I have the firm opinion that Duolingo is not only worthless for learning a second language, but has negative benefit value. If language learning is measured on

I have the firm opinion that Duolingo is not only worthless for learning a second language, but has negative benefit value. If language learning is measured on a positive scale from 0 (know nothing of it) to n, with Duolingo it is possible to dip into the negative numbers. I've seen this in my own children. My daughter wants to use it occasionally, because it's like a video game. "Papa, look how long I've had the streak going!" but as that number of days climb into the high double digits, she knows less than what someone would know after their first week of a public school class. And I have no flattering opinions of public school, either. It's Greek lessons are bizarre. I once saw a multiple choice quiz where it asked what the alpha character (the font made it obvious, just the single glyph) was... and the four possible answers were "alpha", "a", "Aay", and (phrase) "the ah sound in caught" (might be misremembering this, but definitely a phrase). What sort of nonsense is that meant to be? How is that not more confusing? What it never did was ever show or teach the Greek alphabet. You never learn the counting numbers. You never learn to conjugate verbs. Other languages are no better, best I can see. If I had to guess, I would think the app is some sort of CIA-inspired conspiracy to prevent Americans from ever learning a language other than English. It pathologically horrible, impossible to describe without sounding melodramatic.