Watch and learn
How Duolingo’s partnership with Twitch will help game fans improve their language skills
Duolingo and Twitch partner to help game fans learn languages
As the provider of one of the most popular ways to learn a new language – its app has around 300 million users worldwide – Duolingo has been thinking about gamification for some years now. “One of the reasons why we’ve been successful is because we focus so much time and attention on making learning fun,” the company’s
Sam Dalsimer explains. “We’ve learned over the years that the hardest thing about trying to learn a language is simply staying motivated and keeping at it: a lot of people start, realise it’s difficult and then they give up. So we focus on making sure that you want to keep coming back.”
We’ve heard variants on that last sentence quite a bit lately. As more blockbuster games evolve into services, the subject of user retention keeps cropping up. And so it’s no surprise to learn that as the app continues to grow, game design is at the heart of Duolingo’s efforts: earlier this year, it introduced leaderboards, which have proven a popular incentive to stick at it. Given the company’s affinity for games, its latest enterprise makes perfect sense. With the popularity of streaming showing no sign of abating, the company has launched a venture in partnership with Twitch: the Duolingo Verified Streamer Program has endorsed a number of multilingual streamers, with a core of game players alongside travellers, cooks and artists, all in an effort to encourage their audiences to take up a new language or two.
Naturally, a lot of research went into finding the right blend. The initial group has been extensively vetted, and includes
a healthy mix of languages. Duolingo specifically sought out channels advertising that they were multilingual, those actively welcoming audiences that speak different languages, and some who were seeking a little help in return: English isn’t the first language for many of the selected streamers, after all. These affiliates hail from all over the globe, from Arkansas to Tunisia. They speak a variety of languages, from Catalan to Chinese, Italian to Arabic. And their gaming backgrounds are equally varied: one is a League Of Legends caster, another a Zelda speedrunner, and there’s even a professional CS:GO player.
Diversity was key, but beyond that, the criteria for selection was relatively simple. “We basically looked for streamers that were really engaged with their audience and passionate about what they’re doing,” Duolingo’s Sara Green says. Meanwhile, the benefit for the streamers – beyond the positive vibes of giving back to others – is obvious. Duolingo already has a massive in-built audience, and its own Twitch channel will host these streams, potentially attracting a new wave of viewers to those channels. Twitch is, after all, a numbers game, and the difference could be huge for those involved.
While the company will keep tabs on its streamers (as long as they abide by Twitch’s guidelines, Dalsimer says, Duolingo will consider their broadcasts safe for its own users) it will otherwise adopt a relatively hands-off approach. The last thing it wants to do, Green explains, is to detract from whatever brought viewers to these channels in the first place. “We really didn’t want to have streamers shape the channel around this programme, because their viewers are drawn to their personality and the content they produce already. So we’re happy to let them stream whatever games they want to play.”
Instead, the goal of the programme is to sustain a community that is open to learning languages; to provide a space where people feel comfortable trying out what they’ve picked up in chat, with the chance to have their favourite streamers respond. “We’re not thinking about it as the streamer teaching their audience necessarily,” Dalsimer says. “We want them to get exposure to language as it’s naturally spoken. We want people hearing native speakers, using phrases and terminology around their hobby that they might normally use, and getting exposure to authentic native accents, which is very useful for training the ear.”
The advantage of Twitch, then, is that it involves both passive and interactive elements: viewers will get to both listen to a language and potentially get feedback on their own efforts. And, of course, Duolingo is right there for those who then want to take the next step. It’s a gentle nudge rather than a shove, in other words, but Dalsimer hopes that this will encourage a new generation of language enthusiasts who’ve been inspired by games and those who play them. “As an anecdotal example, my wife came to the United States when she was six, and she learned English from watching Friends on TV,” he says. “I want to see a future where a few years from now we hear people say they learned English, or Spanish, or whatever it may be, from watching streamers and from playing videogames.”
The company has launched a venture in partnership with Twitch: the Duolingo Verified Streamer Program