I've been learning French on the Duolingo app for over a year now — here's what it's like to use the app

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Many often count learning a new language among their New Year's resolutions, and given how we live in the digital age, many require an app for such a task.

Enter Duolingo. The platform is one of the most popular language-learning apps in the world with 23 languages available and several more in the works.

After getting several recommendations to use Duolingo for learning a language, I embarked on teaching myself French in 2016. Just over one year later, I may not be a master at French, but I've learned a lot about the language, and the app itself.

Here's a bit about my experience with Duolingo and some advice on how to tackle learning a new language using the app.

It took me a little over a year to complete the entire course

I started learning French on Duolingo in October 2016 and completed the entire course about two weeks ago. I am currently at 66% proficiency, according to the app.

I chose French because Czech wasn't available

I decided to start using Duolingo ahead of a trip to Prague. I'd hoped to learn a few Czech phrases before my trip, but Czech wasn't available at that time.

Having already downloaded the app, I decided to study French, which is the language I studied in college. Like many, I didn't remember anything from my college study.

Duolingo added a Czech course in September 2017, which I may investigate at a later time.

My level of study is currently set to "Serious"

Every lesson in the Duolingo app gives you experience points (XP). You get 10 XP per lesson, but you can choose how many lessons you want per day. Casual is one lesson per day, Regular is two, Serious is three, and Insane is five lessons in a day.

I have my daily goal set to Serious, which requires completing three lessons daily, but I'll often do more lessons if I have the time, typically around five or six. At one point I had my daily goal set to Insane, but I found I'd slack off when I knew I was on the hook for five lessons a day.

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