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Apps like Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone sure are popular, but what happens when they don’t have the language of your choice?
Despite its popularity in literature, travel, and history, Bengali isn’t featured on any of these apps, and for reasons unclear.
It would be a waste not to pursue Bengali because of this—but good for you, there are more than enough resources to fill in this gap! Read on to find out more about these Duolingo alternatives.Â
Why is there no Bengali on Duolingo?
It’s hard to fathom exactly why Bengali isn’t on Duolingo. For starters, it’s the seventh most used language in the world, with around 229 million native speakers based in Bangladesh, India, and other countries with high immigrant populations.
But despite this, the company hasn’t released any announcements about a Bengali course, so there’s really no telling when it’ll come out!
We had to do a little digging online to figure out some of the reasons behind this delay:
It could be a hard language to teach
Before even getting started with basic vocabulary, Bengali learners must first master the 50-letter alphabet and writing script. Due to this, Duolingo might’ve found it a bit hard to teach, and thus decided not to pursue it at this time.
Yet, even if Bengali is a Category III or “hard” language, as defined by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute’s (FSI) scale, Duolingo has already covered other languages from this same category—so, in short, its difficulty isn’t the main deciding factor.
Duolingo stopped working with volunteer contributors
One of my greatest suspicions as to why Duolingo Bengali hasn’t been made yet is that they don’t have native speakers and/or professional tutors on their team.
Since Duolingo ended its volunteer contributor program and shut down the Duolingo Incubator in 2021, they’ve only worked with in-house linguists.
However, based on the current outcome, it seems that they don’t have enough Bengali speakers employed. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they have a course by now?
Apps to learn Bengali other than Duolingo
It’s a shame that we can’t learn Bengali on Duolingo, but don’t let that discourage you—because there are so many Bengali learning apps to choose from! Should you want quick and easy lessons, these three have got your back:
1. Mondly
If you’re looking for bite-sized lessons, then Mondly Bengali is the right place to go! This app has content for beginners, intermediates, and advanced students altogether, so pretty much anyone can improve their fluency.
Its Bengali course has short yet effective lessons that tackle different skill sets, such as reading, writing, and speaking. With its high-quality audio and gamified materials, you’ll feel as if you’re learning straight from professionals.
Whether you want tips on basic conversation or pointers on using public transportation, this fun app has a wide variety of tutorials that will prepare you for real-life scenarios.
Key features:
- Lessons on vocabulary, grammar, and conversation
- Covers all fluency levels
- High-quality audio with a hands-free feature
2. Master Ling
Master Ling has all things fun and exciting! With flashcards, mini-games, and a neat chatbot featured on its platform, it’s just about determined to teach you Bengali in a highly-engaging manner.
Upon opening this app, you’ll find many practical Bengali lessons—from vocabulary to grammar, pronunciation to dialogue—which span the different fluency levels. Should you be a beginner or a pro, you’ll fit right in!
On top of that, Ling incorporates interactive activities and games into its course, so you’ll never get bored from learning!
Key features:
- User-friendly interface
- Dynamic activities for beginners and up
- Comes with a built-in chatbot for dialogue practice
3. Glossika
Learning a new language can be a daunting task, but with Glossika’s innovative approach, learning Bengali can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Glossika teaches you Bengali in context by combining the “mass sentence approach” with an innovative spaced repetition system.
Ideal for upper-beginner to advanced students, Glossika trains you with carefully curated sentences that teach vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation in a natural way. You can learn through exercises that target all core skills or go hands-free with the listening-only mode.
Key features:
- Learn thousands of Bengali sentences
- Listen to recordings of native speakers and record your own voice
- Comes with reading and writing exercises
Other great resources to learn Bengali
Challenge yourself using these additional Bengali learning resources!
Preply: Connect with native-speaking Bengali tutors at affordable rates! These highly-rated tutors offer various Bengali courses fit for beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners. Schedules are flexible too!
Complete Bengali: Master Bengali vocabulary, grammar, and dialogue with this simple yet impactful textbook. Designed for absolute beginners, it has plenty of tutorials, tips, and exercises to get you started.
Cudoo: Whether you want to focus on learning vocabulary, grammar, or conversation skills, Cudoo’s Bengali courses will prove to be engaging and effective. Even better, you can take them at your own pace and even get a certificate after each course.
italki: italki is the best place to arrange online classes. Here, you can choose between community and professional tutors, schedule lessons, and get a personalized learning plan!
Supriyo Sen: This website will teach you how to read and write the Bangla script through English phonetics. Requires registration before use.
uTalk: This app focuses on practical vocabulary and phrases for everyday situations, helping you build confidence in speaking. The interactive games and recording features make practicing pronunciation engaging.
Clozemaster: Clozemaster uses a similarly-competitive learning platform to teach you the Bengali language in context. Containing games and media files, it’s practically the perfect place to get intermediate and advanced lessons from.
Simply Learn Bengali: This multipurpose phrasebook app is equipped with audio-supported flashcards, a playful review quiz, and a spaced-repetition learning system to keep your brain sharp! The Bengali phrases are presented in both original and phonetic writing for your convenience.
- Nasrin, Mithun B. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 288 Pages – 07/01/2015 (Publication Date) – Routledge (Publisher)
Colloquial Bengali: Another gem from Routledge’s Colloquials series, Colloquial Bengali features extensive lessons on speaking, listening, reading, and writing which beginners would enjoy! Comes with online mp3 audio.
Forvo: Forvo’s online pronunciation dictionary is just the right tool to help you speak Bengali. Simply search up the word you’re struggling to say, and play out the audio file it provides—it’s that easy!
Hoichoi TV: With a subscription, you can browse through one of the largest online catalogs of Bengali movies and TV shows! Complete with English subtitles.
Conclusion
With all of these Bengali learning apps, books, games, and media combined, you won’t have to wait for Duolingo to come up with a course of its own.
Rather, you’ve got plenty of alternatives out there to get you fluent fast, starting with these three platforms!