Language learning app Duolingo recently released a new module for English speakers to learn Hindi. The free language learning platform has been working on the project for over a year in order to widen the company’s user base, with the intent to not only target the Indian masses but also tourists traveling to India and learners looking to work in the country.
For all those familiar with Duolingo, they’d know that the service has made language learning much simpler and fun by gamifying the entire experience. Users can compete with friends, gain points, level up and earn virtual coins which can be used to unlock bonus features.
Duolingo currently offers over 80 courses for 31 languages and has a network of over 200 million users worldwide. The platform was launched in India in 2014, and currently boasts of a 10 million user base in the country. The company decided to develop the new English to Hindi module after the success of its English course for Hindi speakers, which is used by 8.6 million Hindi speakers to learn English.
In a statement released by Duolingo, it said that “Spoken by over 500 million people worldwide, Hindi is one of the top most spoken languages in the world and has been among Duolingo’s most requested courses,” which was apparently a good enough reason for the company to delve into the Indian market. “We are glad to now offer it to those who want to learn this compelling language with over 1,000 years of history — whether it’s for travel, business, connecting with family heritage and more,” they added.
The Hindi to English course, which was led by Kanan Gupta (who also worked with Duolingo in 2016 to polish and redesign the English to Hindi module) took over a year to build. Besides having reading, writing and speaking exercises which are common to all courses, it will also have new unique learning techniques exclusive to this particular module.
Duolingo is also currently working on English courses for Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu and Tamil speakers, which will be available in the near future.