Is it useful when you travel?
Is duoLingo of use prior to leaving on your travels to foreign lands? Well that all depends. Where are you traveling to? What type of traveler are you? How long are you going for? Why are you traveling?
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I practiced on DuoLingo everyday for 6 months before a recent trip to Spain and then to Central America. Walking the Camino in Spain for 6 weeks is not a fair sample of the ability of most Spaniards English fluency. Most pilgrims on the Camino speak English so if you are a business operator on the Camino it is in your interest to get a handle on basic English. (Only 65% of Spaniards speak any English and those that do speak it do not speak it well. The percentages jump drastically on the Camino among business operators). This can be said of most popular tourist destinations in the non-English speaking world. If you want to chat with a farmer over the fence along your way the chances of being able to communicate beyond charades are slim.
If you plan to visit somewhere like Nepal or Myanmar, your chances of bumping into an English speaker are diminished even more. If you are taking a 2 week holiday to Germany, France, Italy or many Northern European countries you are most likely not going to NEED their lingo. The same can be said for an all-inclusive vacation to Mexico. So it greatly depends on the destination, nature and duration of your trip.
Destination
If you are planning travelling through Indonesia there are over 700 living languages. I expect few people if anyone is going to speak all of them. However, Malay is the most commonly spoken and it is reputedly one of the easiest for English speakers to learn. If you are going hiking in some remote part of Kazakhstan, chances are you will not have much joy finding English spoken. I was talking to a Kazakh recently and he recommended employing a guide as, without Kazakh, its difficult to get around the country. Russian and Kazakh are some of the most difficult languages to learn for an English speaker. Of course, the difficulty of the language is going to affect how much time you will need to invest in learning it before you go.
City dwellers anywhere in the world are more likely to speak more than one language than country folk. A few years ago we spent 3 weeks in the Netherlands. Although over 90% of Dutch are able to converse in English, but as we were in a small rural town, many local people knew little or no English. This disparity, in multilingual abilities, between city and country is consistent around the world.
Some countries have single language that is spoken throughout. If you plan on traveling to Turkey then you will only need Turkish. Less than a fifth of the population of Turkey speak any English. Depending on the nature and duration of your journey it may be advantageous to learn some Turkish. DuoLingo offer Turkish as one of their 30 complete courses for English speakers. See below for a complete list.
Type of Travel
Are you an independent traveler? If so, you are likely going to want to be able to communicate and negotiate fares, food and accommodation in the native language of your destination. This is the very definition of independent travel. Its fun and challenging to find your own way and offers an intimacy with the locals to enrich your experience of a place.
If you are on a cruise or a organised tour with guides, chances are you will be one step removed from the locals and the locals you are interacting with will often be employed as English speakers. Mostly there is little opportunity to practice your second language skills and your Duolingo will be for little.
How long are you going for?
If you are planning a one week beach holiday in Mexico, its hardly worth the trouble to spend much time brushing up on your Spanish. If you are planning on spending 6 months in Japan working or studying then chances are time spent get some basic language will be worthwhile. Spending the first six weeks unable to ask where the toilet is or where can I buy a coffee will not get you off to a great start. Get a head-start and get more from your travels from the moment you arrive.
Languages currently offered on DuoLingo
Other language learning apps
Duolingo isn't the only show in town, but it is by far the most downloaded. Some argue that similar apps are better. Some of these are also free.
Duolingo is free. There is a 'Plus' upgrade with no ads and a few extras. It may not make you fluent but it certainly opens the doors to a more rich foreign experience and its a fun way to learn.
