DuoLingo Review

Want to practice your French (or any other language) without spending money?

Well now you can, it's called DuoLingo.

Not sure what DuoLingo is? No problem, we'll address that here as well as what features are beneficial to language learners. At the very bottom of this review we also talk about how fluent you can become with DuoLingo.

What is DuoLingo?
Duolingo is a do it yourself style of language learning software which can be found on the internet and help you learn French, Spanish, German or Portuguese (Russian and Dutch are coming out soon). The program was first conceived to help translate webpages, however as an unexpected bonus, a form of learning software was developed to aid students who want to acquire foreign languages.

I got an answer correct!

To test out the program, I advanced up to level 10 in French and Level 5 in Italian, a language which I started learning about a year ago. The program is arranged in a step-wise manner through a progression tree and spans topics that are similar to ones you would find in a language class. For example, there are lessons on greetings, food, animals, adjectives, possessives, clothing, colors, verb conjugations, and much more. You can level up either by completing lessons or by helping Duolingo translate webpages (usually Wikipedia pages) from the target language into English!

Each lesson contains a number of questions for you to complete, and to encourage motivation and correct answers, you are given a few "lives". When you get a question wrong, a correction will highlight what you did incorrectly and you'll lose a life. If you lose all your lives then you'll have to redo the lesson, but if you finish with surplus lives then you'll be rewarded with extra points. The lives concept creates a more fun, engaging program that seems more like a game rather than a tedious task (learning grammar/vocabulary, etc). Learners are introduced new vocabulary through both speech and text, then are asked to either translate words/sentences into English, or into French. There are also picture recognition questions similar to Rosetta Stone, where a picture is presented and you have to associate a word to it.

DuoLingo emphasizes that you go back and review words and concepts over time. There is a large community on the forums so that if you stumble across any problems, you can discuss it with other language learners. But don't take my word for it, keep reading and see what some users think down below!

My DuoLingo progress, you can see how the lessons are arranged in a step-wise fashion.

À Nos Actes Manques English Translation - M. Pokora

À Nos Actes Manques in English
Reviewed/Translated by John Elkhoury
COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTY: HARD


À tous mes loupés, mes ratés, mes vrais soleils
To all my failures, all my misses, all my true suns
Tous les chemins qui me sont passés à côté
All the paths which passed me by
À tous mes bateaux manqués, mes mauvais sommeils
To all the missed boats, my bad dreams
À tous ceux que je n'ai pas été
To everything that I never was

En Apesanteur English Translation - Calogero

En Apesanteur in English
Reviewed/Translated by John Elkhoury
COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM


J'arrive à me glisser
I managed to slide myself in
Juste avant que les portes ne se referment
Just before the doors closed
Elle me dit "quel étage"
She said to me "which floor"
Et sa voix me fait quitter la terre ferme
And her voice made me leave the solid ground
Alors
So
Les chiffres dansent
The numbers dance
Tout se mélange
Everything blends
Je suis en tête-à-tête avec un ange
I am face to face with an angel

Du Contrat Social - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Voilà des extraits Du Contrat social, publié en 1762 par Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

L'homme est né libre et partout il es dans les fers. Tel se croit le maître des autres, qui ne laisse pas d'être plus esclave qu'eux. Comment ce changement s'est-il fait? Je l'ignore. Qu'est-ce qui peut le rendre légitime? Je crois pouvoir résoudre cette question.

Si je ne considérais que la force, et l'effet qui en dérive, je dirais: tant qu'un Peuple est contraint d'obéit, il fait bien; sitôt qu'il peut secouer le joug, et qu'il le secoue, il fait encore mieux; car, recouvrant sa liberté par le même droit qui la lui a ravie, ou il est fondé à la reprendre, ou on ne l'était point à la lui ôter. Mais l'ordre social est un droit sacré qui sert de base à tous les autres. Cependant ce droit ne vient point de la nature; il est donc fondé sur des conventions...

La Fête de la Musique - France

La Fête de la Musique

Every summer throughout France la Fête de la Musique (literally the party of music), takes over the country!  Live concerts are established in town squares, street musicians are found everywhere, and Paris goes wild with fireworks (feu d'artifice). The performances are amazing, the musicians are talented, and the atmosphere is energetic & joyous.

The idea of a worldwide day of music was first conceived by an American, Joel Cohen, in 1976. He introduced it on a French radio show with the desire of celebrating the summer solstice, which marks the longest period of daylight within a year. In 1982, the French minister of culture implemented his idea. Nowadays, la Fête de la Musique is found in over 100 different countries around the world, often under a different name, World Music Day.