If you’re looking to learn Wolof then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Wolof course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Wolof Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Wolof language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Wolof course.
Wolof is a fascinating language with a long and rich history. Today it is spoken by approximately 12 million people, mainly in Senegal.
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 Wolof Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Wolof course as Wolof is a very widely spoken language with 12 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 Navajo which only has 171,000 speakers total!
Additionally they have made a High Valyrian 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 Wolof course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Wolof 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 Wolof (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 Wolof 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 Wolof isn’t a course they’re working on.
This means that Duolingo Wolof 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 Wolof course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Wolof
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Wolof course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Wolof – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Wolof
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 Wolof courses that will teach you vocabulary and phrases in Wolof.
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 Wolof learning journey is on the website Live Lingua.
They allow you to access US Peace Corps resources in the Wolof language for free.
They have a range of Wolof 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 Wolof
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a Wolof 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 Wolof vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Wolof Book
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Wolof then the Wolof Phrasebook & Dictionary is one of the best out there.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms.
This book will teach you a range of vocabulary and phrases including numbers, times and dates, introducing yourself and more.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Wolof course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Wolof course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Wolof.
Check our other Wolof content here.
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