People around the world are looking for ways to unite with Ukraine amidst the conflict with Russia. Duolingo, a language-learning platform based in Pittsburgh, reports an estimated 341,000 English-speaking learners have begun studying the Ukrainian language since the start of the war.
Dr. Cindy Blanco, a senior learning scientist at Duolingo, says that learners are picking up Ukrainian for a variety of reasons. As Poland welcomes thousands of Ukrainian refugees, for example, the number of learners studying Ukrainian in Poland has grown by almost 2,300%.
“For our Polish learners who are opening their homes and their communities to Ukrainians,” Blanco says, “knowing the language is a way to show these refugees that they care and that they're welcome here and they want to connect with them in a really personal way.”
In the U.S., Duolingo has seen an increase in learners since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Duolingo saw 30 million new learners interested in a variety of languages. Learning a language helped people feel less isolated and disconnected from the world. It also helped them connect with friends and family in a new way.
As the war continues in Ukraine, there has been a similar increase in Ukrainian learners. The exposure to videos, photos and articles covering protests, rubble and war has encouraged global participation, the company said.
“It's a way to show solidarity, to show interest, maybe to help understand a lot of the media that we're seeing,” Blanco says, “It gives an individual a window into what's happening in a place that can feel really far away.”
Duolingo’s Ukrainian course was developed in 2015 in partnership with the Peace Corps. Like Russian, Czech and Polish, Ukrainian is a Slavic language. While most Russians don’t understand Ukrainian, many Ukrainians know and understand Russian. When the Russian-speaking Soviet Union occupied Ukraine from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991, schools, businesses, and the government were required to only use Russian.
Duolingo’s CEO, Luis von Ahn, wrote in a post, “While it’s wonderful to see that show of support and appreciation for Ukraine’s culture, it would not be right for us to profit from it. We will be donating all of the ad revenue from people studying Ukrainian on Duolingo to Ukraine relief.”
Duolingo is taking a few initiatives to help support Ukraine. The Duolingo English Test is an English proficiency exam that is accepted by more than 3,000 universities. In an effort to give back, Duolingo will waive exam fees for Ukrainian students.
Duolingo will work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other organizations to distribute codes for Duolingo Plus, the premium version of Duolingo. These codes will allow refugees and their hosts to study without ads and limits at no cost.
Duolingo will also be sponsoring Pittsburgh’s World Refugee Day in June.
