Duolingo Blog
June 30, 2020
Camp Duo 2020: Language learning in your own backyard
Join us for a celebration with creative daily activities!
Welcome to Camp Duo 2020!
Gather round, campers! This summer, Camp Duo is bringing language learning to your own backyard for four weeks of camp-themed language activities. We'll have games and events for campers of all ages, so join us throughout July for a celebration of language learning!
At Camp Duo, we make language learning fun, personal, and a little silly, too. Campers can keep track of their daily activities with our printer-friendly Camp Duo Activity Card, and campers who share their work with us using #CampDuo on social media will be eligible to win a limited-edition Camp Duo patch!
Camp Duo is a great opportunity to get creative with a language you've been working on for a while, or you can use your time at camp to start learning a brand new language, too. We've got 36 languages available for English speakers, including our newest course, Finnish! What will you study this summer?
Every Monday in July, we'll post our weekly schedule right here on our blog and also on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Follow along with us on social media and use #CampDuo to check out what your fellow campers have been up to — and be sure to share your own work, too!
We're also hosting livestreams on Facebook every Wednesday and Friday during camp. Tune in at 12:30pm EDT for these special events with your counselors, Vivisaurus and Dr. Cindy! (Depending on your age you might need permission from your parent or guardian to access social media.)
Week 1: Getting to know you!
Rise and shine, campers! Are you ready for a great summer at Camp Duo?
First things first: this week we'll be getting to know you! Each day, we'll be working on a different activity to get to know you and who you are as a language learner.
At Camp Duo, we want to help you use your language as much as you can, however you can! That means it's okay to look things up, it's okay to adapt activities to your needs and preferences, and most importantly, it's okay to make mistakes! It's all part of the learning process, and all in good fun. Our beginner campers might want to focus more on words and building vocabulary, and our intermediate and advanced campers might do more with sentences and even paragraphs. Be sure to follow along with your fellow campers by using #CampDuo to show off your work!
We can't wait to get to know you!
Monday, July 6: Self portrait
Create a self portrait of yourself as a learner!
- Make a representation of yourself using whatever materials you'd like (crayons, Photoshop, anything!)
- Include an introduction in the language you're studying (e.g., Me llamo Cindy)
- Include three things that are important to you and label them in the language
Tuesday, July 7: Illustrated calendar
Make an illustrated calendar
- Use the language for months, days, and dates (e.g., julio, martes, siete)
- Illustrate each month with an image and word in the language (for julio, a beach scene and the word playa)
Wednesday, July 8: Make your own lesson
Tune in to Facebook Live at 12:30 EDT for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Make your own version of a Duolingo exercise
- Use a sentence or expression that’s unique to you or your family and friends!
- Be creative with the materials you use!
Here's a Camp-made exercise about "yinz," a word common in Pittsburgh!
Thursday, July 9: Cabin labeling
Pick a room in your house — ahem, cabin — and label everything in it in the language
- Use stickers, sticky notes, tape, or a label maker!
- Leave the stickers on until you know the word by heart
Friday, July 10: Family tree
Tune in to Facebook Live at 12:30 EDT for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Create a "family tree” to represent the most important people in your life
- Use whatever materials you'd like
- You can include anyone who is important to you!
- Include vocabulary from the language (e.g., hermana, abuelo, gato, compañera de piso)
Week 2: Arts & Crafts
Welcome back to Week 2, campers! This week at Camp Duo, we're going to get those creative juices flowing with Arts & Crafts Week. We'll be getting your hands busy to give your brain time to absorb the language you're learning.
For Arts & Crafts Week, we'll be learning more about the cultures of the people who speak the language you're studying and we'll have some fun with your Duolingo lessons, too. Let's get down to it!
Monday, July 13: Flag display
Create a flag display to represent the language you're studying
- Your flag could be from one of the countries or cultures where the language is spoken, but it could be something totally original, too!
- Be creative with the materials you use
Tuesday, July 14: Shoebox diorama
Make a shoebox diorama to illustrate a sentence from one of your Duolingo lessons
- Write down a sentence from your Duolingo lesson
- Create a scene in a shoebox diorama to illustrate the meaning of the sentence
Wednesday, July 15: Word art
Tune in to Facebook Live at 12:30 EDT for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Create word art using words from the language to make an image
- Some options include illustrating a scene with vocabulary, using vocabulary to form objects, making your script and words into art like Islamic calligraphy, or something else entirely!
- Here's an example, but you could take a different approach! Anything to get the language into your art.
Thursday, July 16: "Campfire" cooking
Cook a dish from the culture using a recipe in the language
- Find a recipe in the language. What parts of it do you understand before looking things up?
- Prepare the dish in your dining hall (ok, now you can look things up)
- How'd it go? Share your results with us and leave a review of the dish!
