Our 15-year-old decided she wanted to learn Japanese, so she found an app that could teach it to her. She then challenged her sister to learn her choice of language, Hebrew, and me to learn my choice: French. Every day, she asks me, “Did you practice your French today?” My answer is usually no (I haven’t created a habit for it yet!). But since her answer is always yes, she has learned so much Japanese in the past few months, I’m astonished! She’s writing in Japanese, reading Japanese, and walks around the house saying phrases in Japanese!
Since it was so easy – and free – I thought I’d share the app, and website, with you! The program is called Duolingo. It is used by many schools and even some governments for language learning. It’s 100% free (forever free, they ensure), and I can tell you from our experience, it produces great results!
Which Languages are Available?
Here are some of the languages available to native English speakers who want to learn another language:
- Spanish
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Chinese
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Portuguese
Many other languages are available, including Hawaiian, Welsh, Hindi, Irish, and Polish.
How it works
You’ll choose a language to learn. Duolingo then asks you to “Choose Your Path” — you’ll choose either Basics 1 or you’ll take a Placement Test.
You’ll then create a daily goal of how much time you can give the program: 5 minutes or more.
Each day, you’ll receive a reminder (unless you opt out), asking you to come by to meet your daily goal.
Your daily lessons consist of auditory and written learning. Sometimes, you’ll speak the language you’re learning; and sometimes you’ll speak in English what you’re reading in the other language. Sometimes, you’ll type in responses.
To Begin Learning with these Free Foreign Language Courses
Visit Duolingo! Or look in the app store, if you’d prefer (you can choose both!).
Just curious…do you know if duolingo could qualify for high school foreign language credit?
I use it for our own high school foreign language credit. I went off the basis of what I learned in French class in my own public high school experience. :) Our 16yo enjoys Duolingo so much, she learns more than I would assign, but if your child isn’t as motivated in language learning (ie. he has other interests), then assign by time or by lesson to make sure it equals a public high school course.