Duolingo pairs up with Twitch to promote language immersion via streaming

Contxto – Some of you might not know this, but Duolingo, although founded and based in the United States, has Guatemalan ancestry. The company co-founded by Luis Von Ahn is currently looking for new ways to motivate users to learn new languages and practice their skills. 

For this reason, the green owl platform recently announced its partnership with fellow U.S. company, Twitch.

For those who don’t know (like myself), Twitch is a digital media company owned by Amazon, allowing users to live stream and interact with one another. It mainly showcases gaming, so most users broadcast their playthroughs. 

So, how can a video streaming platform for gamers help you improve your Russian skills, for example? Well, if you’re a kid who’s already hooked to Minecraft or the sort, you might as well do it in another language.

While parents may disapprove of the amount of time their kids spend in front of computer screens watching game videos, at least now there’s an educational component behind it.

Polyglots in the making

Thew new Duolingo Verified Streamer Program launched with the most requested languages by users. These included Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, as well as Arabic. 

However, the plan is to increase the offerings and create a whole community that leverages Twitch’s gaming network and promotes language learning. Imagine watching a Fifa 2022 gameplay in the Mayan language. Count me in.

You may be asking yourself, how does this work? Who will create such content? By chance, there happen to be many streamers who are native speakers or simply skilled in various languages.

With this, these people will broadcast their content while speaking different languages. In turn, they will encourage users to engage as well as apply their learnings through different forms of interaction. 

Some of these multilingual streamers include: 

• CJayride: English and Chinese
• HOAIartworks: English and Japanese 
• JayStreazy: English and French
• Kairi: English and Spanish
• Kalon75: English, Chinese and Japanese
• KenRhen: English and Italian
• Kitty: English and French
• MickanPlays: English, Spanish and Italian
• SpecsNStats: English, Spanish and Portuguese
• TakiiGG: English, French, German and Tunisian
• Toastie202: English
• Viancyy: English and Spanish

This new program is part of Duolingo’s Global Ambassador program, which is a network of volunteers that help the company launch events, learning courses and more. 

Although immersion is vital for language learning skills, I’m still unsure about how this will unfold. Particularly when it comes to the tangible outcome for Duolingo, is this merely a branding and marketing move? Perhaps there is also some sort of monetization incentive behind this, who knows.

I’m still pondering these questions. From the looks of the streamings, I’m not even sure where Duolingo comes into the picture. Rest assured that I’m looking for more information.

-VC