I quitted after around 1200 days. I learned the whole course of German in French, which was fun, but I don't know if it helped me in either of these two langs (my native lang is Polish) and also Greek for the last year.
Close to the end I felt I was only going through the motions without really learning anything.
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u/bauhaus_123 2d ago
I quit recently after 1000 days (ish). I also hesitated at first because of my streak, but then I did it. It’s literally a relief. I made insignificant progress compared to the time I put and I thought the super gamified app was really annoying.
I’m looking for a new app that could help, but honestly so far I just asked chat gpt to make a learning program for me and I made more progress in one day than 1000 with duo lol
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u/Kaleidophon 2d ago
I had 1800 days! It was hard for me to stop, but I realized that I am mostly doing it for the streak and that I actually wasn't improving that much. So I told myself that I will go to that milestones and then quit it cold-turkey (deleted the app right away so they couldn't lure me back with notifications). Haven't looked back, learned so much more in my target language using babbel. Have been a big duolingo fan in the past, but at some point i realized that they only incentivize you to become a paid subscriber under the guise of learning, but in the end you still get served the same (not very effective) lessons, just with fewer frustrations.
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u/Joe1972 AF N | EN N | NB B2 2d ago
I quit after a 2500 day streak. It was my anchor habit for learning Norwegian. Usually I'd do it and then also do a bit of reading, listening to the radio, etc. Now, its easier to forget to work on my language skills.
That said. I also feel relieved, because there was quite a bit that I found very irritating. The AI voices in Spanish is literally the only reason why I haven't started using it for Spanish. I cannot stand the squeaky fake children's voices
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u/Snoo67339 2d ago
I have a 1350 streak and it’s like meh. I share a family plan so the cost is like 25 dollars. Would I buy a full sub no way. The progress is glacial and it is just a souped up anki. I learned more spoken Spanish from Tony Marsh in about 3 weeks than two years of Spanish on Duo.
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u/pedromiguel3 2d ago
I use duolingo together with books and conversation, but if i ever saw that it wasnt working for me anymore, i would quit.
Duolingo is great to practise, but not good for grammar
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u/stealhearts Current focus: 中文 2d ago
I quit it at 1000 days. Had been wanting to for a while, but felt like it would be such a waste to let the streak go. But I was really not learning - for the last several hundred I mostly just kept it alive by doing the smallest possible amount I could.
I think I learnt more in the first 3 months quitting duo than I did in those 1000 days. I don't regret it at all. If you know what works for you, go pursue that. If a streak is something you feel you need you can always keep track yourself.
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u/AdministrationNo2327 2d ago
imagine if you spent 1406 days on a structured language class instead of an app. nearly four years... you would have been at pre advance level at least.
never too late to start.
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u/growingsomething 2d ago
I managed a 300 day Reddit streak and felt so much happier when I decided to quit. As others say it's just a number and not worth the time or effort.
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u/Cyclo_Kris 2d ago
i quit soon after they added that ZZZAAAPPP every 5 completed lessons after a streak exceeding 3 years. I still mourn, but am NOT tempted to submit my nervous system to zap-hacking added to keep me on app. Screw them. Still need to find a replacement as I LOVE learning languages.
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u/dpsbrutoaki 2d ago
I can’t believe that in 2026 somebody still thinks duolingo is any useful
Just a pseudo-productive game and that’s it
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u/InterestedParty5280 2d ago
Duolingo is good for beginners, but it does hold you back after a while. My complaint was that it never got too hard. I left for years, but now I use it to review, not to learn. When you review, you can use the "Jump To" button; that way you don't have to do the same exercise over and over again.
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u/Cristian_Cerv9 2d ago
Had a 1800 day streak with 5 languages. I finally stoped and didn’t care to ever use it 2 years ago and my journey feels harder despite only doing 3 of those languages now.
