Duolingo, the popular language learning app, is turning 10 this year. Over the last decade, the company has been refining its method for teaching languages, which helps users learn through interactive lessons that align with international or national standards. These lessons are adaptable based on individual needs and learning speeds, and importantly, they’re designed to be quick and fun, with gamified features to keep users coming back to the app. They offer a wide variety of languages from French, Spanish, Chinese, Ukrainian, to Zulu.
At Duocon 2022, the company’s 4th annual online language conference, Luis von Ahn, the CEO and co-founder of Duolingo, noted the ways that the app has evolved over the years, and teased where it might go next. The most obvious added features are the ones that make Duolingo more social—including ways for users to follow other people’s progress, or go on “friend quests” together to complete a certain set of lessons.
Beyond language though, Duolingo is trialing something new. Sammi Siegel, a senior software engineer at Duolingo, offered a first look at the company’s math app, which the company teased to multiple outlets last year.
Duolingo’s goal with its math app is to take the methods that it has used to make learning a new language more approachable and enjoyable and use it to make numbers less scary.
A lot of us may have decided in grade school that we’re just not a “math person.” But math skills could be essential to improving a person’s life, Siegel said, and she notes that high math performance is associated with increased income. But math anxiety could impede learning in school, and lead to avoidance of the subject later in life. By teaching important math concepts in an accessible way, Duolingo aims to decrease users’ math anxiety, and inspire more confidence in their skills, so they can reach higher levels in their education at large.
The company’s primary focus is on ele