I don’t have deep insight to whether it works or not. But I can say is it gave me the ability to state and understand some basic sentences in an obscure language that I’m interested in.

I can’t talk about Duolingo without emphasizing how annoying their attention getting strategy is. The push notifications, the email and the sentiment contained in both of them are very offputting to me. I get that they try and promote an addictive draw that encourages practice, but they do it in a way that just makes me mad. when I get the notifications it makes me want to stop using it. Further, there’s not like a fast mode. You have to suffer through cute little animations and pop-ups and downright malarkey rather than just charging through.