Simple Swedish Podcast - #285 - DuoLingo: hjälp eller hinder i din språkutveckling?

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

De flesta har provat DuoLingo. Är det en bra app? Eller kan den till och med ha negativa konsekvenser för din utveckling? Årets Language Lock In Bootcamp börjar den 15:e augusti och det börjar bli bråttom om du vill söka in! Anmäl dig här! --- Transkript --- Ja men hallå och välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast! Och ja, jag sitter här i Valencia. Hemkommen efter två veckor av resande. Jag har varit i min sommarstuga i Dalarna. Och jag har varit i Skottland. Ja, jag reste till Skottland med min pappa och min bror. Och ja, vi körde en liten roadtrip där i fem dagar. Så vi kollade in Skottland lite och några saker jag lärde mig om Skottland är att vädret är ungefär lika dåligt som i Sverige. Det var mycket regn och mulet. Men det var inget problem egentligen. Vi hade det jättetrevligt och det var väldigt intressant. Jag tyckte om Skottland mycket faktiskt. Jag kände att Skottland har mycket gemensamt med Skandinavien! Så det var kul och nu är jag tillbaka i Valencia! Det är varmt. Det har absolut blivit sommar här. Det var lite märkligt för när jag åkte var det inte jättevarmt, men nu är det den här smällvärmen, vi säger att det är smällvärme, alltså när det är såhär väldigt varmt. Så att man nästan smäller av. Att smälla av är att man typ svimmar eller liksom man smäller av. Så! Okej, och idag ska jag prata om Duolingo, faktiskt. Jag har tänkt på att göra en video, eller ett avsnitt, om Duolingo ett tag. Så jag tänkte att nu är det dags att göra ett avsnitt om Duolingo. ...för hela transkriptet - klicka här

Hello and welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast. I'm here in Valencia, home after two weeks of traveling I have been in my summer cottage in the Dalarna and I have been in Scotland I traveled to Scotland with my dad and my brother

and we did a little road trip there in five days. We looked at Scotland a little and some things I learned about Scotland. The weather is about as bad as in Sweden. It was a lot of rain and stuff. But it was no problem.

We had a great time. It was very interesting. I liked Scotland a lot. I felt that Scotland has a lot in common with Scandinavia. So that was fun, and now I'm back in Valencia. It's warm. It has absolutely been summer here. It was a bit strange, because when I went it wasn't very hot.

But now it's the heat of the blast. We can say that it's the heat of the blast. When it's very hot. So that you almost explode. To explode is to swim or like you blow off So, ok, and today I will talk about Duolingo actually I have thought about making a video or an episode about Duolingo for a while So I thought that now it's time to make an episode about Duolingo Because it is probably the most the language app and most of the people who have learned a language in modern times have probably used Duolingo or at least tried Duolingo

I have also tried Duolingo and used Duolingo but that was quite a long time ago. I stopped with that because I simply did not like the app much. So I will tell you why I don't believe in Duolingo But also when and how Duolingo can be positive And what you should use instead Before we start I will thank some new Patrons It's Maya, Ewe, Egle, Natalie, Sudlefudle, Elaine, Kennet, Nicole, Yolanda, Fabrizio and Oscar

So, thank you for supporting this podcast because without Patreon, no podcast ok, so go to patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist if you want to be a patron and get transcripts to all episodes yes, then we will talk about Duolingo Okay, I drank some coffee there first Yes As I said, I have tried Duolingo, I feel that I have used Duolingo

enough to have an opinion about it. To make a judgment, we could say. And one thing that made me think about this was that to think about this was that before the last bootcamp I talked to one of the bootcamp participants because I always have a conversation with each participant before the bootcamp to help with Swedish and how to prepare yourself and so on. And she told that she had used Duolingo quite a lot and then she tried to read a book in Swedish, but she felt that there were too many words that she didn't understand so she thought, ok, I have to continue with Duolingo, I have to continue using Duolingo until I can start reading for real. And when I heard that, I just thought, shit,

stop using Duolingo right now, I told her. I told her I mean You can't use Duolingo until you reach a high enough level to be able to use the language properly You have to start reading by reading you will learn all the words you don't need through Duolingo and I saw that she finds books that feel like a good level start reading don't worry about words you don't understand

but translate words you need to understand to follow along in the story and all other words that are not important you can simply skip them because when you read the language you simply have to focus on the important words focus on what makes you follow the story what makes you appreciate the story, what makes you appreciate the story, that you have a nice time, that you enjoy the reading.

And then you often have to skip a lot of words that are not so important. And then I told her to start reading, stop with the Duolingo and just start reading. And she told me later that it went really well. That she now thinks it's much more fun to learn Swedish. That she has started to learn much more effectively. So this is a good example of when Duolingo prevents some cases can be more negative than positive for your language studies So I will tell you why I don't use Duolingo and then and then you sit at a party or a dinner and suddenly that person walks away and says that I can't lose my streak on Duolingo, I have to do my Duolingo because I don't want to lose my streak I don't want to lose my streak on Duolingo It's very annoying when people leave a party or stay at the party and to do Duolingo at 11 PM

But that was mostly a joke, because the real reasons why I don't like Duolingo is... First and foremost that... Okay, you learn things, but... You learn very inefficiently And you don't learn things that are particularly usable You learn very strange meanings Like, can you hear these apples? Or, the lawyer is painting a house There are even more strange meanings than that

I have seen so many strange meanings that you learn on Duolingo Duolingo is built as a game and you have to do a little every day so that you don't lose your streak You lose your streak And you do this every day and you get a feeling Of that you are getting better and better and better Because in the app you have a development You make progress in the app So you think that you are getting better and better and better at this language.

