Noah Higgs hated learning Irish in school. He hated the way it was taught, overly formal and disconnected from ordinary people's lives. Most of all he hated the effect the lessons had on his fellow students' willingness to speak the language.
An interesting long read on the political and social dimensions around Duolingo’s decision to branch out into smaller languages like Irish and Hawaiian. Excerpt:
Of course, there's a big difference between picking up a few words in Irish or Welsh to make you feel as if you're connecting with your ancestors, and actually learning a language — particularly an endangered one that needs all the speakers it can get.
This is a tension that Duolingo has struggled with when it comes to its two endangered language courses, Navajo and Hawaiian. Those tongues are listed as vulnerable and critically endangered, respectively, by UNESCO.
Both languages were added to Duolingo this year to coincide with the United Nations International Year of the Indigenous Language. But they raised questions that weren't necessarily an issue for courses such as French or Spanish, which aren't expected to be used by native speakers of those languages.
"Who's the audience for the Hawaiian course? Is it going to be tourists? Mostly? Because that would affect the content," said Awodey. "Or is it going to be primarily built by and for indigenous speakers and people reconnecting with the language?"
In Hawaii, the team partnered with Kamehameha Schools, a network of private schools dedicated to teaching students of native Hawaiian heritage with a particular focus on preserving the Hawaiian language.
Despite this, however, the Duolingo Hawaiian course can sometimes risk speaking down to native Hawaiians, few of whom need teaching, for example, what a "lei" is.
“Everyone was super excited about it, but it's totally tapered off because it's not for natives, it's too baby, it's too simple," said Kū Kahakalau, executive director of Hawaiian language and culture NGO Kū-A-Kanaka.
Linguistic politics are often fraught with regard to majority tongues, let alone for endangered languages that have a long history of colonialism and disrespect. Scrutiny of such courses is always going to be tighter, and invisible red lines easier to cross.
"When you're dealing with a heritage language, it does come with a bundle of stuff that we don't have when teaching English," said Duolingo learning scientist Hope Wilson. "There are lots of tricky issues to get into, very often there are divides within the communities where people don't agree on, you know, issues of spelling or that kind of thing."
