If you’re looking to learn Maltese then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Maltese course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Maltese Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Maltese language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Maltese course.
Maltese is a fascinating language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 500,000 people, mainly in Malta.
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 Maltese Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Maltese course as Maltese has a long and important history especially in Malta.
Few Speakers
One reason why Duolingo may not have produced a Duolingo Maltese course yet is that there are relatively few people who speak the language.
Maltese currently has around 500,000 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 Hawaiian which only has 24,000 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 Maltese course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Maltese isn’t a popular language for native English speakers to learn especially as the majority of people in Malta 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 Maltese (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
There’s a decent amount of demand for the language among people with Maltese ancestry.
Additionally, as Malta is a huge European tourist destination, many tourists also want to learn a bit of Maltese before they go.
Duolingo, however, is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
When Will Maltese 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 Maltese isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Maltese 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 a Maltese course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Maltese
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Maltese course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There’s plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Maltese – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Maltese
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 Maltese courses that will teach you vocabulary and phrases in Maltese.
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.
YouTube
YouTube is a fantastic resource for learning any language and the best part is that it’s absolutely free.
There are lots of great videos on YouTube that will teach you Maltese. I’d recommend checking out the channel ‘Learn Maltese’.
This channel has hundreds of videos on Maltese that cover topics like grammar, phrases and verbs.
Check out one of their most popular videos below:
Paid Alternatives For Learning Maltese
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a Maltese 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 Maltese vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Maltese Book
If you’re looking for a standard book to help you with Maltese then the Maltese For Foreigners book is one of the best out there.
It’s a great place to start your Maltese language learning journey as it will provide you with over 700 useful words and phrases.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms.
Udemy Maltese Course
You can also enrol onto a Maltese Course with the website Udemy.
This course is aimed at complete beginners and states that it will teach you typical Maltese phrases, how to ask questions in Maltese, how to introduce yourself and so much more.
This is a total immersion course so you’ll be fully immersed in the Maltese language (this is the best way to learn and one of the most proven methods for successfully learning a language!).
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Maltese course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Maltese course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Maltese.
Check our other Maltese content here.
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