And okay, you learn things, but I have difficulty believing that someone would reach a high actual level in the language So So that's what I don't like because it gives a feeling of that you're making a lot of progress but you're not really doing that so the app is tricking you I mean

you so that the app tricks you. It makes you believe that you are making a lot of progress, although you are not really making that much progress. And also, there is a lot of focus on perfection, ok? Because you have to put the words exactly right to get it right. So there is a lot of focus on it being exactly right. And, well, perfection, perfectionism. You have to fight against perfectionism. You have to be okay with making many mistakes. You have to be okay with speaking in an imperfect way. You have to be ok with making a lot of mistakes, not doing it right. But in apps like Duolingo you can only get further if you do everything right.

And that is very far from reality Okay, so you spend a lot of time Some people use Duolingo for several years and have a streak for hundreds of days and that might not not negative in itself because you learn things and you build a habit a routine, which is positive of course but if you think that this will get you to high level, then it can be negative.

Because you think you are advancing a lot, but you might not do it. But is there something positive with Duolingo? Yes, they have really good marketing That's positive So, yes, jokes aside So, there can be some positive things of course Because you learn things, you learn words You learn grammar And you build a habit

You build a habit to study a little bit every day And that is very important for learning a language It is a big project and you have to learn it almost every day. It's important to build this routine, to really study a little every day. Duolingo can help you build this routine But I would say that Duolingo is only positive if you use it as a complement to your studies So Duolingo should absolutely not be the basis Because, ok, you can...

if you don't just want to do it as a fun thing ok, if you are not that serious with the language you just think it's fun to learn a little bit here, learn a little bit every day but you are not that serious you don't need to reach a high level Learn a little bit every day, but you're not that serious You don't need to reach a high level You don't need to have real conversations with people

You just use Duolingo because it's a fun thing Okay, then it can be really good, a fun thing. If you are serious about learning a language and you want to reach a high level, it might not be a bad thing to use Duolingo as a compliment, as a fun thing alongside your real studies. But I don't know, I might not say that I know that you absolutely cannot learn spoken language. There may be people who have learned to speak fluently thanks to Duolingo, but it feels quite unreasonable, it doesn't feel so credible. Incredible But I'm not saying that I know that it is so And I have seen videos, there are videos on YouTube where people I saw for example a video on YouTube

It was a guy who who made a video, said, I have learned Russian for two years and I have only used Duolingo and he was on the Red Tower in Moscow and talked to people on the street and he succeeded pretty well apparently

he could talk to people about pretty basic stuff and ok, you and lingo 15 minutes every day for two years and then you can talk to people on the street about some basic stuff yeah, really good talk with people on the street about some basic stuff Yeah, great! But there are a thousand times more effective ways

to reach that level So if you want to have some small conversations with people on the street Not walk in a very deep way Just have random conversations You can learn that in a much more effective way But it is not impossible to do that with Duolingo in a much more effective way

But it's not impossible to do that with Duolingo I would say that when you start with a language when I start with a language at least my goal then my first goal I language, my first goal is to reach a level where I can start using natural material and start getting massive, understandable input. To reach a level where I can start to bathe in the language, where I can start to understand natural material,

doesn't have to be in the mother tongue, doesn't have to be in TV-series, podcasts, books, or mother-in-law's speeches. But for example, like this podcast, Simple Swedish Podcast. It's made for people who are learning. So my goal is to reach a level where I can understand this type of material. Someone who only speaks the easy version of the language, or easy to read books, or simplified material. So my goal is, okay, how do I learn the most useful words and the basic grammar?

How do I learn that as quickly as possible so that I can start using more natural material start getting massive understandable input because that's what you need to reach a high level so to reach a high level, an advanced level to learn to speak fluently, then you have to start to bathe in the language, integrate the language into your life, watch TV series, read books, have conversations with real people. But to be able to do that, you have to reach a basic level of understanding first.

So that's usually the goal, the first goal, to reach this lower level of means as quickly as possible so that you start to understand the simplified language. And I don't think Duolingo will do that effectively. Maybe after two years. But with other resources you can do it in like three months or six months Yes So That's why I don't like Duolingo that much That's why I don't use Duolingo

But ok, at the same time It might not hurt It might not be bad or negative if you use it as a compliment to your studies Or if you just learn the language as a fun thing and maybe not so serious So, yes, otherwise, what can you use instead? I would use, I mean, try, okay, what would I use if I started with a language, a new language? What would I use to reach this level where you can start reading and listening to natural material? A newbie pod Or a newbie series with videos on YouTube Or there are apps that are much better than Duolingo Or a book

There are good books, for example the Assimil series. But what's important is that there is a lot of dialogue. Dialogue is the key to learning to understand the language. So find a resource where there is focus on dialogue. And explanations on grammar. Not exercises. Duolingo is full of grammar exercises. I am zero interested in grammar exercises. I'm interested in understanding grammar and learning to understand dialogue.

And make sure there's sound as well. So that's what I would do if I learned a new language today. So before we end, I just want to mention the most intense language bath that exists for Swedes. And that is of course Language Lock-in Bootcamp. And this is a retreat for you who already know a part of Swedish but who might not really get started speaking and you feel that you have to force yourself to speak in some way. Because in Language Lock-in Bootcamp you have to speak only Swedish for nine days. Nine days that are filled with fun activities together with lovely people in the valleys. It's like the heart of Sweden. After that, you will feel much more comfortable speaking Swedish, because you have already done that constantly for 9 days and you will feel that you can speak Swedish, even if you don't speak perfect, even if you don't speak very advanced, you know that you can

if you need to and you will learn to understand Swedish much more automatically and many people even start to think in Swedish read more about the bootcamp and apply via the link in the description I hope to see you there because I am also there And tell me, comment what you think about Duolingo And if you like it or not And what you use instead That was all for today, have a good one and see you next time Bye bye