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Six Months into My Year-Long Duolingo Challenge

Duolingo AppIt’s no secret that I love duolingo, the free language learning app. I’ve written about it, tweeted about it, and facebooked about it. Heck, if you’ve spoken with me in person (in Spanish, un poco), I’ve probably mentioned how much I enjoy the app. My friend Vanessa even asked if I was now working for the company based on how much I talk about it.

Here’s the thing. I actually enjoy learning new things. Call me a dork or a geek, fine. I’ve always wanted to be fluent in multiple languages, or hey, maybe at least an additional language other than English.

So when I discovered this app, I jumped right in. I “played” as much as possible, and at first, I played most every day. When I searched online to learn more about the software, I discovered that there are other features online at duolingo.com. That’s when I learned that I could earn more points (called lingots) buy challenging myself to use the app everyday for a week. Sure why not?

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Double or Nothing.

Well, one successful week came and went and I discovered that you are awarded extra lingots for each 10-day streak.

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10 day streaks

So by this point, I found myself hooked on earning lingots (oh, and on learning Spanish, too). And that’s when I thought I’d try something crazy.

I challenged myself to take at least one lesson every day for a year. That’s 365 days, in a row, of learning Spanish. That was exactly six months ago today. Yay me, right?  ¿Es verdad?

So, six months in, how am I doing? What have I learned? It turns out, I’ve learned quite a bit. According to duolingo.com, I’ve learned 829 words and am more than halfway to Level 13 (there are a max of 25 levels and you need more and more XPs, duolingo’s term for points, to advance levels).

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My Spanish progress after six months using Duolingo.


I’ve earned tons of lingots, mostly via 10-day streaks and by completing the double-or-nothing challenges.

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Close to 300 lingots after half a year of duolingo.

I’ve used the lingots to “purchase” timed practices and a couple progress quizzes. As you can see, I’ve more than doubled my proficiency in the last six months:

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I’ve doubled my proficiency in six months.

But time will tell how well I’m actually doing when I’m in Spain for my western Mediterranean cruise in a couple months.

Looking forward, I’m getting a little worried that I won’t have time while on the cruise and in Europe to do a lesson every day. By that point, I’ll be close to nine months into my year-long challenge so duolingo-ing every day may be even more ingrained in me. Wish me luck!

Do you duolingo? What is the longest duolingo streak you’ve been on?

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