Learning With Duolingo

I started learning Spanish with Duolingo last year. I wasn't consistent because my goal was to find a productive way to spend my free time, so I was only learning at my leisure. After some time I stopped and abandoned my lessons, despite the constant reminders in my email. I however returned to it and started a two weeks streak yesterday.

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After my junior sister lost her phone to pickpockets this morning, I was very sad. We both lost our phones around the same time last year, and we'd only recently gotten new ones this year. She went through some tough times without a phone since she's living alone at school.

Today, when she came over, we went out to buy a few things at the popular plaza in my city. We were done shopping and about to go home when she discovered her phone was missing from her handbag. She started crying, and I didn't know what to do. I hate to see someone close to me cry because it always makes me want to cry, too.
I can only imagine how long it will take her to get another phone, but it is what it is. If it hadn't rained, I would have hated today.
We were still mourning her phone when I received an email from Duolingo. I decided to check in and learn a few words...

About Duolingo

Duolingo is a language-learning app. It offers free lessons on many languages, such as Mandarin, English, French, German, Spanish, etc.

Today's lesson began with a brief review of the words and sentences I've learned before. Then, we moved on to identifying new words, reading and writing simple sentences, and audio learning.

One thing I admire about the app is that it's free for users. There's a premium feature, but the free version is very good, with numerous features and packages. They also try to make the learning process fun and interesting. They set milestones that come with rewards in the form of gems and hearts, which allow access to more packages.

I was surprised by my performance, and for a few minutes, I was very proud of myself, lol. The app also knows how to cheer me up whenever I lose or upgrade to a higher level.

What made it even more fun was my sister's presence. She also tried to pronounce some words and laughed so hard when I was doing my speaking tasks. By the end of it, she had learned a lot and kept singing,

"¿Dónde está tu pasaporte? Aquí está mi pasaporte." Meaning, "Where is your passport? Here is my passport." We learned this during the Traveler game.

_{The girl on purple is me at the airport}

This app brightened our day and made us laugh, even after losing something as important as a smartphone. Being happy is a choice I had to make for me and my sister, because staying sad and depressed wouldn't bring back what we lost.

I want to take my lessons seriously until I can read and write fluently in Spanish.