Last week Google revealed the most downloaded apps, games, movies, albums, and books of the year on Google Play. Duolingo was at the top of the education category for apps.

Duolingo is a free service designed to help students learn Spanish, English, French, Italian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, German, and Portuguese. The service can be used in your web browser, as an iOS app, and obviously as an Android app.

To learn a new language on Duolingo you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. For example if I want to learn Spanish I’ll be shown Spanish words with translations. I can can hear the words pronounced too. Then to practice I type and or speak translations. The activities start out with simple words and phrases. As I become more proficient, Duolingo gives me more challenging phrases. The Duolingo Language Coach is a feature that will tell you how many points you need in order to move to the next level in your lesson. The points that you earn not only move you along to the next level, they can also be redeemed for prizes in the virtual shop. The prizes are costumes and accessories for your Duolingo avatar.