Duolingo was once a super awesome place for me to experiment with language, and I really enjoyed using it. Nearly 5 and a half years of a daily streak later, I have become disillingoed.

Images

To illustrate the “Purge” part of the Binge-Purge Tech Cycle, I submit the following images, as they document my recent deletion of my Duolingo account.

Duolingo: Do your Duolingo, Mike! You are currently at 1999 days in a row. Duolingo: Way to go, Mike! You're at 2000 days in a row now! Duolingo: Seriously, Mike, you are one cool owl that is on fire for your 2000 day streak! Duolingo: Wait, you want to delete your account? Duolingo: Umm, are you sure you want to delete your account? Duolingo: OK, we have confirmed you have confirmed you want to delete your account. However, we're giving you a 7-day buffer to change your mind. Duolingo: Your account was actually deleted.

Words

Duolingo is still a really cool app, and is the reason why (besides high school and my wife’s linguistics degree) I got into learning languages other than my native English. I started using it in 2013, but only started trying to keep a mega-streak in the 2020s. Unfortunately, I realized months ago that it really wasn’t fun clicking/tapping through all the post-lesson “you got gems!”, “open this chest!”, “here’s your next friend streak!” nonsense (and I’ve been a paying customer for years! If I had to see ads this whole time, I’d most certainly have checked out long ago). In addition, lessons were not really improving my language aptitude, nor did I enjoy the self-imposed albatross of having to “check in” each day to keep that meaningless streak going.

For me, the way to learn a human language (much like a programming language), is to use it, and use it often. A few minutes a day reminding myself of some grammar or vocabulary in a particular foreign language isn’t enough to move the needle significantly, and my desire was not stoked by any tactic Duolingo deployed (besides maintaining a streak).

Like a cruise that briefly visits several countries, or a variety platter of food served at a restaurant, Duolingo is at its best as a discovery tool. It allows you to sample a lot of languages, and does it in an engaging way. I’m sure I wouldn’t have learned as much random basic Japanese, Hawaiian, or Arabic as I did without it. But language is a muscle, and all that I’ve learned over the years has largely seeped into the void, and I knew it would, because I don’t use it much anywhere else besides Duolingo.

Introspectively, this may say more about me than Duolingo, honestly. I love to sample things and learn a little about a lot of things. Going super deep on a topic has never been my strong suit, which can often lead to competence, but rarely mastery. That being said, I tested through Spanish to the very last section, but I’d never say I was fluent, which feels like a failure of the system. I might’ve gleaned a new thing or two, but I doubt much will stick.

Duolingo allowed for me to play around with language, and occasionally try to actually learn, but in the end I think the lack of drive on my part plus the increased friction added to each lesson finally put me over the edge of just not caring at all anymore. After ~13 years of different language concentrations, streaks of hundreds of days broken by forgetfulness, and one incredibly long multi-year streak (and sharing all this love with friends), I’m done chasing the owl. If I actually want to learn a language beyond basic reading comprehension, then I will probably look for a different tool.

At least I hit a nice, round number and went out with a bang, right?