This semester, I have spent over twenty
hours of my time on an app called Duolingo. This has allowed me to improve my Spanish
skills immensely, as I have done varying exercises each day in order to learn
more. I have become familiar with everything from verbs to food to people and places
to flirting and more. I have a 43-day streak going as of today, and I hope to
continue to grow in my knowledge of Spanish, especially because I won’t be able
to minor in Spanish like I had originally hoped to do.
The app itself was very helpful. It
was interesting enough to keep my attention and focus. Also, it sent me an
email each day reminding me to continue my streak. Each exercise had different
way of learning because you would have to translate Spanish to English, English
to Spanish, match Spanish and English word translations, listen to a Spanish
sentence and type it out, and even repeat back Spanish sentences using the microphone
on your cell phone. It gave you all types of ways to commit the words to memory
and to really make the words stick. Additionally, as you progress in level, the
app would encourage you to go back and practice the exercises you had already completed
to help you remember the words easier. There was also a reward system. If you
met your daily quota of how many exercises you signed up to do for the day, you
got to claim a reward, which were little ‘gems’ you could use to purchase special
things to help you. Overall, the app was very helpful and user friendly, and I even
got my boyfriend to use it to help him practice German.
All in all, I believe I spent my twenty-hour
semester project well. I had a lot of fun learning more about Spanish, and now I
can bother my boyfriend more by speaking more Spanish at him. I will definitely
continue to use Duolingo and also recommend it to my friends. Although I wish
my first plan for the semester project had worked out, I do think this was very
rewarding and very fun!
