Duolingo App Review – The fun way to learn language

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I do not consider myself much of a linguist and that is surely not for lack of trying. I have on more than one occasion attempted the Pimsleur Language Guides or found myself buying phrase books only for them to collect dust on my bookshelves. My best friend, who is a linguist, spent hours torturing me with language CD’s in her car on the way out to a party. So far I can say only one sentence in 5 languages. Great help that does for when I actually need to say something it will be ‘Hi my name is’ or ‘Where is the bathroom?’.

I was a bit reluctant to now have to attempt another language learning programme. Duolingo is an application for your phone that you can sync to an account you create with them to track your progress. You can learn English, Spanish, French, Italian, German or Portuguese. The course is designed to be fun and let me tell you that from someone with my language history, this app is Awesome! The course work is designed in such a way that each phase you do only takes a few minutes at most.

I decided to tackle Spanish and found myself really entertained and absorbed for about 20 minutes just trying to get past phase 1. You get little hearts that accumulate at the top for each question you get right. If you do not get enough then you do not advance. The course has a really incredible layout with such stunning graphics.

Phase 1 takes you through pictures where you select the correct words, every click on the answer will say the word out in that language. You can also have an opportunity to translate the sentence and it all is really easy. There is a section where you select the missing word from multiple choice answers or translate the sentence. If you do not get enough hearts then a very sad owl tells you that you did not make it.

By simply just scrolling through the course material you will be so excited to see how they have laid everything out. The course starts with basics and divides all the material into such interesting sub categories. If you feel you know the work there is even an option to take a shortcut and advance to the level that is best suited to your language experience.

I am now for the first time really excited to learn a new language and not feel like a complete moron repeating phrases over and over again. Duolingo is designed with such great imagery and an extremely fun way of learning. It has now become a game to advance to the next level in each language and I am so entertained doing it.

This app should be commended for making such a useful way of learning and for making it so much easier to understand. I look forward to the hours of fun I am about to have learning a language that seemed so difficult before.

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Slingshot App Review – So disappointed

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Well I know I must probably stand as a minority when it comes to disliking this app as the exceeding popularity grows daily.Slingshot is pretty much the same concept as Snapchat and is just as simple to use with only one real function, to capture images.

You take a picture and send it to a friend. Here is the catch, your friend is only able to view the picture once they ‘sling’ a picture back to you. You can upload pictures from your gallery or one that you take on the spot, it is your choice. The idea is fun if you are looking for a game to play with your friends. There are just unfortunately far too many varieties of apps on the market that do the same thing built in.



The true genius behind this app is the way they have taken advantage of human curiosity. As human beings you cannot have someone send you a blank picture that you cannot see and not keep wondering what it looks like. They must have spent more time and money developing on the brain science instead of the app itself.

Our need to know now becomes a pain in our side for those who are too busy to be sending images back and forth. The developers know however that not knowing will just drive us insane until we see succumb and capture an image so we can see what we were sent.

I do believe there are people who would enjoy this app and have enough time to get really interesting with it, oh wait, that is not possible. The app has not got any photo editing tools or added features of any kind. So if want to send an edited picture you need to use a different app and then share it. In my opinion this defeats the point as people LOVE to edit and play around with their photos. It just seems like far too much effort when I can just send my friends pictures over Whatsapp, Line or Facebook as I have always done.

I tried to download this app about a week ago but it was not available in my country until about two days ago. What a really big disappointment, I really expected more than what I have encountered from this app thus far. The developers justify not adding any extra tools to ensure it runs faster. In my opinion if I have nothing to do all day but send pictures to my friends, time is not really my concern or how fast it works.

Maybe in time I will find a better use for this app but for now I am too busy enjoying my life instead of spamming it with others. I do tend to prefer apps that are more practical but I can think of at least five that are more practical than this with the same functions. Instagram already owns the photo market so Slingshot should just quit while they are behind as there is no chance for decent competition here.

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