Welcome to What’s App-ening, your weekly source for the latest and greatest in mobile apps.
This week’s app is for the linguist in all of us. Duolingo allows users to learn the language they’ve always wanted to, straight from their smartphone.
The app features several different languages such Spanish, French, German and Italian.
The learning method is simple. The user takes lessons to learn the language through the app and then tests to move on to more difficult parts of the language.
And, say you’re already in a German class, and you’re just using Duolingo as a supplement, the program will let you test through everything you already know.
The lessons are user-friendly and can be repeated as needed.
During the lesson, the user memorizes vocabulary by matching unfamiliar words with pictures, and then learns to use the vocabulary in a sentence.
The user identifies the correct usage of words, says the words, and re-arranges a variety of words to create a grammatically correct sentence.
More advanced lessons build on the previous ones, and the pictures give way to writing and speaking sentences in the chosen target language.
The tests are formatted in the same way as the lessons, so there’s no new form to learn. The only difference is that the words cannot be clicked on to define them during a test.
When a lesson or test is complete, the coach and mascot, a little green owl on the app’s icon, examines how well the lesson was done and awards points to the user.
The more lessons that are completed and the more points that are awarded allow the user to receive different perks from the app, like outfits for the mascot and additional lessons like idioms and romantic phrases.
The user can set daily goals in Duolingo, as well as notifications to remind the user to use the app throughout the week.
Over all, it’s an interactive, useful app with a user-friendly interface and a good color scheme. I give Duolingo five out of five stars.
Duolingo is free on both Google Play and the App Store.
Thanks for reading Wildcats and until next Friday, you know What’s App-ening.
