Why I Quit Duolingo

My longest streak on Duolingo ends here. Find out why I've decided to sever ties with the language-learning app, and why it's for the best.

Believe it or not, I'm okay with learning another language. That was how I had discovered Duolingo, because I wanted to learn a different language. 

However, its in-your-face gamification - the weekly challenges, and trying to raise your XPs (or points earned from completing lessons) - has become repetitive. It's an addiction that keeps you trying to outshine other users. It becomes a game of who can earn the most points in learning a language, rather than its initial purpose of helping people learn a language.

My Experience

Using this app, I was dabbling in a few different languages, including:

• Spanish
• Dutch
• Hebrew
• Korean
• Latin

However, I found myself spending more time with the Dutch language (You'll notice that part of my name "vrouw" means "woman" in Dutch).

Unfortunately, my experience eventually went downhill when I saw that the constant need to rank high in the so-called "Leagues" each week was growing on me. I didn't like it. It was tiresome, repetitive, and not wholesome in the least. Rather than growing in my learning, I was addicted to the gamification that the app had to offer. That's not why I had come to the app in the first place. I wanted to learn a different language.

Calling It Quits

So, one day, after hitting Day 1,142 on the app, I decided that enough was enough. I made the conscious decision to uninstall the app from my Android phone. Upon seeing the "Uninstalling" message on my phone, it felt like a weight was lifted from my chest. That obligation of keeping up with the app daily was gone. 

Post-Duolingo

So, what comes next? 

Well, there are other ways to learn another language. In fact, there are alternatives to Duolingo like Babbel, which I might check out later. Plus, there are other resources like books, shows, and other types of media. While consistency is key when learning a new language, it's still important to keep in mind why you're learning a new language. You don't want to turn it into a game of who can score more points learning a language. Otherwise, the lessons you'll learn will go in one ear and out the other.

Board Kings - Mobile Board Game With Avarice and Bunnies

Courtesy: Jelly Button

Normally, mobile games are those that I would visit once in a blue moon. But with Board Kings, this was a mobile game with various offerings aim at players. This multiplayer game not only pays homage to Monopoly, but it also finds a way to blend animated bunnies with dice, hijinks, and avarice.

The mobile game consists of various activities (some of which we'll cover in future articles):

• Minigames (depending on your current board)
• Stealing coins from other players (while still on your own board)
• A prize wheel (The Daily Bonus)
• Taking the train to go play on other people's boards (and, perhaps, wreak havoc - LOL!)
• Collecting coins from your train
• Visiting the collectible vending machine
• Drawing cards from the deck

The list goes on!

Now, at the time of this blog post, the game has had a recent update commemorating its 4th birthday - since its release date of March 8th, 2017.

As you can imagine, you essentially throw some dice to move all over your board (as you would with typical board games like Monopoly). When you land on blue spaces with (?) marks on them, 

you get to draw a card that can be one of many things:

• Collect coins
• Go to the train to raid other people's boards
• Go steal from people in a set minigame to collect from unsuspecting players
• Roll the dice again
• Big Bertha (I'll let you guys draw your conclusions on what THAT is)

You can also collect purple gems that help you complete certain tasks in the game, if you're short on coins. You'll collect them by satisfying certain conditions in the game.

Plus, you can collect trading cards to place in your scrapbook, or trade. 

If you decide to trade your extra cards (since there will be times when you'll get duplicate cards), you can either trade with friends on social media (i.e. Facebook), or you can spend them on more dice and other perks.

Speaking of perks (because I love perks!) ...

There are many ways to earn coins, dice, and special cards. Earning coins is easy, seeing that you earn coins for every space you move on your board. And sometimes, some of the bunny bystanders will offer you coins (or even dice). 

As for the dice, you're only allowed 50 dice, until you run out. Afterward, you'll have to wait about an hour to get 5 more dice. 

Special cards also exist in this game. Every once in a while, you'll collect red and blue cards. 

• The red cards can only be used on your board - the cards involve giving you added perks (i.e. allowing you to head straight to the train to depart to another player's board).

• The blue cards, on the other hand, can only be used whenever you're on another player's board.

You can either set traps, occupy buildings, leave a gift, etc.

Now, the fun doesn't stop there with Board Kings. However, it's a satisfying way to kill time and have fun playing a board game. Despite its popups bombarding your every time you launch the game, just tapping the screen in the app will get you excited to do many of the things alongside cute bunny characters and mischievous-type quests. Whether you take advantage of the microtransactions or not is your choice, since they're not as overwhelming as the wary budget gamer might suspect.

Things are looking bright for this mobile game. So, stay tuned! There's much more to come on Board Kings!

Until next time ...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw. (I am the gamer_vrouw.)

Dag! (Bye!)