I have used Duolingo and liked it but was not necessarily blown away. Perhaps the level I was doing was below what I should be, furthermore, I am a self-proclaimed non-gamer. I love the idea of gamification and I can really see how it would work for many learners, but for myself, gaming stresses me out. Playing Guitar Hero makes my hand cramp halfway through the one song. I do like the layout and interactions that Duolingo brings, however, I find that to learn I language especially how to say something, I need to repeat it out loud, and that is the crux of the problem for me with any language learning apps. I can really only study in a private place where I feel comfortable speaking aloud (I certainly wouldn’t do that on the morning subway commute!). So I agree with Craig that Duolingo is a great app, but one that just didn’t work for me.
I have used Duolingo and liked it but wa…
2 Oct
In regards to the founders, as with my comment in the Codecademy post, it is the true spirit of an enterpreneur to recognize a gap and create an innovative solution. I would love to be a fly on the wall for how they got from the struggles with translations to the idea of a game-based language program.
