I really enjoyed your opinionated article. You put the finger on the weak spot of Duolingo: It's an ineffective way of learning a language. With the advent of AI they, we see a lot of different approaches pop up that might actually be more enjoyable and which might put Duolingo in jeopardy.
However, you also touch upon an other interesting point, namely that learning a language involves many skills, that even differ from language to language. One app pretending to learn it all probably won't work.
I have been making my own language learning app (lingo llama, check out the site :)), and learned the hard way that actually learning a language is not straightforward, and very different for every user. For example, if you want to learn Spanish, and already know Portuguese, you want a different approach then if you come from Japanese. Maybe using tools to learn parts of the language is the way to go.
However, you also touch upon an other interesting point, namely that learning a language involves many skills, that even differ from language to language. One app pretending to learn it all probably won't work.
I have been making my own language learning app (lingo llama, check out the site :)), and learned the hard way that actually learning a language is not straightforward, and very different for every user. For example, if you want to learn Spanish, and already know Portuguese, you want a different approach then if you come from Japanese. Maybe using tools to learn parts of the language is the way to go.
Anyway, I liked your read, thanks!