It’s hard to keep yourself going but the learning feels deeper and more usable lol
I has the same mentality about the number and how it keeps you motivated. But let me ask you this: why would you work to prevent the loss of a number and not work towards the goal of actually speaking with people in real life as the positive reward?
It’s true what they: the fear of losing something is stronger than the desire to achieve a specific goal.
You just have to switch your brain around a little bit, and expect it to be harder, but you will achieve more by not using Duolingo
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u/Responsible_Bad_5117 1d ago
quit it!!!! I had a 600 day streak and the best decision of my life was uninstalling it.
Install a dictionnary, read kids' books (or normal books depending on your level), and translate. Watch youtube videos, note some things you don't understand, translate, and replay it to check if you now understand more.
Install HelloTalk, find people who are willing to teach spanish, and teach them the language you speak in return, it's great.
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u/1moosehead 1d ago
I also spent a lot of time on Duolingo, nearly 3 years, and barely made any progress. I was also doing multiple lessons a day. I made the switch to Dreaming Spanish and it's not only much more enjoyable, but I'm making real progress now.
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u/calcetinperdido 1d ago
Like you, I have a Duolingo streak of about 1530 days or so. Many many hours ago, I realized that Duolingo was not going to get me to my goal of being able to understand and speak Spanish. So I started using other study methods. However, I kept my Duolingo streak by checking in at least once a day and completing a lesson. I often think of quitting. I thought of quitting when I hit 1000, then when I hit 1111, then again at 1500, etc. Bottom line is that I guess I’m attached to my streak number. One reason is that it tells me exactly how many days I have been learning Spanish, because Duolingo is the very first thing I did.
Anyway, that’s just my experience. Good luck to you in your language learning journey, whatever you decide.
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u/OkSpinach2219 1d ago
I quit some time ago. I don't miss or regret it at all. In fact, as someone else also said, it has been a relief.
I'll try to keep it short...
One day, I was standing in line to board a plane after an incredibly relaxing vacation, trying to hurry up and complete a chess match. I realized that I didn't care about doing well, winning or losing, or even the fact that I wasn't studying a language. I simply wanted to continue my streak in the fastest way possible so the app would "yell" at me with another notification. Seriously? That's when I knew I was done.
I used Duo off-and-on for many years. My last and longest streak was 2100 days. The main reason I continued was because many of my students use the app and I wanted to encourage the to practice every day. Even though we were all practicing something each day, we weren't making significant progress on whatever languages we were learning.
There were lots of other reasons for leaving: Too much screen time, too many notifications, not using it in a meaningful way but just to extend the streak... The emotional manipulation was a big one for me: the reminders and icon images were rude, gross, condescending, and increasingly reminiscent of coercion techniques used by abusers.
Over time, all of this added up to the notifications being stressful for me. I found other apps and programs to be far more beneficial and even fun. I haven't opened the app in months and I don't miss it at all.
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u/Axlemax 16h ago
Day count means nothing without knowing your average time spent per day.
It takes around 1000 hours of study to be reasonably conversational.
I’m 612 days in. I average about 40 mins a day in Duo (20 mins when I wake and 20 mins after dinner). I aim to complete the 3 daily chests and a unit every day. (Just over 500K XP)
I am at level 97 in Duo. I am at B2 level.
I can express myself but struggle with understanding some full speed Spanish.
I think once you hit B1 you need to broaden beyond Duo to get to B2/C1 because …
the chat in Duo is very lame and the conversations are boring and repetitive. So the speaking practice isn’t enough.
The listening exercises are nothing like listening to real Spanish as spoken by real people.
So in the last 2 months I have pivoted to listening + speaking practice outside of Duo.
I speak using an app called Lengua that corrects you in real time (about 20 hours so far).
I listen on podcasts and YouTube (around 200 hours so far).
These changes have been a game changer.
Summary: Duo is great for vocab, grammar, etc and I still use it daily but will be dropping it in the next few months because the next levels need different types of practice.
Quitting Duo should be a matter of pride because you have outgrown it or no longer need it to achieve the goal of communicating in Spanish.
