If you’re looking to learn Belarusian then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Belarusian course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Belarusian Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Belarusian language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Belarusian course.
Belarusian is a fascinating East Slavic language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 8 million people, mainly in Belarus.
Many people who are looking to learn a new language use Duolingo, a fun language learning platform that features bite-size lessons on various languages.
Duolingo is known to be a fun, free and easy way to learn a new language.
Why Is Belarusian Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Belarusian course as Belarusian has a long and important history especially in Belarus.
Duolingo has produced courses on much smaller languages (in terms of number of speakers).
They have courses on small minority languages such as Scottish Gaelic which only has 57,000 speakers total!
Additionally they have made a High Valyrian course of which there are no native speakers as this is a fictional language.
By this standard, it’s definitely not the number of speakers of the language that is a problem.
Less Popular Language
One reason why Duolingo may have not yet produced a Duolingo Belarusian course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Belarusian isn’t a popular language for native English speakers to learn. Relatively few people are interested in learning the language compared with other languages and Duolingo produces courses based on demand.
This is a shame because it’s certain that there is some demand for English speakers wanting to learn Belarusian (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
Duolingo is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
Only 29% of Belarusians can actually speak Belarusian, instead they speak Russian.
There is likely much more demand for learning the language in Belarus and for this reason we may see a Belarusian course for Russian speakers before a course for English speakers.
When Will Belarusian Be Available On Duolingo?
The Duolingo Incubator is a feature where you can see what languages Duolingo are currently working on producing a course for.
The Duolingo courses are created by volunteers. You can contribute to a course on the Duolingo Incubator page if you’re fluent in more than one language.
This page simply shows which courses are currently being produced so you can apply to help build a course if you want to.
Having checked the Duolingo Incubator, I can see that currently Belarusian isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Belarusian isn’t going to be released any time soon as they’re not even working on producing a course.
There are also currently no plans to produce a Belarusian course for Russian speakers.
Within the incubator, on their language list they do say ‘more languages will be available for teaching soon’ however it is unclear how long we may be waiting for more courses to be added.
How Do Duolingo Decide On Which Courses To Create?
Duolingo themselves state that they decide on new courses based on the Duolingo forums.
They suggest the best way to get them to add a new language is by visiting their forum section and searching for suggestions that have been made in the past.
You then should add an upvote or comment to these posts. The more upvotes the more likely Duolingo will take notice and build a course.
If you want to help then you can upvote this Duolingo forum post to show Duolingo that people want a Belarusian course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Belarusian
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Belarusian – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Belarusian
Memrise
Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help its users learn their chosen language.
They have tons of free Belarusian courses that will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary and phrases in Belarusian.
It’s really interactive and gradually introduces new words slowly so you have time to consolidate them all. There’s also plenty of opportunities to practice what you’ve learnt.
Paid Alternatives For Learning Belarusian
Glossika Belarusian
Glossika is a great resource for building up vocabulary and learning to speak the language fluently.
The best thing about Glossika is that they help you to acquire the language (rather than memorizing). It’s a fun, easy and effective way to learn Belarusian.
Belarusian Textbook
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Belarusian then the Belarusian For Beginners book is one of the best out there.
If you also want to be able to read and write in Belarusian then you’ll need a textbook like this one.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms.
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a Belarusian course.
They focus on game-based learning and state that their course uses native speakers and features more than 2,500 everyday words.
The course will teach you a range of relevant Belarusian vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Belarusian course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Belarusian course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Belarusian.
Check our other Belarusian content here.
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