If you’re looking to learn Samoan then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Samoan course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Samoan Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Samoan language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Samoan course.
Samoan is a fascinating Polynesian language with a long and important history. Today it is spoken by approximately 500,000 people, mainly in Samoa.
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 Samoan Hard To Learn For An English Speaker? + How Long Does It Take?
Why Is Samoan Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Samoan course as Samoan has a long and important history especially in Samoa.
Few Speakers
One reason why Duolingo may not have produced a Duolingo Samoan course yet is that there are relatively few people who speak the language.
Samoan 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 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 Samoan course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Samoan 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 Samoan (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
Many non-Samoans living in Samoa are interested in learning the language. Additionally there are many Samoan people living all over the world in the USA, Australia, New Zealand who would love to learn their heritage language.
Duolingo is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
When Will Samoan 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 Samoan isn’t a course they’re working on.
This means that Duolingo Samoan 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 Samoan course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Samoan
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Samoan course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There’s plenty of fantastic courses out there for Samoan – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Samoan
Memrise
Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help it’s users learn their chosen language.
They have a few free Samoan courses that will teach you vocabulary and phrases in Samoan.
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 Samoan 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+ Samoan words.
You can use the app for 5 minutes a day for free (you do have to pay for unlimited access).
YouTube
YouTube is a fantastic free resource for learning any language including Samoan.
There are a few useful YouTube channels that can help you learn Samoan such as Islandize, they make fun videos aimed at kids that teach you Samoan words and phrases.
Paid Alternatives For Learning Samoan
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a Samoan 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 Samoan vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Samoan Dictionary
A great way to supplement your Samoan language learning is by getting a Samoan dictionary.
This has tons of vocabulary and is a great reference point for the language.
This is an essential resource for anyone serious about learning Samoan as it will really help to build your vocabulary.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Samoan course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Samoan course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Samoan.
Check our other Samoan content here.
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