Issue of the day: The Duolingo Gaelic effect

IT’S the language-learning app that claims users can learn a language in just five minutes a day that has seen flocks of people keen to learn Gaelic since it launched on St Andrew’s Day last year – more than the number of people who already speak the language.

But what is the app and how does it work?

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a free website and app that can be downloaded on Iphone and Android and is valued at more than $.51 billion – £38bn – thanks to its global popularity. Through word identification and a series of listening exercises, users are invited to learn basic language skills that upscale as you move through levels earning rewards.

How does it work?

Developers claim languages can be picked up in only five minutes a day while users claim varying timescales for becoming proficient in their chosen lingo.

Research indicates it takes 480 hours to reach fluency in group 1 languages (French, German, Italian and Spanish), and 720 hours for group 2-4 languages (Persian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Chinese and Korean).

Putting in 10 hours a day to learn a language, to achieve basic fluency in the easy languages takes around 48 days, and for difficult languages 72 days.

How many languages can you learn?

There are 94 different language courses in 23 languages available including Latin, Navajo, Mandarin, Swahili, Esperanto, Yiddish and Klingon. Scottish Gaelic was aptly introduced on St Andrew’s Day last year.

Pre-launch, Duolingo revealed that nearly 20,000 people signed up ahead of its release. Recent figures show more than 127,000 people have signed up since its introduction and the app is being hailed as one factor in a resurgence of interest in the language.

Which is most popular?

English for speakers of Spanish, Spanish for speakers of English, French for speakers of English and English for speakers of Portuguese are the most popular languages studied.

English speaking Latin learners amount to around 550,00;

366,000 English speakers have attempted to learn Star Trek’s Klingon and 304,000 English speakers have logged on to learn Navajo.

Can the app make you fluent?

Duolingo has been criticised for its lack of effectiveness. Its top executives are claimed to have managed to grasp less than basic terms after six months of study. The developers themselves say that a Duolingo course alone “absolutely cannot” make anyone fluent but claim that on it users “can achieve limited basic fluency, as in very basic, but that’s hardly a good definition.”

How many people use the app?

In 2018, it was reported that Duolingo had more than 300 million users worldwide but with most of those being termed as stagnant, it’s thought to have around 25 million active users per day.