I don’t deal well with stress. When I have a bunch of things coming at me, and there’s a time limit to get everything done, I feel like I’m in a pressure cooker.

So, the “match madness” mini-game in Duolingo may not be my best option. In Match Madness, you have five English words on the left and five French words on the right. You tap on words and race against the clock to find a certain number of pairs. As you finish each level, you get XP and move on to the next stage, which has more words and less time. The pressure is on.

My best score today was 90 pairs of matches in 90 seconds (1 minute, 30 seconds.) This was level six. I couldn’t get to level seven during my 15 minutes of practice. 

It’s stressful when you run out of time. Then the game asks if you want to buy a one-minute timer boost with gems. No thanks. If I cannot do level six, the next level won’t get any easier. 

I need to learn more words, but I’m not sure word matching is the most effective way for me to learn new vocabulary. The lower levels were more manageable because I could enter a zen-like trance and tap the words I recognized. I can’t get into the zone at this level because I have to think too much to figure out what half of the words mean.

I’m trying to learn French by doing Duolingo for 15 minutes every day (until Aug 31, 2022.) So far, so good. It’s been eighteen days straight that J’étudie avec la chouette.

I’m grateful that I am physically able and healthy. I can lie on my back and play with my phone overhead, but I discovered this is not the best way for me to do the Match Madness game. 

Holding the phone above me slows my movements down – it’s not bad with the speaking and listening exercises, but it’s a big deal in a timed event like Match Madness, where I don’t know all the words. I’m thankful that I can flop over onto my stomach, place the phone on the ground, and use fingers on both hands to tap on matching words methodically. 

There have been times when I’ve thrown out my back or injured something, and being able to move around like this would have been a lot harder. I’m thankful I’m able to move my body to do the things I want to do – even if it is lying down and playing on my phone.

I think tomorrow, I’ll try to do the stories in Duolingo instead of Match Madness. Hopefully it will be a little less stressful, but knowing me, I’ll feel pressure to get XP to finish at the top of the Diamond League. I don’t think stories are an effective way to get XP; I might be doing Match Madness again.