The gamification part of the app works well, until you make a break. For me it was when I stopped using it because it basically felt like breaking off an addict

The gamification part of the app works well, until you make a break. For me it was when I stopped using it because it basically felt like breaking off an addiction, and I didn't want to go back. So it kept me using it for a while, but ultimately it pushed me away from it. My motivation was a trip to a foreign country, and maybe I would've kept at it after it was over, but as it is, I didn't. From my experience then it seems their goal is less language learning, and more engagement in a typical social network kind of way. I think the app is technically also really good, and in general pleasant to use. And I think it's not a bad way to learn because you can immerse yourself more than by going to a school where a teacher tries to explain things to you. Doing homework is really important, and Duolingo is basically all homework. How much did I learn in about a month and a half of 30mins per day? Can't say after two years of not using the language at all, but at the time it was enough to get a sense of something if the menu was not in english etc. And when I was in the countryside (in Italy), I was looking for somebody and the mother of the person said just "ape", and I knew that they're taking care of the bees. And recently I walked next to a new Italian restaurant in town, and at the entrance it said "la nostra cucina ________ (forgot what)" and I was like, oh, I know what that means. So it's not much, but it's not nothing.