By Veronica S. (G12)
The Duolingo Breakfast Club is a club that was started by Ms Tanel and her desire to celebrate each other’s differences through language. She aimed to have language ambassadors, which were people that were native in a language and were willing to help students that were learning that language — and I was honoured when she asked me to become the Spanish language ambassador.
She spoke passionately about creating a language club to a couple of her students, and soon the idea of the Duolingo Breakfast Club began. It quickly became a success, with both teachers and students coming to school early to do their daily Duolingo sessions while also being able to learn from each other.
Before the Breakfast Club, I always felt that Duolingo was a very solitary task. I would log on once a day and do a couple of lessons. When the Duolingo Breakfast Club started, I suddenly felt like I was part of a community. I started gaining more friends on the app and was able to celebrate all of my milestones with them and congratulate them on theirs.
Besides feeling part of a community, the Duolingo Breakfast Club also gave me motivation to keep learning my new language, Italian. I have been trying to learn Italian for many years now, but whenever I started I would gain momentum, and then if I forgot a day, I would just give up.
Celebrating my friends’ accomplishments / My streak for November / Maintaining my friend streaks
Yet, this time was different — once I joined the club, it was more entertaining — because although I started on my own, I felt encouraged to keep going and maintain my streak because of our club. Now, I don’t give up so easily because I know that even if I forget a day, I have someone rooting for me to keep going, just like I am rooting for the rest to keep up their streak. By maintaining friend streaks, it felt more like a hobby that I could do with friends and family than a boring and repetitive task.
Last year, as the school year came to an end, less people were showing up. This year, the club has not started yet, but we're excited to share that it will be starting up again soon as The Languages Club! My wish for this club is for it to restart and attract as much, if not more, attention than before! I would love to see more students and teachers participate in each session, building excitement and bringing our community together. Rather than having language barriers (even if we all speak English), we can embrace our home languages and learn more from each other.