Today I hit the illustrious milestone of a 100-day streak
on Duolingo. While this number is slightly misleading, as I did use the “streak-freeze”
option to save me on a few particularly busy days, for the most part I’ve used
the app every day for the past 100 days.
I started using the app again this summer in order to
brush up on my French in preparation for volunteering on a bilingual camp in
Belgium. I’ve been learning French practically all my life, so the app was simply
a way to refresh what I already knew.
After I got my French up to speed, though, I decided to
switch tack and try learning some Spanish. I was, somewhat embarrassingly,
rather nervous about trying a new language. Other than French, I’d never tried
learning a new language, and I didn’t (don’t!) consider myself particularly
good at languages. I knew Duolingo was good for refreshing a language, but I
doubted it would be good for learning.
Fast-forward several months, and Duolingo now claims that
I’m 37% fluent in Spanish. I highly doubt that’s true, but I can confidently
state that I have some Spanish skill,
whereas two months ago I had absolutely none. I know some basic verbs (tengo,
quiero), some helpful food vocabulary (pescado, ensalada), and I’m starting to
get a feel for sentence structure. I would definitely still struggle in a
proper conversation with a Spanish speaker, but I’d be able to order dinner in
a restaurant without an English menu.
While I’m still a long ways away from fluency in Spanish,
it is really exciting to go from nothing to basic proficiency in just two
months, especially considering I spent only ten minutes a day working through
two quick lessons. I never sat down with a thick textbook and poured through
lists of conjugations. All I did was take a few minutes every day that I
probably would have wasted on facebook anyways and instead open up the Duolingo
app.
It amazes me just how much we can accomplish by just dedicating
a few minutes every day. How taking five minutes before bed every night for
journaling has filled a dozen volumes over a few years. How 100 days on
duolingo grants me basic proficiency in a whole new language. How writing for
an hour every evening results in a 119,000-word novel in two months.
As I prepare for NaNoWriMo again this November, it really
helps to see how far I’ve managed to get in Duolingo with just a few minutes a
day. Writing a novel, like learning a language, is a mammoth task, and it’s so encouraging
to be reminded of how much we can do by just keeping at it every day.