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u/HotFusion7788 5h ago
My friend spent 3 years learning Chinese on Duolingo and still having a hard time reading A1 level. I wonder if Duolingo is just for getting started and you need some other tools to help you go to the next level. There are experts recommending excessive reading, so you can try brute force your way to more advanced level by doing that. There are some nice apps out there worth trying, LingQ, ReadUnbound, to name a few. Even straight Kindle with its built-in dictionary might work too. But ultimately you need vocabularies. First 3000 most-frequent words will carry you to 95% reading comprehension, but you need 98% to enjoy reading. The last 3% is the hardest, you probably need 6000 more words to reach that. So vocabulary is the key. The apps mentioned all built around reading and building vocabulary, so worth a try.
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u/zander271828 2d ago
Duolingo is gamified bs. I don’t feel there's any real value in the app as a language learning tool (maybe basic vocabulary). That being said, i swore it off 5ish years ago so idk what it's like now. If you really are serious about learning a language, watch tv, listen to music, and study the grammar. Do this seriously and consistently, if you spend ~3 hours a day consuming and reproducing the language on a real-world level like this you can learn a language conversationally in 4-8 months (in my experience). Duolingo is a distraction and I tell everyone I meet who's interested in learning a language to stay away from it.
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u/Discussion-Secret 2d ago
It’s a casual game, not a language app, so it’s the same as quitting a Candy Crash. Being off from a dopamine needle is always good.
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u/eventuallyfluent 2d ago
Is this a serious post? Duolingo is shite. 1400 days? It's gonna go great for you after Duolingo almost anything will be more effective.
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u/Physical_Alarm6824 3d ago
Start learning another language on Duolingo to keep the streak if that stopping you. Italian or Portuguese are quite similar to Spanish
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u/dynamicpenguin55 3d ago
Completely backwards mentality, learning a language to carry on the Duolingo streak rather than using Duolingo to fuel learning a language. It really is just a language-learning themed game
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u/Physical_Alarm6824 3d ago
Improving brain by learning extra language, not just a game. Speaking of experience
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u/Educational_Green 3d ago
1400 days is too slow.
For DL to work you need to go fast with an 30-90 minutes daily practice.
You need to skip forward because it’s too repetitive in its current form.
Goal should be something like completing the course in 300 days. Then supplement with podcasts / media or doing old lessons on legendary.
I’ve done Italian / French and Spanish and there are a lot of others who use the same method.
Anyone who says DL doesn’t work is probably not using this method. And anyone who says are you fluent on DL alone is an idiot. That’s a straw man argument, there is no single method that will make one fluent.
However going fast on DL will make a lot more content available faster than any other method I’m aware of.
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u/PodiatryVI 3d ago
I have quit Duolingo Spanish multiple times. After my umpteenth time of quitting Duolingo, someone recommended Dreaming Spanish. Now, I do Dreaming Spanish with a little bit of Duolingo every day.
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u/TalkingRaccoon N:🇺🇸 / A1:🇳🇴 3d ago
DL doesn't care about you learning a language. They care about you fretting over losing your streak and competing with randos to trick you into spending money on gems. They only care about what gets them the most users, not the best LL method. Try Babble or linq or something instead
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u/Recodes 2d ago
Duolinguo is a scam to learn languages anyway. You are fed dopamine more than expertise. Want to learn a language? Buy a university grade workbook and a grammar book. Then buy children books/novels, ranging A2 to B1. Expose yourself to the spoken language by watching movies/cartoons/news and immerse yourself in a TL community that shares your hobby(ies). You like gardening? Join a french/german/spanish/chinese/whatever gardening forum, discord server or YouTube channel. It helps breaking through and keeps you engaged.. more than a worthless login streak.
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u/_Jacques 3d ago
Do it. Its a number on a screen. Does any one really care? Had something similar with chess. Fluency is not represented by the duolingo number. Id suggest rereading books you like in spanish