If you’re looking to learn Estonian then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has an Estonian course.
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Does Duolingo Have An Estonian Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Estonian language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have an Estonian course.
Estonian is a fascinating Uralic language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 1.1 million people, mainly in Estonia.
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 Estonian Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Estonian course as Estonian is a popular language with over 1 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 Estonian course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Estonian isn’t a popular language for native English speakers to learn especially as most Estonian people also speak English.
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 Estonian (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
Demand for the language is slowly increasing and more people are becoming interested in learning Estonian.
Duolingo is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
When Will Estonian 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 Estonian isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Estonian 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.
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 an Estonian course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Estonian
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of an Estonian course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Estonian – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Estonian
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 Estonian courses that will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary and phrases in Estonian.
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.
Drops
Another great resource for learning Estonian is the language app ‘Drops’.
The app focuses on building up your vocabulary and features a range of fun vocabulary lists including food, numbers, weather, health, transport and so much more.
The lessons are fun and immersive, you’ll learn lots of new vocabulary and the app uses visual associations to help you learn new words.
Drops states their course will teach you 2,000+ Estonian words.
You can use the app for 5 minutes a day for free (you do have to pay for unlimited access).
Paid Alternatives For Learning Estonian
Glossika
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 Estonian.
Estonian Textbook
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Estonian then the Teach Yourself Estonian book is one of the best out there.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms.
It will teach you a range of useful vocabulary, phrases and grammar.
I’d also recommend getting an English – Estonian dictionary to expand your vocabulary and look up new words.
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers an Estonian 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 Estonian vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has an Estonian course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have an Estonian course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Estonian.
Check our other Estonian content here.
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