A YouTuber has filmed himself 'completing' a Spanish course on language learning app Duolingo in a 'speedrun' which took 24 hours. A speedrun is an attempt to complete something in its entirety as quickly as possible.
Typically these are video games, with speedrunners often exploiting glitches, using advanced strategies and planning out runs in meticulous detail to achieve the fastest time. Nowadays, almost anything can be speedrun, with one man trying his hand at speedily completing Duolingo.
JoZapinski on YouTube posted his attempt to complete all 205 units of Duolingo's Spanish course in what he thought would take 12-24 hours. On his attempt, he explained: "I already speak Spanish so I just went with that since my goal was to try and speedrun the whole thing."
The YouTuber's entire attempt was uploaded to the video sharing platform, with parts of it sped up to fit inside the site's 12-hour limit. However, despite already speaking Spanish, it didn't go a smoothly as he'd have liked.
JoZapinski said: "It ended up being extremely difficult and I greatly underestimated how long it would take. Each level itself wasn't that hard even in the later levels but Duolingo is super picky about the way you translate things and its easy to get stuff wrong."
JoZapinski was unable to finish the very last unit, as he needed to complete every single other subsection first. He was even 'forced' to buy 'hearts', the in-app currency which allows you to continue after making mistakes.
The sleep deprived YouTuber said on the video: "24hrs straight on this app 99.99% completing the course. I'm counting it as done." Duolingo, available to use on your web browser or mobile device, offers 40 language courses with Spanish, followed by French, German and Italian the most learnt.
The app uses a gamified lesson plan, where users can learn new languages through interactive exercises and games. Duolingo has 37 million monthly active users and is free to use, making it enormously popular.
