If you’re looking to learn Bulgarian then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Bulgarian course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Bulgarian Course?
Despite the importance and history of the Bulgarian language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Bulgarian course.
Bulgarian is a fascinating language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 8 million people, mainly in Bulgaria.
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.
Related post: Is Bulgarian Hard To Learn For An English Speaker + How Long Does It Take To Learn?
Why Is Bulgarian Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Bulgarian course as Bulgarian is a very widely spoken language with 8 million speakers.
Duolingo has produced courses on much smaller languages (in terms of number of speakers).
They have courses on small minority languages such as Navajo which only has 171,000 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 Bulgarian course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Bulgarian 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 Bulgarian (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.
When Will Bulgarian 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 Bulgarian isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Bulgarian isn’t going to be released any time soon as they’re not even working on producing a course.
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.
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 Bulgarian course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Bulgarian
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Bulgarian course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There’s plenty of fantastic courses out there for Bulgarian – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Bulgarian
Memrise
Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help it’s users learn their chosen language.
They have tons of free Bulgarian courses that will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary and phrases in Bulgarian.
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.
Bulgaro
Another fantastic free resource for learning Bulgarian is Bulgaro.
This modern Bulgarian course has a similar interface to Duolingo as you will have to work your way through a lesson tree, learning more Bulgarian as you go.
It’s a gamified course that uses spaced repetition technology to help you learn. It has native speaker audio, a range of sentences and examples and more.
The course is aimed at complete beginners and will even teach you the Cyrillic alphabet.
Paid Alternatives For Learning Bulgarian
Glossika
Glossika Bulgarian 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 Bulgarian.
Bulgarian Textbook
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Bulgarian then the Teach Yourself Bulgarian book is one of the best out there.
If you also want to be able to read and write in Bulgarian 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.
BulgarianPod101
BulgarianPod101 is a great resource for someone looking to learn Bulgarian fluently.
They feature both audio and video lessons recorded by Bulgarian teachers who will explain everything to you in simple terms.
They also have word lists and flashcards to help you study.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Bulgarian course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Bulgarian course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Bulgarian.
Check our other Bulgarian content here.
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