From a 2019 Forbes article [0] > Duolingo has gotten bad press from writers who try the app and don’t learn much. But Von Ahn promises only to get users to a l

From a 2019 Forbes article [0] > Duolingo has gotten bad press from writers who try the app and don’t learn much. But Von Ahn promises only to get users to a level between advanced beginner and early intermediate. “A significant portion of our users use it because it’s fun and it’s not a complete waste of time,” he says. > He’s been logging 15 to 20 minutes of French every day since November, and when asked to describe what he did the previous weekend he says, “Je fais du sport. Je suis mange avec mes amis. Je suis boire du biere en un bar,” mangling his tenses. (Rough translation: I play sports, I am eat with my friends. I am drink beer in a bar.) > Bob Meese, Duolingo’s 42-year-old chief revenue officer, has been studying Duolingo Spanish for more than six months. In response to the question, “¿Hablas español?” he freezes, then says, “Could you repeat that?” [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/07/16/game-of-tongues-how-duolingo-built-a-700-million-business-with-its-addictive-language-learning-app/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/07/16/game-of-t... --- Also, having worked in the language learning industry myself, readers may be curious to learn that Duolingo is seen as a pariah that no one takes seriously as a learning tool. And I'm not one to use the term "scam" lightly, but if that word is to mean anything, then it definitely applies to Duolingo!