'DuoCards' Makes Learning a Foreign Language Actually Achievable

Spaced repetition is the name of the game on DuoCards

The key to using flashcards most effectively is following something called the Leitner method. I've written about it a lot—you can read a full breakdown here—but the gist of it is this: As you review your flashcard decks, you sort cards into piles, moving cards up a rank or down a rank based on whether you got them right or wrong. These piles ultimately end up getting studied at different intervals, so you review the cards you're getting wrong more often than the ones you're getting right—but you still periodically go over the ones you do know, drilling them deeper into your long-term memory, too. Also known as spaced repetition, this technique is the gold standard for entrenching content into your memory and making sure you don't waste time constantly reviewing things you already know—and that's what DuoCards uses.

You can generate your own cards (more on that in a minute) or use pre-made decks loaded into the app. First, you review about 10 of them, sorting them into "know" or "to learn" piles. Those "to learn" words and phrases become a deck that you then review more seriously, indicating after each answer whether you knew it or not before you flipped the card. The app does the work of determining how often to show you each card based on those responses and once you get them right repeatedly, words and phrases are added to a list of your "known" content.

I like this app a lot because when you flip a card, you hear the pronunciation of the word or phrase. It's a small touch that goes a long way, especially if you're learning on your own without the benefit of a class. It's easy enough to mispronounce words in your native language if you've only read them—to say nothing of how much of a struggle that can be in a new language—so the ability to hear the pronunciations as you review cards is a benefit here.

Gamification is also the name of the game

Another nice feature about DuoCards is that it gamifies your experience just a bit. It's not overly involved or anything, but you get a little mascot named Memo and your job is to earn enough in-game rewards to buy him things. He appears to be an elephant or maybe a woolly mammoth. By creating some flashcards, reviewing a deck, and poking around the app, I earned enough currency to buy him a cave. Soon, I'll have enough to buy him some sunshine, a pond, a few trees, and other outdoor scenery to brighten his life.

It's a small feature but in general I enjoy gamification, so to me, it's a good one. If that's not your thing, you can easily ignore it. It's unobtrusive and not necessary to engage with if your goal is just to review flashcards and watch educational videos, which are also helpfully included in the library tab of the app.

Making flashcards is simple on DuoCards

You can generate your own flashcards a few different ways if you don't want to rely on the pre-made decks that come built in. First, you can tap the + symbol on the bottom right of the home screen of the app: This brings you to a screen that prompts you to enter a foreign-language word that the app will automatically translate for you. It even gives you examples of how and when you'd use that word. Then, all you do is hit "save" and you've created a card. You can import word lists here, too, and as long as there's a hard break between lines, the app will recognize that you're making multiple cards. That's not true for every flashcard app; some of them will turn a word list into one big, long flashcard instead of recognizing that each line should be represented by its own card, so good on DuoCards for making that easier.

You can also use the Chrome extension on your computer browser to generate cards. As long as you're signed into the same account across both of your devices, they'll appear in your mobile app right away. Highlight a word on a website, right-click it, and select "DuoCards" from the menu that appears. Another browser tab will open and show you the same screen you can access when you create your own card in the mobile app, with the foreign-language input text box pre-filled with the word you selected and highlighted on the webpage. Again, just hit "save" and it will be added to your flashcards.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

This works in your phone browser, too. Highlight a word, long press it, and hit "share" in the menu that pops up. From there, hit DuoCards in the list of generated apps and, once again, the screen for creating flashcards will pop up.

The chatbot feature is helpful

You can also talk with a chatbot in your chosen language, which is a feature I think is pretty nice. You can ask questions about the language, like what the difference is between certain words or when you might use a specific phrase. The bot responds in the foreign language, both in text and audio, but if you struggle to read it, you can hit a translate button that shows you the response in English.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

It also provides you with prompts so you don't have to think of your questions on your own. Overall, the feature is great for practicing typing and writing in a foreign language and maintaining a conversation, plus getting specific questions answered.

There is some lag

I noticed a few times when I opened the app that it took a chunk of time to load. At other times, if I had it open and then locked my phone screen or switched to another app, I couldn't press any buttons when I returned to DuoCards. It wasn't a huge deal—and could absolutely be an issue with my phone more than the app—but it took me by surprise and is worth mentioning.

You'll have to pay to unlock all the features

The app comes with a free version, which is what I used to review it, and with that, you'll get ads, plus the limited ability to only store 20 cards in your "to learn" category and only 10 questions for your chatbot. If you pay $33 for three months or $64.90 for the year, you get rid of the ads, access unlimited flashcards, and can chat nonstop with the AI bot.

Unfortunately, 20 cards and 10 chatbot questions aren't really enough to learn a language or study efficiently, so DuoCards is one of those apps you'll have to pay for if you want to use it to the highest level of efficiency.