Duolingo

On 2008-08-01, I officially began work at Leksvik secondary school. At some point, possibly because of trips to France, I decided it would be good to improve my French. Thus, I acquired some French textbooks that otherwise would be discarded, and began to spend time studying it.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that language textbooks do not suit my personality. I then discovered Memrise, undoubtedly after it was founded in 2010-09. Memrise is focused on vocabulary, and uses spaced repetition to accelerate vocabulary acquisition. It claims spaced repetition is an evidence-based learning technique with increasing time intervals between reviews of previously learned materials.

Once again, I discovered that Memrise did not suit my personality either. I needed something that had more of a focus on grammar. Then I encountered Duolingo. It seemed a better match for me. I have used it since 2014-06-??. Yes, that is over ten years ago. French was my first language, and is still the language where I have accumulated the greatest number of points with Duolingo. This is followed by: Swedish, Scottish Gaelic, German, Ukrainian, Finnish and Portuguese. In addition, I have tried out a few other languages.

A note on Nordic languages.

There are those who contend that Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are dialects of a single language. I can understand that argument. What I don’t appreciate is the misunderstandings that arise because people do not recognize how the three languages differ. In my tertiary level education in Norway, I have had to use textbooks in five languages: Bokmål = regular Norwegian, Danish, English, Nynorsk = New Norwegian and Swedish. There is usually no problem for a Norwegian to understand written Danish, as long as they avoid numbers! Take seventy (70) = sytti in Norwegian, but halvfjerds, short for halvfjerdsinds-tyve = half way to the fourth times twenty. It is spoken Danish that creates misunderstandings.

When I was using Swedish textbooks, I would deliberately pronounce the words aloud. This made them understandable in Norwegian. The problem with Swedish for Norwegian speakers are the false friends. The most common example is rolig. In Norwegian it is an adjective meaning quiet. In Swedish it means funny. There are many more.

I cannot recall a time in my life when I have felt so exhausted as in 1980 – 1981. It was usually after returning home from school, after using Norwegian continuously throughout the day. Fortunately, that situation changed fairly quickly. Today, I can switch between English and Norwegian without difficulties. Except, this year, when visiting the Isle of Wight, I attempted to use Norwegian (rather than English) with one of the locals. This is due to conditioning. In my daily life, whenever I encounter a stranger, I use Norwegian.

Further developments …

In 2015, I had completed everything in French that Duolingo had to offer. After I had worked on it daily for 500 days, I allowed my streak – continuous duration of daily language exercises – to lapse. I then worked with Duolingo fairly regularly to learn other languages, but often took weekend breaks.

After a trip to Madeira in 2017, I once again decided to work with Duolingo on a daily basis. On the publication of this post, I have officially worked on it for 2835 consecutive days = 7 years, 9 months, 3 days. I am currently working with Scottish Gaelic, with the hope of being reasonably fluent in it for a trip to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia in 2025. My intention with learning Gaelic is to gain a better understanding of the Gaelic culture there.

This extensive use of Duolingo, does not mean that I have been totally faithful. At one point, I was also using a dedicated site to learn Icelandic. In part, I enjoyed it because I thought it would help me appreciate the Icelandic crime program Ófærð = Trapped, with 3 series and 28 episodes since 2015. I found the Icelandic course well structured, but had limited use for it. Then, when I planned a visit to Iceland in 2023, it was too late to learn much more of the language. It is doubtful that I will visit Iceland again, for more than a day on a trip to or from somewhere else in North America.

The Scots Gaelic Duolingo course has been operational since 2019-11-30. In 2022-03, it was taken over by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, = The great/ big barn at Ostaig (literal translation), the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, with their main campus on the Sleat peninsula, in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland. They also offer: An Cùrsa Inntrigidh = the entrance course, and the immersive, An Cùrsa Comais = the competency course.

At one point I had read that 1.8 million people had tried Duolingo Scottish Gaelic, and that over 500 000 had used it regularly.

This is not my first excursion into Scottish Gaelic. In the early 1980s, fresh from successfully learning Norwegian, I purchased a copy of Roderick Mackinnon’s (1908 – 1979) Teach Yourself Gaelic: A complete guide for beginners in Scottish Gaelic (1971). I still have this book close at hand, because of its 45 pages of vocabulary.

I would not encourage everyone to study Scottish Gaelic. My interest, at least in part, is because of my Scottish heritage, both biological (from the Orkneys) and adoptive (from Morar, then South Uist in the Hebrides). I am supportive of Misneachd = Courage, the Gaelic campaign group, and its proposal for a Scottish Gaelic local community language based on Ireland’s 2012 Gaeltacht Act. In Scottish Gaelic, the term used is Gaidhealtachd = a recognised Gaelic-speaking area. In this model there would be a local organization in each district throughout the core Gaelic areas of the Western Isles = Outer Hebrides, Skye and Tiree, as well as in urban areas such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Gaelic was once the principal language of Scotland. After the Jacobite Rebellions from 1689 to 1745, the language was heavily persecuted. The highland clearances resulted in many Gaels being sent overseas, often to Canada, where they founded Gaelic-speaking communities. The Education Scotland Act of 1872 effectively banned Gaelic in Scotland’s schools. Some of those caught speaking the language faced physical punishment.

Gaelic is now spoken by just under 60 000 people in Scotland. In 2005, the Scottish Parliament passed an act securing Gaelic as an official language of Scotland. Since then the number of speakers under 20 has begun to rise. Around 5 600 children are currently being schooled using Gaelic. The majority of Scots view Gaelic favourably. Gaelic now has its own television channel, radio stations, and a short film festival. New dedicated schools are being built. Parents are learning Gaelic with their children.

Duolingo’s Gaelic course provides a free and accessible route into Gaelic learning for all. However, it comes with advertisements. I pay an affordable annual fee to avoid the ads.

It is crucial that people learn this language in order to maintain its recovery. That situation is also true for many other languages, and people without a Scottish heritage may find it more appropriate to learn a different language. Because Gaelic is a small language community, every speaker — native and learner — is important to secure its future. Irish and Welsh, have shown how smaller languages can thrive on Duolingo. Propaganda from Duolingo suggest that parents with children in Gaelic-medium education will be able to learn alongside their children.

Gaelic phrases

Here are three basic Gaelic phrases: Halo = hello, fàilte = welcome, tapadh leat = thank you.

The language does contain some false friends. Here is one example: beag (pronounced big) = small; mòr = big. Some situations demand that the spelling and pronunciation change to bheag and mhòr, so that the first part is pronounced like a v.

Here is a more advanced Gaelic sentence to Impress your friends: Thig crìoch air an t-saoghal ach mairidh gaol is ceòl. = The world may end, but love and music will endure.

My future with language

I intend to expand my horizons by learning more about runic alphabets. The Scandinavian variant is known as fuþark, or futhark; this name is derived from the first six letters of the script, ⟨ᚠ⟩, ⟨ᚢ⟩, ⟨ᚦ⟩, ⟨ᚨ⟩/⟨ᚬ⟩, ⟨ᚱ⟩, and ⟨ᚲ⟩/⟨ᚴ⟩, corresponding to the Latin letters ⟨f⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨þ⟩/⟨th⟩, ⟨a⟩, ⟨r⟩, and ⟨k⟩. The Anglo-Saxon variant is known as fuþorc or futhorc, due to changes in Old English of the sounds represented by the fourth letter, ⟨ᚨ⟩/⟨ᚩ⟩.