I finished the entire Catalan course on Duolingo. I started my Catalan journey over two years ago, and now I stand here fluent in Catalan.

This article summarizes my experience and thoughts on the course, how I used it, and if you’re interested in learning Catalan, the process I recommend.

Note, over the two years, I’ve spent a collective 4 months in Barcelona. I viewed Duolingo not as the end-all-be-all for my Catalan progression, but as one piece of the puzzle.

In my view, language courses serve as supplements, not replacements, for learning languages in the real world. This is where these languages developed, where children learn them, and where you should learn them too.

These tools are to help make real-world learning easier.

Does Duolingo Have Catalan?

Yes, they do. However, you have to set your Duolingo account language to Spanish. If your account is in English, you won’t be able to select Catalan.

This means you need to already know Spanish if you want to learn Catalan.

While this may be disappointing, if your plan is to use Catalan in Catalonia, Spanish will be of more practical use.

I am a champion of the beauty of the Catalan tongue. I wrote a whole article about my process learning Catalan and the importance of preserving endangered languages.

Learning an Endangered Language: Catalan Immersion and Why Language Diversity Matters

However, if you want to use Duolingo to practically get around in Catalonia, Spanish will serve you just as well.

Now, of course, this depends on where you go, but if you’re going to Barcelona, Spanish is more common. If you’re going to Girona, Catalan will be more useful, but everybody will speak Spanish. The only places you’ll only be able to use Catalan, in my experience, are the small towns in Catalonia. (Or, I found Catalan helpful in the Northern Catalonia in France, since my French is terrible.)

As I’ve written about previously, knowledge doesn’t take up space. The way forward is to learn both Spanish and Catalan, and celebrate all languages.

Is Catalan Hard to Learn?

Every language is hard to learn. Learning a language is hard. You have to learn an entirely new way to think and process the world.

With that said, for me, learning Catalan was much easier than learning Spanish because I had learned Spanish first.

If you already speak a romance language, then you will find similarities between Catalan and your existing romance tongues, which will make the process easier.

With that said, Catalan has a lot of unique differences and challenges too.

My Process With Duolingo to Learn Catalan

Phase 1: Setting My Catalan Base

Ever since I was 18, I had gone to visit my former exchange student, who’s like a brother to me, and his family, any summer I could. I had spent lots of time in Barcelona, and gotten my Spanish to a high level for a non-native speaker.

I knew I was going to Barcelona during the whole summer of 2022, and this time I was determined to learn Catalan. Why?

The main motivation is I wanted to participate in all of Barcelona. I was tired of going out with my friends, sitting at an outdoor restaurant eating a bocadillo and only understanding half of the conversation.

So I started doing Duolingo about 6 months before my trip. These first six months gave me a great base of necessary and essential vocabulary.

I learned essential verbs like ‘to eat,’ ‘to drink,’ and ‘to be,’ and all the foundational verbs crucial for basic communication.

Step 2: Immersion – Get Your Ass Over to Barcelona

I believe Duolingo will only get you so far for any language. That includes Catalan. I now had the basic tools to have everyday conversation. From here, I needed to do just that: go out and have everyday conversation.

During my immersion, I still did my daily Duolingo, because I couldn’t let my streak go, and because at this point I still hadn’t gotten deep into Catalan grammar. However, my main focus shifted to pushing myself to speak Catalan with my friends, with strangers, and any opportunity I could.

During these three months, I learned far more than I could have ever learned with Duolingo.

Phase 3: Continual Practice, Grammatical (Near) Mastery

Over the rest of 2022 and 2023, I kept doing my daily Duolingo. At times, I thought it was pointless because some lessons were so easy. I had already learned all these words out in the street. However, I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did for a few key reasons.

Why to Stick With It: Grammatical Concepts

I’ve been critical of how we teach languages at high schools in the US, because of how much it fixates on grammar, and doesn’t fixate on real conversation and learning. However, the grammar does matter, only after you’ve reached a high level. When I was already a fluent Spanish speaker, my understanding of the subjunctive imperfect, conditional, and other tenses came in handy THEN.

The same was true for Catalan. Only after well over a year of daily Catalan Duolingo did I finally learn key subjunctive verbs.

Sure, I’d learned some of them in the street like ‘No em diguis!’ and “Que vagi molt be!” However, now through Duolingo I understand the verb ending patterns, and could truly twirl the full grammatical depth of the Catalan tongue.

Why to Stick With It: Top of Mind

Less concretely, but equally important, is doing a lesson every day, even if it was easy, I think reminded my brain each day that I do, in fact, still speak Catalan. It helped it stay top of mind.

In Phase 3, TV and Reading Become My Most Important Tools

To keep my Catalan improving and sharp, though, I needed to go beyond just a Duolingo lesson. I found watching a 25 minute episode of Plats Bruts (a CLASSIC Catalan Sitcom, and it’s free online) to be worth an hour or more of Duolingo.

After an episode, I caught myself thinking in Catalan and wanting to speak it instinctively.

I also tend to consume my news from Catalonia and Spain, in both languages, both to escape my US domestic news bubble, and to practice my languages.

The good news is, it’s not TV or Duolingo, and both.

Should You Do The Duolingo Catalan Course?

Yes, I think you should. If you speak Spanish and want to learn Catalan, it’s a great starting place, and overall a pretty good course. It is definitely better than wasting time scrolling on Instagram, Twitter, or your doomscrolling platform of choice.

I think saving endangered languages is a path to save the world. Catalan is a language filled with soul, inspiration, and lots of really fun phrases.

If that’s not enough to convince you, then I don’t know what to say.

More on Catalan and Catalonia

Searching For Catalan In Perpinyà (Perpignan)

I’m a Digital Nomad in Barcelona. Here’s Everything You Should Know

Need a Different Duolingo Course?

See my thoughts on the chess course.

Duolingo’s Chess Course is Useless for Non-Beginners: My Honest Review