Duolingo was my primary tool for learning foreign languages. I worked a lot on Spanish and Japanese and dabbled with Hebrew, Welsh, and Italian. Duolingo can be a fun and effective way to learn a language. Duolingo sends way too many notifications. I received a notification almost every day, without fail. It was a warning that I had not spent enough time on the app.
There was also another thing that I noticed very early about Duolingo. The lessons and exercises were filled with a lot of homosexuality. Last May, I wrote about this:
This is an example: On Saturday morning I gave a speaking class. You have 10 sentences to listen to, and then repeat them. Duolingo uses politically correct cartoon characters, as one wears a Burka. They’re there to help you along your journey.
Two of the exercises in this lesson had male characters speaking about “mi no” or my boyfriend. A male character talked about “mi novio” (my boyfriend), and a female character mentioned “mi wife”. Four out of ten exercises deal with relationships between same-sex partners.
Throughout my use of the app, I have noticed that there are several gay and lesbian exercises. Although none of the main characters are gay, I do have some doubts about the one character. However, many of them will occasionally blurt out something about a relationship between two people of the same gender.
I also wrote about reading comprehension stories with lesbian characters. As I progressed in my language learning, I noticed a lot more sentences about men purchasing skirts. There were a lot of exercises that involved both men and women buying skirts. Are people traveling to Spanish-speaking nations with the sole purpose of purchasing skirts?)
I laughed at it for months. This weekend, however, I stumbled upon a tweet posted by Libs of TikTok on Friday that revealed the truth: the gay content of Duolingo was designed. The tweet contains screenshots from a blog post that boasted about Duolingo’s “normalization of queerness.”
My spidey senses are triggered by the word “queerness”. I’ve said that “queerness” means “gays with an agenda” and so seeing the focus on “queerness” characters is telling us everything we need to know.
The blog post was not immediately visible, and I initially thought that Duolingo had deleted it after Libs of TikTok revealed the agenda. I scrolled through language-learning suggestions for Ramadan – “a time of character-building and self-discipline” – but not other religious holidays or celebrations.
I saw posts on gender-inclusive languages, including one that insisted “they” has been used as a singular pronoun for some time. One post was about “power struggles,” another one about writing female Duolingo characters, and a third about “writing against stereotypes.” I also saw a post that introduced “some of our LGBTQ staff” with their explanations about how they identify. The blog was dripping with leftist tropes, coded language, and other sexist slang. This carried over to Duolingo’s social media.
Language learning is for everyone and inclusivity matters. 💚
From our in-app lessons to affinity groups for our employees, we believe in the power of representation and giving a voice to the LGBTQ+ community!
Here are some of the phrases you can learn with us. 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/CGNy29QnUf
— Duolingo (@duolingo) June 8, 2021
The post was from June 2021, right during Pride Month. Duolingo states near the top that it is “responsible to reflect and relate the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people included.”
The author tells us later that characters are more engaging when they’re relatable. Not only because they have flaws and dreams, but also because they’re a reflection of who they love. That sounds like an agenda.
Duolingo tells us that we have three queer characters, Lin, Bea, and Oscar, before getting to TMI. “Lin is into women, Bea is into both men and women, and Oscar likes men.
It’s all about “inclusive” representation, but not only those three characters are making “queer,” statements throughout the app. Other characters appear in exercises that represent same-sex relationships, men wearing women’s clothes and men buying them. If it only happens occasionally, then it is inclusion. But if you see it all the time, that’s an agenda. Duolingo, like so many other left-leaning businesses, has an agenda.
