Duolingo is a language tool. It’s also a game. It is meant to keep you engaged so while playing the game for points and rewards, one also learns a bit of language. Each Monday, people are grouped into batches of 30 by the order they log on and do their first lesson. That’s the competition for the week. Finish in the top five and advance to the next level. Finish in the bottom five and get demoted one level. Get promoted enough times and end up in the top level, the Diamond League. From there, you can’t get promoted any higher, so they offer recognition for finishing in the top three. Duolingo tells everyone you know that you finished in the top three and they send back congratulations.
So every week, I do my Spanish each day, and near the end of the week I pay attention to where I am and if there is a shot at finishing in the top three. If I think there is a chance, I wait until just one hour, or maybe two, before the end of the week’s count on Sunday, and I blast out as many points as I can, as fast as I can, to finish top three. Recognition.
Last week, it was there. I was about number 7, lurking. Number one and number two were well out of reach, but if the other ones in front of me weren’t paying attention, I had a shot. I was well back, so two hours before closing, I went for it. I cruised past everyone else in front of me, but number three was watching and started accumulating points as well. After an hour I checked the scores. I was still behind number three, but number three wasn’t accumulating points as fast as I was, so I kept on. I closed and closed, hunted down number three, and with four minutes to go I passed him and finished with that number three spot. Success!
Then I started to wonder what I had done. Somebody worked as hard as they could for two hours, trying to stay ahead but watching me get closer and closer, nothing more they could do, and losing out right at the finish. Who was I playing against? Whose heart did I just take? It could have been anyone. Duolingo is kind of structured as a kid’s game. Oh no. Did I just hunt down and crush some thirteen-year-old kid, dashing her hopes of being Spanish queen for the day? Am I relishing my victory over a bunch of schoolkids? I looked up the name of the person I passed. Looks like a dude. Carlos. I checked out his status. He’s been doing this for a couple years. He’s got a lot of points. Nevermind. He can take it.