Around two weeks ago, the Duolingo app changed its icon to a dead Duo after posting a dead tweet, and later, some of Duolingo’s fans inferred that either Mr. Beast or Elon Musk had something to do with it.
“He got in a car accident where Mr. Beast drove him over, and he died,” freshman Gladys Ramirez Matias, a student at LHS currently learning Chinese, said. “In a TikTok posted recently by James Stephen Donaldson, he was mourning for the death of Duolingo, but in the back, you could see a cyber truck and the green feathers of Duo.”
Though the death has shocked others, freshman Alette Woodhouse, a student at LHS, realized this was just a marketing strategy by the masterminds at the Duolingo office.
“Duo probably died as a marketing effort, urging users to continue their daily lesson streaks and use their app Duolingo more frequently,” Woodhouse said. “It definitely seemed to be all for promotions. I’d say it has worked, though. It’s all over the internet, and the company has become a lot more popular.”
According to Chinese teacher Chunmei Guan, there are several ways to productively integrate the Duolingo app into the class, making her students learn and like the class.
“Students who use Duolingo regularly often show improved vocabulary retention, stronger reading skill, and better recognition of sentence structures,” Guan said. “There is extra credit or participation, homework practice, Duolingo classroom, warm-up activities and friendly competitions.”
With the bird being dead, there was a rise of a new but nostalgic face that can be recognized as among the best by at least one of the students at LHS.
“Angry Birds is the next best bird besides Duolingo,” Matias said. “They are a bunch of familiar birds, and people have used them for memes on TikTok, such as their own social structure lore.”
One result of the death was a skyrocket in the stock market, making Duolingo reach an all-time high. However, it soon declined. Now, their stocks are increasing gradually.
“As of Feb. 20, 2025, Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL) is trading at $421.78 per share, reflecting a slight decrease of 2.42% from the previous close,” Guan said. “The stock has experienced significant growth over the past year, with a notable 128.26% increase.”
Even with the scandal, Woodhouse is faithful to her streak with Duolingo and chooses to overlook the death, as everything works just as normal.
“I’m honestly not sure if I would try another app,” Woodhouse said. “I’ve had my streak on Duolingo since middle school, so if I lost it, I don’t think I’d be motivated enough to restart on another app. I mostly haven’t really paid much attention to the scandal; the app still works the same, so I’m still able to learn Spanish, and that matters to me more than the rest.”
Even if Duolingo is recognized as the most common language app, Guan still thinks that the app lacks certain areas needed to learn a language.
“The best language learning apps are Chinese-specific apps like Pleco, which is used for dictionary & flashcards, Skritter for character writing and The Chairman’s Bao for graded news articles,” Guan said. “Learners also use Pimsleur, LingQ, HelloTalk, Tandem, Anki and Quizlet.”
