Duolingo IRL: Could an immersive language course hone your hard-won skills?

When Adam Ifans hit an 1,000-day French streak on his Duolingo app, his wife Rachel decided to reward him for his digital commitment by booking him onto a week’s intensive and immersive language learning course in the Alps.

If you’re one of the millions who also took up language learning in lockdown, find out what happened when Duolingo meets reality…

It’s 8.55am and I’m sitting in a bright classroom with nine other adults, all in Morzine to improve our conversational French. Our professeur, Elise, welcomes us and sets out our first task, speaking solely in French. She pauses – do we all understand? Err… that would be a resounding “non”.

Thankfully, most of us ask for an explanation in English.

It turns out to be the classic icebreaker of finding out about the person next to you, but in French. I make my way haltingly through interviewing Sophia. She’s a lot better at talking than I am – the words just come more easily to her lips – but we understand one another. Then it’s time to introduce the person we’ve just interviewed to the rest of the group.

open image in gallery

After another couple of exercises, we take a break and head outside into the Alpine sunshine. One of our classmates immediately attains godlike status by producing a large flask of coffee. I gratefully accept – my brain is beginning to work in strange and unusual ways.

I catch up with Helen Watts and Christelle Thorel, who run Alpine French School, over lunch. Helen is originally from the UK and Christelle spent eight years there, including time as a French teacher in secondary schools, but they met here in Morzine.

“You come for the winter,” says Christelle, “but you stay for the summer.” Looking up at the sunbathed mountains, I can understand why – it’s a phrase I’ll hear more than a few times over the coming week.

I ask them what they think of my 1,000-day Duolingo streak. Is it good preparation for their intensive course? “It’s good for background and basic vocabulary,” says Helen, “but nothing substitutes for conversation.”

open image in gallery

Alpine French School went online during Covid and they still offer most of their courses over the internet. But not the French intensive course I’m taking because it’s too… intense? Christelle has a different take on it: “Humans like conviviality. The best way to learn is pleasure and it’s more pleasurable to be among other people.”

Speaking of people, my classmates are an eclectic bunch. Three Londoners, an English woman who now lives near Morzine, one each from Australia and New Zealand, and a scattering from mainland Europe: Geneva, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Over half of them also have children at the Alpine French School summer camp, taking place in a school down the road.

The next couple of days really put my Duolingo-learned skills to the test. We talk about the town, what we like, what we don’t like and why. Working in pairs and speaking in French (of course!) we become city planners, making up new towns and explaining them to the others in the class. It’s challenging but I find that, while I’m not as fluent as some of my classmates, my vocabulary is holding up surprisingly well.

And then, boom, my worst nightmare – something I’ve never done before that everyone else seems to know. My 1,000-day streak has got me about halfway through the Duolingo course and, while I know the futur proche, the futur simple tense lands on my head like a big bag of spanners. Time for a little homework.

The next morning, as we watch a video about the city of the future, it pays off as key words start to appear out of the mist – hey, look at me everyone, I can sort of understand a (very short children’s) television programme!

open image in gallery

The final day comes around remarkably quickly. Everyone’s brain is aching a little but we’re all at ease in each other’s company by now and there’s a high-energy atmosphere as we dash around Morzine for a French-themed photo safari.

In the classroom, we play a game, dealing out cards where we describe something against the clock to our partner. As the turns move around the table, I marvel at how fluently everyone is accessing the French they know. It’s not perfect, but we’re all giving it a go, not minding when we get something wrong, and it strikes me that we’re all actually playing a game in French – with the rules described by our teacher solely in French (no extra English this time) – and, what’s more, it’s fun.

The week has given me new vocabulary, as well as practice with lots of really useful connecting words, which means I can converse and explain rather than just form statements.

But, more than that, it’s given me tip-of-the-tongue access to a lot of the information that was already in my head from 1,000 days of Duolingo. In fact, everyone in the class seems more confident, more ready to use the knowledge they have.

As I leave, I ask Helen for her recommendation of a website or app to continue learning, given that I won’t be able to converse in French every day. “The best website is the one you’ll use. Regular and short is always better than longer and infrequent,” she says. “It’s all about communicating.”

open image in gallery

France is awash with language courses, but finding the right one can be a bit like searching for the proverbial aiguille dans une botte de foin. Here are a few options Rachel considered when booking for Adam, from nationwide organisations to world-famous schools and tiny one-offs in the middle of nowhere.

Rouen is fantastically accessible and a great city to spend time in. This independent school in the centre of the city offers hosted family, student and gite accommodation, and a good range of language courses.

When it comes to wowing your friends, it doesn’t get much better than saying you spent the summer studying at the Sorbonne. The well-established summer school offers two-week courses with 12.5 hours of lessons per week, and takes place in July.

This not-for-profit has been teaching language learners in the sun for 150 years. Lessons take up 18 hours a week and the school urges total immersion by matching you with a hosted family. Nightly rates are very reasonable and you can choose between B&B and dinner too.

This independent school offers homestay accommodation and small-group (2-3 people) or one-to-one learning in a village environment, as well as social activities and excursions in the area for complete immersion.

If you’re still flummoxed, let Lingoo take the strain of decision-making. It’s a bit like a dating agency for language learners and will match you with host families, language teachers or exchange partners all over France. Ingenious!

Take the Eurostar from London to Paris, then change for a TGV train to Thonon Les Bains, followed by a bus or taxi to Morzine.

You can fly to Geneva from most UK airports; book through Alpine French School to get return door-to-door transfer with Skiidy Gonzales to Morzine.

Le Petit Dru is a comfortable hotel with incredible views across Morzine and the mountains beyond. Five nights in summer from €470 (£410) based on two people sharing a double room, B&B. Alpine French School can also arrange stays with shared apartments or even host families if full-on language immersion is more your thing. lepetitdru.com

A one-week intensive French course with Alpine French School costs €310.