Duolingo: a gaming app or a learning app? ¿Por qué no los dos? Why not both? We all know that Duolingo is set up a lot like a game. This is why you're doing your lesson before a meeting, on the bus, or even on the dance floor. Gamification is a huge part of what makes it so fun and easy to learn with us. In any Duolingo lesson, you're gaining knowledge, but you're also drawing connections, making progress on your path, encountering fun characters, and competing against other learners. Now, these game-like elements help you to return day after day. But what if you could go deeper into Duolingo? What if you could become Eddy? Or Zari! Or Lily. I'm Kate Barker, a Senior Learning Designer, and it's my great pleasure to introduce to you a revolutionary, new video-game-like learning experience from Duolingo:

Adventures. Want to prepare your language skills for the real world? Try Duolingo Adventures, a new, immersive way to practice common conversations like ordering at a café... going shopping at a local store... and even dealing with those awkward, unexpected moments. Prepare your language skills for the real world, without all the pressure. Start learning today with Adventures on Duolingo. For the first time, you can now dive into the world of Duolingo, interacting with our characters in real-life storylines and practicing your communication skills, all while exploring amazing and fun new environments. It's really like nothing you've seen on Duolingo before. Picture this: you're sitting on your couch, and you're doing your French lesson, and then suddenly, you're ordering a croissant at a café in France, without ever having to step on a plane. With Adventures, you get to play as one of our Duolingo World Characters,

and you're placed within a familiar scenario, like ordering a cup of coffee, getting everything on your shopping list, or getting some help at the airport. Putting into practice everything you've learned in your language lessons, you interact with the other characters and the environment to achieve your goal. Now, let's start with some of the language that you'll be looking at. Not only is this the first time that our learners will truly enter the worlds that we've created, but now you can use all that language that you've acquired, and you can use it in real environments and useful contexts, letting you apply that knowledge to the kinds of situations you might really encounter someday. So, for example, you might start an Adventure as Oscar and be given this familiar task: get directions to the movie theater. You likely already know many of the words and phrases needed to accomplish this task, but now, you're putting your knowledge into action in a way that helps you practice those exchanges.

you might really have with someone someday. Here's a common scenario: you're at the airport, and you need a little help. With Adventures, you don't have to understand every single word you encounter, because you have the benefit of being able to make connections through context the way you might in the real world. In fact, you'll likely encounter some brand-new words you've never even been exposed to yet. But you'll learn that vocabulary while you're playing, in a natural way. Don't remember the word for eggs in French? Well, now you're in the grocery store, and there they are in front of you, helping you make those connections while you play. When your interactions are entirely in a new language, you're completely immersing yourself in that new language and culture, which not only accelerates your learning but also helps you anticipate the kinds of things you'll hear or what you should say when you're interacting with someone.

Notice how Eddy says rebonjour after Zari, you, walk up to him. This is actually the second time that Zari walks up to him. The first time, he says, Bonjour! And the second time, he says, Rebonjour! As you embody the character, Zari, in a contextualized environment, the clothing store, you'll be able to make that connection that this new word probably means something like hello, again. Another great thing about Adventures is that it's available to beginners. You don't have to be a super-advanced learner to begin using your language in a contextualized environment. With Adventures, beginner learners get to use their language from the start, pumping up their language and confidence right away. Let's look closer at how Adventures can level up your communication with others. One big superpower is what we're calling immersive feedback. In a lot of our lessons, if you get the wrong answer,

your feedback will look like the left, with this red banner signaling to you that the answer you didn't get correct was the right one. Instead, here's how it goes with Adventures, on the right. You're not corrected. Instead, you are redirected, the way you might be in the real world if you say something wrong to someone you're buying a ticket from. Our characters aren't going to say you're wrong. Instead, they'll say something like, Are you sure you meant that? or, What are you talking about, Junior? They'll look confused, scratch their head the way a real person might if you say something kinda random. This keeps you in the scenario by more closely mimicking how folks respond to us. Because after all, shopkeepers and airport staff are not grading our language, right? They're just trying to understand us. And with this kind of feedback, you'll be able to practice communication better than ever before.

You're also playing as one of our Duolingo World Characters, and you'll be learning more about them. As you play, you'll learn about their personalities and the relationships between them. This is all part of the video-game experience, but it's also a key component in how adventures help learners transfer their language knowledge and deepen their understanding of how context and interactions affect everyday usage. For example, if you're playing in French as Zari, and you're talking to your best friend Lily, you're going to recognize a more informal use of the word you, tu. But if you're playing as Zari, and you're interacting with Lucy or maybe someone you don't know at the doctor's office, you're going to recognize a more formal vous. Adventures is all about interacting with others but also with the world around us. We really want you to explore the environment, experiment with various objects, and see what there is to discover.

You might just get a clue by listening to a loudspeaker announcement or reading a map. Some of these interactions are going to get you closer to your goal, while others are just there for you to have fun and explore and learn more new things along the way. So don't be afraid to tap on things. Tap objects, touch things, open things, find out details that have nothing to do with your main mission. And don't worry, you're not going to lose a heart if you tap an object, even if you break a vase or let a frog loose in the vet's office. And while all this exploration is going on, we're also telling you a fun story in a fun way that keeps you entertained and engaged. Maybe even with a little twist at the end. Because the more involved you are in the story, the more present you are in your own learning process, and the more facets of language you're discovering.

You know, I've seen this before as an educator in the classroom. Students have these aha moments where you can see the light bulb going off. We want to recreate those moments in our app. Realizing that you can understand a joke in another language can really unlock a new level of confidence and familiarity. Each adventure has the delight factor you've come to love while also helping learners achieve so many different learning objectives. It's the result of a massive collaboration of many, many people from across Duolingo, from engineers to producers, to illustrators and animators, to learning designers, who have leveraged both the latest AI technology and human expertise and creativity to bring you this amazing experience. Some of you have already had the opportunity to explore our world of Adventures in English or French on iOS or Android, and we continue to add even more exciting new stories to different courses and levels. We're so excited for this feature to keep evolving.

alongside our learners and our courses. So, tap that object, answer that phone, pet that dog, and immerse yourself in the joy and community of the Duolingo World. Thanks for playing.

Adventures: A New Game-like Experience

Adventures: A New Game-like Experience