‘I lie in the bath, imagining that I am wandering the Rialto in Venice’: my obsession with Duolingo

First it was Italian, then I added French, Portuguese and even Latin. But does the language learning app, which has almost 15 million people using it, really work?

This morning, before checking in on my young son or making a coffee, I opened the Duolingo app on my phone and translated They love smelling meat" into Italian. I've been starting my days like this for a few months now: wake up, wash face, grapple with the gerund. I usually spend between 10 and 20 minutes on it while the kettle boils or I load CBeebies or write some emails. It used to be eBay. Then Wordle. Now it's this.

Duolingo is a language learning app and pretty simple to use. After you've chosen which language you want to learn, you are presented with about 100 skill-sets divided by scenario or grammar (grocery shopping, the future tense and so on). Each level is structured like branches of a tree, and when you complete one, you move down the tree earning gems to spend" on the app or hearts that you need to perform the exercises. Make a mistake, and you must correct it before moving on. It's all fun and games until you make too many mistakes, run out of hearts and lose your progress. This is when you'll engage with Duolingo's mascot, an officious green owl called Duo who, if you're anything like me, will eventually define your self-esteem. Duo's face is the first thing I see each day and increasingly, the last thing, too.