Duolingo

The ease of use, competition with friends and how fast you are able to understand your target language. The game aspect is fun and I especially love the timed practice which adds to your point total very quickly if you know the answers. The forum is great too for chatting with other people using Duolingo to hear other perspectives and get tips. The app makes language learning anywhere a snap. I love being able to use it for a few lessons while i'm on a plane without internet access.

It is hard to find something to complain about with Duolingo. The only gripe I have with Duolingo is that is focusses too heavily on simply translating text from language 'a' to language 'b'. My speaking skills haven't improved nearly as much as my translating skills. I also feel like I'm only learning a very specific set of phrases. Duolingo doesn't provide a robust way to communicate with other users outside of discussing sentences.

While I haven't used my second language in any business sense, I can see how it certainly opens new doors that wouldn't have existed prior to Duolingo. The benefits are being able to communicate with an entirely new group of people as well as a whole new array of jobs I wouldn't have bee about to apply for otherwise.