Language Apps: Babbel Versus DuoLingo

The pros and cons of each

First of all, despite what some commentators have said, a language-learning app can help you to learn a new language. Relying on any one app alone, however, will result in a very restricted grasp of the language even if you reach B2 level. But as a component of language-learning, along with various YouTube resources and books and magazines and TV shows and movies, a language-learning app can help round out your ability to become reasonably capable and able to cope with nearly every aspect of quotidian life.

I discovered DuoLingo a few years ago thanks to my then-stepdaughter and it seemed a useful way to keep my Russian from fading while topping up my French and learning Spanish. Which brings us to one of Duolingo’s advantages: you can study multiple languages at the same time. Babbel, alas, restricts the user to a single language option at a time.

DuoLingo also offers a free version in which you start each day with five “hearts” and a heart is removed for each mistake you make. So there’s a limit to how much you can accomplish in a day, and after a year you’ll discover you get fewer and fewer heart refills as the algorithm tries to push you into a subscription.

DuoLingo has spent a lot of time and effort gamifying language learning, which may make sense for…