Duolingo is breaking users’ language courses, and it’s exactly why I quit

This kind of disruption remains a core reason I left the app in the first place. I’ve been free of the green bird for almost a year — but my dissatisfaction with Duolingo started when a course update ruined my learning progress.

This particular update is attracting so much attention because of how many users have been affected. In April, Duolingo announced upcoming upgrades to its English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese courses. However, these upgrades take place continuously across courses, usually on a smaller scale.

According to the Duolingo FAQ, “Duolingo continuously updates courses to make them better and more effective.” As a result, users will find new material in their courses. They are also occasionally repositioned on their learning path. However, the company undersells how disruptive this can be.

As some users are currently experiencing, you may find completely new vocabulary in your current lessons. The app often treats this new vocabulary as already learned, meaning you’re expected to translate it right away without an introduction. And since you’re penalized for mistakes, this can significantly mess up your learning.

Others are finding that previous units are marked as completed even though they never did them. Conversely, other users are now receiving lessons that are far too simple for their level.

When I was still deep in my Duolingo streak, I received a similar course update that completely disrupted my progress. I suddenly found myself in lessons where a bunch of new vocabulary was taken for granted. Since I was learning Chinese at the time, this meant it included not only unfamiliar words but also new characters to learn.

Some might tell you to simply tap on a word to learn its meaning. But for the Chinese course, it wasn’t as simple as this. The app often gave you the meaning of a group of words. Because Chinese uses certain characters to denote the past or a point in time (rather than verb agreement), this becomes incredibly confusing as it simply translates a chunk of words rather than explaining specific characters.

I tried going back to earlier lessons to see if I could pinpoint where the new vocabulary was introduced. But even revision lessons included unfamiliar words and concepts from newer units, rather than focusing on the topic for that section of the learning path.

I became overwhelmed, constantly making mistakes, and unable to learn the concepts I needed to move forward. At the same time, I wanted to keep up my streak as some feeble attempt to feel accomplished during a time when I was dealing with burnout and health issues. Eventually, to keep my streak alive, I switched to the Hanzi practice, which consisted of simply identifying and drawing out Chinese characters.

This accomplished my goal of keeping my streak going, but it stifled my learning considerably. At least with the characters, though, the app showed me which ones I hadn’t learned, giving me a way to navigate through the vocabulary I hadn’t encountered.

I never got out of that learning slump that the course update created. I could at least progress with characters, but I knew that I wasn’t advancing as much as I wanted. Over the next few weeks, I learned no new conversation skills or topics, just standalone words that I couldn’t really put to use.

Eventually, I received the new energy system in Duolingo. I had been unhappy with the app since the course update, with only my streak keeping me tied to the daily habit. Since the energy system made mistakes more costly and made correct answers insufficient to keep you learning, I finally gave up on the app. It was the final straw in a decline that started with a routine update by the company.

If you’re one of the users affected by the latest updates, you might be looking for Duolingo alternatives that can keep your language learning going. Which app you choose will largely depend on what language you’re learning and whether you want a free or paid service.

You might also choose to stick around, using workarounds like I did to maintain a streak despite the disrupted progress. There’s also the option to completely reset your course by deleting and re-adding it to your account. But if you’ve made significant progress and don’t want to lose all your XP and start from scratch, this is an unattractive option.

While the commotion around Duolingo’s courses has reaffirmed my decision to leave the app, I sympathize with those who are experiencing how disruptive these updates can be. I miss spending a bit of time each day learning something new, but the frustration I experienced while using the app just wasn’t worth it.