Gamification of Learning
Alright! My Japanese learning is 2 weeks deep now. I am using a variety of tools but currently liking Duolingo a lot, mostly because of its gamification nature. I have purchased a paid family plan and my kids in it too. I am noticing my younger is more heavily into it. To her, this is just like candy crush or bottle pop! So, be it! It is certainly better than playing games on her phone or ipad, or watching movies or YouTube over the weekend.
As per my performance, I can say that I haven't given up yet! That is saying something! In fact, I can demonstrate that I practice some every single day. I think without Duolingo that alone would have been hard for me. Since the app is phone based and individual lessons are only 3-min long. I can do one quickly between things, on a break during workday, during lunch, during lounging after work, even just before bed and right after waking up. I have done all of them on multiple days. That alone is worth the subscription.
| Plan | Target User | Key Features | Price (Approximate Annual USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo (Free) | Individual | Full access to lessons, basic language courses. | \$0 |
| Super Duolingo | Individual | All Free features, plus: Ad-free learning, Unlimited Hearts, Mistake Review/Personalized Practice, Unlimited Legendary attempts, Offline Access. | ~$59.99 - \$84.00/year |
| Super Duolingo Family Plan | Up to 6 Users | All Super Duolingo features for up to six individuals. | ~$119.88 - \$119.99/year |
| Duolingo Max | Individual | All Super Duolingo features, plus AI-powered features like: Explain My Answer, Roleplay, and sometimes Video Call with Lily (availability depends on course/platform). | ~$168.00/year |
| Duolingo Max Family Plan | Up to 6 Users | All Duolingo Max features for up to six individuals. (If Max AI features are not supported for a user's course, they still get all Super Duolingo benefits). | ~$200.00 - \$240.00/year |
I currently have the Family plan for $120/yr. For a four member family, that is $30/yr each. There is a very popular and effective free version that 80% of the learners are using. So if anyone wants to try, that is a very good option to test out. The free version is ad-supported, but it has full access to all lessons.
They also send a weekly report, which is helpful, because this is the only place you can see the time you spend on the app actively working. This is important because XP is not directly proportional to minutes. Clearly, my second week was better, but I don't have high hopes that the third will be better than the second. Doing this more than 30 min/day, everyday is a steep ask.
What Else?
As a supplement to Duolingo, I have now settled on the NHK podcast. It is available on Apple podcast, which I use a lot. There are 48 episodes, and I am at Lesson 5.
I have gone through these 5 lessons many times. I sometimes just listen. While other times, I listen and follow along the text, which I find very useful.
When I can sit down in front of a computer and have free time. I typically listen and follow along the text from the website. The text me easily readable on the phone screen as well, and I have done that too.
In addition to that, I am also practicing Hiragana on paper at the moment. I can only say that I am confident with the vowels so far. I have filled up many practice sheets, but retention is low at the moment. The important item from my point of view is the quality of resources that are available today. I tried learning Spanish about 20 years back as an adult. I wish I had this many resources available then, I think I would have made more progress. Will see, how this one goes.
