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Learning Italian has always been something I have wanted to do, along with a visit to Italy itself one day! My dad’s grandfather was Italian before moving to England, marrying an English woman and was a merchant seaman during the First World War.

I saw that one of my friends was using Duolingo so I downloaded the app and am now addicted!

There are 5 icons at the bottom of the screen to help navigate the app. First is your progress in your chosen course. Complete lessons to earn crowns and XP as well as the enjoyment of learning!

The following icon is stories that are unlocked as you collect crown. These are tricky! The language used does not correspond to the progress in the main part of the course. There are questions with muliptle choice answers to complete and also earn XP.

Next is your profileand after that is the leagues. These are super competitive! I finshed the bronze league in second poisition last week and am curently the same in the silver league but am hoping to get the top spot!

The final icon is the shop where you can get free gems every hour and them spend them. You have 5 hearts and when they run out you either need to use gems to purchase more or complete practice lessons which also earn you XP.

There are lots of ads. Duolingo offers a preminum version with unlimited lives and additional extras including removal of ads. This is not something I would opt for although a free trial is offered.

I am really please with my progress in Italian. My understanding isn’t too bad so far although I have trouble remembering not to make the French sound for ‘un’!

There is the option to have speaking and listening exercises in the lessons. I have chosen to include listening but not speaking as I tend to learn throughout the day so speaking might not always be easy with the kids around!

I love some of the sentences that are included. Duolingo has a great set of pictures to help with remembering or guessing the words!  I find the grammar a bit tricky to remember as I have now passed the first checkpoint. Trying to remember the masculine and feminine, when nel or nello are used and the correct choice for possession is hard work!

Each lesson is scored as a percentage and each question gives you words of encouragement or the correct answer if required.

I am planning on completing my Duolingo Italian course but have no idea how long it will take. I then intend to brush up on my rusty French and German before having a go at Spanish. I’m also quite tempted by Welsh…

Can you speak any languages? Have you tried Duolingo or any other language app?