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Does Duolingo Have Lao In 2023? + Alternatives

If you’re looking to learn Lao then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Lao course.

Does Duolingo Have A Lao Course?

Despite the importance and long history of the Lao language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Lao course. 

Lao is a fascinating language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 30 million people, mainly in Laos and northeastern Thailand. 

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 Lao Not On Duolingo?

It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Lao course as Lao is a very widely spoken language with 30 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 Scottish Gaelic which only has 57,000 speakers total! 

Additionally they have made a Klingon 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 Lao course is that there isn’t enough demand. 

Lao 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 Lao (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. 

Another potential issue is finding volunteers to produce the course. 

It’s hard to find enough people who are fully fluent in both Lao and English that are willing to dedicate hundreds of hours of their time for free.

When Will Lao 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.

Duolingo Incubator

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 Lao isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Lao isn’t going to be released any time soon as they’re not even working on producing a course.

There’s also no Thai course yet on Duolingo – this is surprising as Thailand has a population of 70 million. It’s likely that a Thai course would come before a Lao 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 a Lao course. 

Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Lao

Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Lao course stop you from learning the language if you want to.

There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Lao – both free and paid.

Free Alternatives For Learning Lao

Memrise

Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help its users learn their chosen language. 

They have several free Lao courses that will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary and phrases in Lao. 

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.

Lao Lessons

A great free online resource for learning Lao is the website Lao Lessons.

As the name suggests, this website features lots of free Lao lessons. They teach grammar, vocabulary, tones and much more. 

They also have conversation practice too. You can listen to a range of audio clips in Lao to practice your comprehension (they include the transcripts too). 

YouTube

YouTube is one of the best resources available for any language learner. There are tons of videos on YouTube teaching Lao.

One channel that I would recommend for learning Lao is ‘Vanida WP’. Vanida has been uploading Lao language videos for years to her channel.

Check out one of her most popular videos below:

Paid Alternatives For Learning Lao

Lao Textbook

If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Lao then the Lao Basics book is one of the best out there. 

If you also want to be able to read and write in Lao 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. 

I would also recommend getting an English – Lao Dictionary to expand your vocabulary and look up any new words that you come across.

uTalk

The online platform uTalk offers a Lao 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 Lao vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away. 


Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Lao course. 

Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Lao course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Lao. 

Check our other Lao content here.

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