If you’re looking to learn Slovak then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Slovak course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Slovak Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Slovak language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Slovak course.
Slovak is a fascinating Slavic language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 5 million people, mainly in Slovakia.
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 Slovak Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Slovak course as Slovak is a very popular language.
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 Slovak course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Slovak 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 Slovak (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
Interest in Slovak is increasing and more people than ever are wanting to learn Slovak.
Duolingo is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
When Will Slovak 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 Slovak isn’t a course they’re working on.
This means that Duolingo Slovak 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.
Duolingo does however have a Czech course available for learning. Czech and Slovak are actually mutually intelligible to a high degree – estimates range from 70% to 90%.
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 Slovak course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Slovak
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Slovak course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Slovak – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Slovak
Mondly
A fantastic place where you can learn Slovak is using the Slovak Course on Mondly.
Mondly is a great app that is a fun, easy and effective way to learn a language.
You can access Mondly from anywhere on any device and the best part is that you can start learning for free.
They also have a premium version which gives you access to extra content.
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 Slovak courses that will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary and phrases in Slovak.
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 Slovak. I’d recommend checking out the channel ‘Slovenčina ako cudzí jazyk’.
This channel has hundreds of videos on Slovak that cover topics like grammar, phrases and vocabulary. It aims to teach Slovak through stories which is a fantastic way to learn.
Check out one of their most popular videos below:
Paid Alternatives For Learning Slovak
Glossika
Glossika is a great resource for building up vocabulary and learning to speak the language fluently.
The best thing about Glossika is that they help you to acquire the language (rather than memorizing). It’s a fun, easy and effective way to learn Slovak.
Slovak Textbook
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Slovak then the Colloquial Slovak book is one of the best out there.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms.
It covers a range of topics including vocabulary, phrases, verbs and grammar.
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a Slovak 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 Slovak vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Slovak course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Slovak course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Slovak.
Check our other Slovak content here.
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