Duolingo gets serious (or not) with Asian languages
The psychopathic Duolingo owl, the one that threatens you with passive-aggressive notifications if you don’t practice French at 3 AM, has just upped the ante. The platform, famous for making you repeat “the cat drinks milk” in 20 languages while you question your life decisions, launched 148 new courses. Yes, 148. As if it wasn’t enough that we already felt guilty for abandoning Norwegian in lesson 2.
Goodbye to “learn from English”, hello to “learn without suffering”
Finally, Spanish speakers will be able to learn Korean, Chinese and Japanese without first having to master English. In other words, Duolingo understood that not all of us are frustrated polyglots who watch K-dramas with Portuguese subtitles. The app used generative AI (I’m sure ChatGPT did their homework) to adapt existing courses. Translation: Now the owl will yell at you in Spanish when you forget to write “arigato” with kanji.
Kim de Anda, the marketing director of Duolingo Latam, said it with all the millennial irony possible: “We want learning to be fun and effective”. Of course, because nothing is more fun than a daily reminder that your 7-day Japanese streak will die if you don’t open the app within the next 27 minutes.
How to start? (spoiler: the owl is watching you)
The process is simple:
1. Download the app (obviously).
2. Choose between Korean, Chinese or Japanese (or all three, if you like chaos).
3. Answer psychological test-type questions: “Do you already know something?” (we lie: “yes, I know how to say ‘hello’ in anime”).
4. Prepare for Duolingo to assign you a level according to your actual knowledge (i.e. absolute beginner).
And be careful, because the new courses include immersive functionalities:
– Stories: So you can read surreal dialogues like “the penguin buys bread” in kanji.
– DuoRadio: Podcasts that will probably teach you how to order takeout before showing up.
Of course, they promise advanced content in 2025. That is, just when we have abandoned 90% of our New Year’s resolutions.
The future: Duolingo teaching us to survive in a K-drama?
With this move, Duolingo clearly wants to compete with the “learn Japanese in 5 minutes” influencers. And even if your method is more effective than memorizing phrases from Attack on Titan, we will still fear your notifications. Because let’s be honest: no one wants an animated owl judging our discipline.
Ready to challenge the owl? Share this news and tag that friend who swore to learn Korean “to understand BTS without subtitles.” And if you were left wanting more, explore our other articles on how to survive language learning without losing your sanity (or streak).
Note: Duolingo is not responsible if you end up speaking a mix of three languages on your next trip. #SorryNotSorry
