If you’re looking to learn Mandinka then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Mandinka course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Mandinka Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Mandinka language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Mandinka course.
Mandinka is a fascinating language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 1.3 million people, mainly in West Africa.
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 Mandinka Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Mandinka course as Mandinka has a long and important history especially in West Africa.
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.
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 Mandinka course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Mandinka 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 Mandinka (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 Mandinka 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 Mandinka isn’t a course they’re working on. This means that Duolingo Mandinka 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.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Mandinka
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Mandinka course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Mandinka – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Mandinka
Memrise
Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help its users learn their chosen language.
They have several free Mandinka courses that will teach you vocabulary and phrases in Mandinka.
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.
Live Lingua
A great place to start your Mandinka learning journey is on the website Live Lingua.
They allow you to access US Peace Corps resources in the Mandinka language for free.
They have a range of Mandinka audio lessons available that will give you a great introduction into the language and teach you some basic words and phrases.
Paid Alternatives For Learning Mandinka
Mandinka Textbook
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Mandinka then the Mandinka: A Communication Guide For Travelers book is one of the best out there.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms. You’ll learn lots of useful vocabulary and phrases from this book.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Mandinka course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Mandinka course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Mandinka.
Check our other Mandinka content here.
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