If you’re looking to learn Fijian then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Fijian course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Fijian Course?
Despite the importance and history of the Fijian language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Fijian course.
Fijian is a fascinating Austronesian language with a long history. Today it is spoken by approximately 600,000 people mainly in Fiji.
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 Fijian Hard To Learn For An English Speaker + How Long Does It Take To Learn?
Why Is Fijian Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Fijian course as Fijian has a long and important history especially in Fiji.
Few Speakers
One reason why Duolingo may not have produced a Duolingo Fijian course yet is that there are relatively few people who speak the language.
Fijian currently has around 600,000 speakers around the world. This is quite a small amount compared to other more popular languages and may be a reason why Duolingo has chosen not to produce the course yet.
Having said that, 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 Klingon course of which there are no native speakers as this is a fictional language.
Less Popular Language
Another reason why Duolingo may have not yet produced a Duolingo Fijian course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Fijian isn’t a popular language for native English speakers to learn especially as almost everyone in Fiji speaks 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 Fijian (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
Many non-Fijian’s living in Fiji are interested in learning the language. Additionally, there are many people around the world who have an interest in the language, especially people with Fijian ancestry.
Duolingo is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
When Will Fijian 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 Fijian isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Fijian 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 Fijian course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Fijian
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Fijian course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There’s plenty of fantastic courses out there for Fijian – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Fijian
Memrise
Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help it’s users learn their chosen language.
They are a few free Fijian courses that will teach you vocabulary and phrases in Fijian.
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.
Digital Dialects
The website Digital Dialects also has some fun online games which teach Fijian words. They don’t cover a ton of content but will get you familiar with some basic words in Fijian.
The best part is each word has a recording by a native speaker so it’s a great place to begin your Fijian language learning journey.
They have interactive vocabulary lists in a range of different topics including numbers, animals, basic phrases and more.
Paid Alternatives For Learning Fijian
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a .
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 Fijian vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Fijian Book
The Lonely Planet Fijian Phrasebook & Dictionary is another fantastic resource and reference point for the Fijian language.
This is a great book for beginners that will teach you all the basics.
Whilst it is aimed at travelers, it does cover a range of useful phrases that everyone should know.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Fijian course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Fijian course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Fijian.
Check our other Fijian content here.
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