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Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2015-03-22, 11:48
by crush
I've been talking/thinking about it for a long while now and seeing the recent success Catalan's had (a Catalan course has been unofficially announced), i think a Basque course has possibilities, too. The conditions are pretty similar with Catalan, relatively small language where nearly every speaker of the language is bilingual. I
started a thread at Duolingo about it, i dunno what your thoughts on it are? There's definitely a lot of people interested in Basque, i think a lot of people shy away from it because it's perceived as impossibly hard.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2015-03-22, 18:57
by Lauren
That would be awesome. ^-^
crush wrote:There's definitely a lot of people interested in Basque, i think a lot of people shy away from it because it's perceived as impossibly hard.
There are?
And yeah, Basque is a lot easier than people make it out to be.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2015-03-23, 8:37
by crush
Yeah, it gets mentioned quite a bit at Duolingo. Even Luis von Ahn, the founder of Duolingo, has mentioned it:
Personalmente, vivo en el País Vasco donde además del español tenemos una lengua que no proviene del latín, el euskera. ¿Ha recibido alguna petición para incluir este idioma en Duolingo?
Si, ha habido y lo queremos agregar. Hasta la fecha, desde que hemos incluido la posibilidad de agregar idiomas por la comunidad de usuarios, hemos empezado por los idiomas que tiene X millones de hablantes en el mundo, los más populares. Pero en un futuro no tan lejano, unos 2 o 3 meses, vamos a empezar a agregar cualquier idioma. Desde idiomas inventados como el élfico o el klingon de Star Trek, además de idiomas minoritarios. Y en relación a lo que dijo el creador de Busuu, no creo que ganemos nada de dinero enseñando klingon por ejemplo.
That was March of last year and they've already started adding other "smaller" languages like Esperanto and Irish. I'm hoping to find enough people to commit to the project and make enough noise for the Duolingo staff to notice it/us
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2015-04-19, 13:27
by languageObessed
Hi crush! I think its definitely possible
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2015-04-19, 13:40
by crush
Thanks, so do i, but i'm not holding my breath. Catalan's got quite a few volunteers, but it's a bit bleaker-looking for Basque. Lately, i've been thinking of trying to put together my own online Basque course but designed specifically with Basque in mind.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2015-04-20, 0:49
by languageObessed
@crush that's a great idea. One was done for Amharic and I'm doing a book on Wattpad teaching Igbo so yeah you could.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-01-20, 23:14
by Aaron
Hello pals,
I wouldn't say that Basque has that much in common with Catalan in terms of demography and speakers. Neither I believe it to be as easy as Catalan (for us romance languages-native speakers at least). But I do agree with you all that it is sooooooo charming
Sadly, to date, no Duolingo course about it. We'll have to use other sources and keep helping each other.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-01-21, 5:25
by crush
There aren't as many Basque speakers as there are Catalan speakers, but the language is getting stronger and stronger and spreading, just as in Catalonia. Recently there's been a new small surge in interest over at Duolingo, there've been a few more volunteers who've sent applications in. Now that Catalan is in beta, i think the chances of a Basque are looking better and better
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-04-11, 22:01
by Pelje
Any updates regarding a Basque Duolingo-course? I would be happy to see one someday.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-04-16, 4:58
by crush
We've had more people send in applications, but as far as i know no word from the Duolingo staff yet. We're still pushing to get it added, though
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-05-11, 22:49
by ich
Basque is language I am waiting for at Duolingo! If I see it, I will drop all my other languages just to learn it! I would love to see a Finnish course too.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-05-21, 5:03
by crush
Finnish is another popular language request at Duolingo. My Basque is still not that good, but I applied for the English/Spanish speaker courses a couple weeks back. I've been pushing for Basque over there for a while now, I'm sure we'll get news about it one day, dunno when though.
Re: Basque at Duolingo?
Posted: 2016-05-21, 19:11
by arabarra
oh man, at some point I'll have to go and learn what is this duolingo thing...
