Love Latin music? Then you’re in good company with the users of language-learning app Duolingo, it seems.
According to the 2024 Duolingo Language Report, Spanish ranks as the second most-popular language studied in the app, after English. And Luis von Ahn, who founded Duolingo in 2011 alongside Severin Hacker, believes there’s a probable reason for this: “The rising global popularity of Latin music, which has boosted the popularity of Spanish worldwide.”
To better understand this connection, we spoke to Guatemalan–born von Ahn all about the language of his homeland – and how Duolingo could help you learn it.
Shaping culture and communities
“Culture and language are tightly linked,” explains von Ahn. “What’s popular in culture often impacts what languages people want to learn in Duolingo.”
Latin artists have achieved remarkable success in recent years, finding fans in countries where Spanish–language music has historically had limited reach, such as India and South Korea.
“With artists such as Bad Bunny, Karol G, J Balvin and Shakira topping the charts, Spanish lyrics are now mainstream, and that makes more people want to learn Spanish to understand what their favourite artists are saying,” explains von Ahn.
Beyond its music-driven appeal, Spanish is far more than just a trend. It’s the second most-widely spoken native language globally, after Chinese, and the official language in 21 countries – from Europe to the Americas and Africa.
“Spanish is a beautiful and important language, both in terms of culture and in terms of how useful it is to learn – there are close to 500 million native Spanish speakers,” explains von Ahn.
Fun and authentic lessons
Duolingo was founded with the mission of making language learning more fun and effective. Its lessons are short and engaging, offering game-like tasks such as identifying verbs in silly sentences and the chance to earn badges for reaching certain learning milestones.
The app adopts a pragmatic approach, prioritising vocabulary and grammatical structures that are most commonly used across the Spanish–speaking world.
“Given that the majority of Spanish speakers are in Latin America, we prioritise teaching these varieties [of the language] to enhance the relevance and utility of our lessons for our learners,” says von Ahn.
To achieve this, the team creates lessons based on significant cultural events, such as the Quinceañera or lucha libre in Mexico, for example.
“We also teach vocabulary about food, drinks and objects that are typical of different Latin American countries, and our exercises intentionally show the natural way people speak in different Spanish–speaking cultures,” says von Ahn.
Features that fuel motivation
Ready to start learning Spanish (or another language)? Von Ahn has some advice: “The biggest challenge for learning Spanish, or learning anything really, is staying motivated. You have to stick with it – and eventually, there’s no substitute for putting the language to use in the real world.”
This is why Duolingo focuses so much on making learning feel playful – to entice you to come back the next day and keep studying. It’s also one of the reasons the team ensures the app’s features are ever-evolving.
“We’re so excited about features like Video Call that let you practice conversation with an AI partner. This is a huge innovation that makes it much easier for learners to start speaking a new language,” says von Ahn.