An Opinionated Critique of Duolingo Date: September 30, 2025 Tags: 2025, enshittification --- Personal Experience With Duolingo The author began learning Spanish on Duolingo in 2020, motivated by a whimsical plan to run a taco truck in Mexico. After about five years and maintaining an 1800-day streak, the author concluded the effort was only moderately successful. While they can now decipher simple Spanish sentences, they cannot write complex texts in Spanish. Critique of Duolingo's Gamification Gamification focus: Duolingo employs numerous game mechanics—XP points, potions, leagues, treasure chests, quests—but these are poorly explained or connected to language learning progress. Lack of meaningful mechanics: The system lacks clarity on what XP means or how leagues compare, reducing motivation. Social aspect failures: The social interactions (congratulations, messages) are superficial, automated, and feel inauthentic. Genuine social engagement is missing. Forum removal: Duolingo previously had active forums linked to lesson sentences, facilitating discussion and deeper understanding. These were locked and later removed, likely due to moderation costs and potential conflict risks. The Streak Mechanic The streak was the most motivating game feature. Streaks can be preserved artificially via "Streak Freezes" purchasable with gems. Maintaining a streak does not guarantee real learning—repeating old lessons suffices. Duolingo users can apply streaks to non-language subjects like math or music, diluting language learning focus. Pedagogical Deficiencies Compared to other language resources (like Language Transfer), Duolingo's teaching is minimal and shallow. Heavy reliance on translation exercises using word jumbles, with minimal grammar instruction. Lack of clarity on curriculum and lesson flow. Unknown if repetition is adaptive or fixed. Clicking words dominates cognitive effort, not translation comprehension. Speaking exercises exist but speech recognition is lenient. Anecdotal weird phrases gain social media attention but unclear educational value. Stories and audio lessons are included but are short and sometimes simplistic. Duolingo's Business and Ideology Emphasizes user growth ("blitz-scaling") over quality or financial sustainability. User retention tools mostly revolve around gamification and passive-aggressive nudges. Expanding beyond language into math and music, blurring platform focus. Prioritizes content quantity, now adopting an AI-first approach to scale content creation, likely at cost of quality. CEO statements reveal prioritizing UI and experience polish over manual content quality control. Challenges with Japanese Course Japanese language complexity (multiple writing systems, grammar structures, honorifics) is inadequately addressed by Duolingo's approach. The platform treats Japanese as phrase substitution, ignoring systemic differences. This caused frustration for the author studying Japanese after relocating to Japan. Alternative Resources Found More Effective Weekly group tutoring sessions offering interactive and engaging learning. Kanji flashcards with Wanikani, focused on a specific element. Grammar study with Bunpro, which provides thorough lessons and community resources. These platforms emphasize niche focus, API openness for third-party tools, and active community forums. Lessons on Bunpro directly teach concepts instead of hoping learners infer grammar from exercises. Summary Duolingo leverages gamification to hook users but falls short in delivering robust language pedagogy. Its mechanical and social gamification elements feel hollow and insufficiently tied to actual progress. The platform’s scale-driven Silicon Valley mindset sacrifices depth and authenticity. For complex languages like Japanese, Duolingo's simplistic