BROOKLYN — Duolingo, the free language-learning app, announced last week that Hatian Creole will be available on Feb. 22 as a course for English speakers.
“Anything that facilitates the learning of Haitian Creole, which has historically been marginalized and undervalued is useful,” Wynnie Lamour, founder of Haitian Creole Language Institute of New York based in Brooklyn, told The Haitian Times.
“[The app] has the potential to serve as an amazing resource for Haitians in the diaspora who may not have the time to commit to a full course at an institutional space like the HCLI,” Lamour added.
Currently, the Haitian Creole course development has a 99% completion rate, and almost 9,000 people have signed up to be notified when the course is released.
A post on a Duolingo site section for Haitian Creole, the course has been in development for 4 years.
Courses go through three phases in duolingo: phase 1, language course is under construction; phase 2, or beta, course is released, but it will be improved with users feedback and phase 3, where the course continues to be improved.
Duolingo was created in 2011 and has “40 million monthly active users, representing every country in the world,” according to its site. The Spanish course has the most learners, with 27.7 million.