Friday, July 17: Artwork recreation
Tune in to Facebook Live at 12:30 EDT for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Recreate an important work from the culture
- Pick a famous monument, a place, or artwork from the culture
- Use whatever materials you want from around your cabin! You might paint, draw, make a collage, use blocks or Lego, do photography, etc
- Get some inspiration from the Getty Museum art challenge
Week 3: Music & Performance
You're halfway through, campers: it's already Week 3! It's Music & Performance Week at Camp Duo, which means we're going to get you moving in your language: singing, dancing, tapping your toe, acting it out!
Music, theater, and movies are great ways to learn more about a language's culture and people! For Music & Performance Week, we'll be discovering new music and poetry, creating some of our own, and doing a dramatic re-enactment of sentences from your lessons!
Monday, July 20: Children's song
Practice a children's song in the language
- Find a children's song in the language you're studying
- Write down as many of the lyrics as you can understand before looking them up! How much do you understand after listening three times?
- Look up the words and see how much you guessed right
- Alternative: find a children's poem or nursery rhyme! How much do you understand before looking up any translations?
Tuesday, July 21: Scene performance
Write and perform a scene using only sentences from your Duolingo lessons
- Write down sentences from your Duolingo lessons and write a script! Will your scene be dramatic, comedic, romantic, mysterious??
- Or maybe try creating a scene from our quirkiest sentences!
- Record your performance and share it with us! Use #CampDuo on social media
Wednesday, July 22: Old song, new language
Tune in to Facebook Live at a new time, 2:30 EDT, for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Learn a familiar song in the new language
- Find a song you already know that has lyrics in the language you're learning
- Consider other versions of "Happy Birthday,” holiday songs, Disney songs, etc. Many of these have versions in other languages!
- Learn the new words to at least the chorus :)
Thursday, July 23: Make a playlist
Create a playlist of songs in the language
- Find at least 5 songs to add to a playlist. You could start by doing a simple search for popular music in the country or in the language.
- Create a playlist using a music site or app, like Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube
- All five songs could be from the same artist, or from different artists. Many sites and apps make it easy to find similar music!
- Alternative: Make a YouTube playlist of five captioned music videos from the language. Between the words you recognize and the video itself, how much of the song do you understand before looking up translations
Friday, July 24: Poetry & songwriting
Tune in to Facebook Live at 12:30 EDT for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Use sentences from your lesson to create a poem, song, or other performance art!
- Write down sentences from your Duolingo lesson
- Use them to write your own poem or song! Or think of another way to perform your lesson
- You can also use this list of quirky sentences from many languages
Week 4: The Great Outdoors
Congratulations, campers, you've made it to Week 4, our last week at Camp Duo! This week, we're going to take your language outside, to the Great Outdoors!
The best part about language learning is that you can take it with you, everywhere you go. For our Great Outdoors Week, we'll be getting our language out of the house and onto maps, into our neighborhoods, and on adventures!
To celebrate all your work and everything you've learned and created, we'll be hosting an end-of-camp ceremony at the end of the week. Join us on Facebook Live Friday at 12:30pm for our closing campfire!
Monday, July 27: Counting on the go
Pick something in your campground neighborhood to count. Then go on a walk and count them as you go!
- For example, you might pick cars, trees, or dogs, or something even more specific, like black poodles!
- For beginners, just practicing counting with numbers ( uno, dos, tres)
- For intermediate learners, try counting with the name of the object ( un carro, dos carros, tres carros)
- For advanced learners, count with the colors, too ( un carro rojo, dos carros rojos, tres carros rojos)
Tuesday, July 28: Flat Duo
Create your own Flat Duo and document his adventures at camp this week
- Create a Flat Duo by drawing your own Duo on paper, creating him out of materials you have at home
- Take pictures of Duo out and about with you!
- For each picture, write a caption in the language
- For beginners, this might be just one word (like cocina). For intermediate and advanced, write phrases or sentences (like Duo está en la cocina or Duo está aquí con mi hermana y están preparando la cena)
Wednesday, July 29: Neighborhood map
Tune in to Facebook Live at a new time, 1:30 EDT, for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Create a map of your campground neighborhood using the language
- Use the language to label streets (ex. Calle Penn)
- Include locations that are important to you ( mi parque favorito)
- You could adapt an existing map, like printing a map from Google Maps to start with!
Thursday, July 30: Explore a new language
Venture outside (your comfort zone) and take a lesson in a language you never thought you’d learn!
- Complete three lessons in a new language!
- Have you tried a language with a different writing system? Duolingo has Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese!
- Have you tried an indigenous or endangered language? We have courses in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Navajo, Hawaiian, and Guarani (for Spanish speakers).
- We also offer three constructed languages: High Valyrian, Klingon, and Esperanto
Friday, July 31: Camp letter
Tune in to Facebook Live at 12:30 EDT for a special Camp Duo livestream with your counselors!
Send someone a letter home from camp (or send a letter from camp to Duo!)
- Write a letter about what you did at Camp Duo this summer!
- Use as much of the language as you can, but it's okay to mix languages or use only some words in the language
- If you write a letter to Duo, share it with us on social media (#CampDuo)
- You can also mail it right to Duo's home!
5900 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
United States
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