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Are you learning Slovenian? You, my friend, are on the right track!
Slovenian (or Slovene) is a beautiful and rich language that belongs to the South Slavic branch of the Indo-European family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million people, mostly in Slovenia, where it is the official and national language. It is also one of the 24 official languages of the European Union.
Learning Slovenian can open up many opportunities for you, whether you want to travel, work, study, or communicate with Slovenian speakers. It can also enrich your cultural and linguistic knowledge, as Slovenian has a complex and fascinating history, grammar, and vocabulary.
One of the best ways to learn Slovenian effectively and enjoyably is through mobile apps. Unfortunately, if you’re thinking of studying Slovenian on Duolingo, you’ll have to look for other options. A Duolingo Slovenian course is not available.
The good news is, there are several apps that offer Slovenian courses or features that can help you learn this language. Some of these apps are similar to Duolingo in their approach and design, while others offer unique advantages. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner, you will find something useful from this list.
Why is Slovenian not on Duolingo?
Duolingo is a well-known language-learning app that uses a gamified approach to make learning fun and effective. With its bite-sized lessons, you can learn new words and pronunciation (and somehow grasp a bit of grammar) in three to five minutes. Plus, you can earn rewards, unlock new levels, and compete with other learners.
But aside from being fun to use, Duolingo is also free (with ads). And it has a pretty wide roster of over 100 courses in 40 languages. Sadly, Slovenian (and most Balkan languages), is not one of those. Why?
One of the main reasons is that there is not enough demand for Slovenian. Duolingo creates courses based on the number of users who are interested in learning a certain language. Slovenian is not a very popular language for native English speakers to learn, compared to other languages like German, Italian, or Mandarin.
Duolingo used to have a volunteer-run program where one could see if a course was being added to the line-up and just how far it was in development. But with the shutdown of the Duolingo Incubator, there’s no way to know if a Slovenian course is being made. I wouldn’t count on it as it wasn’t announced on the last Duocon.
However, this does not mean that you cannot learn Slovenian and have fun with it. There are many Duolingo alternatives for serious Slovenian learners. Keep reading to find out more about them.
The best Duolingo alternatives for learning Slovenian
Whether you’re aiming to increase your vocabulary or develop your Slovenian pronunciation, these apps will do the trick.
1. Ling App
With over 200 bite-sized lessons, Ling Slovenian provides a comprehensive and interactive way to learn the language. The app offers a variety of features such as conversation topics, mini-games, and quizzes to help you practice your skills and track your progress.
To help you master Slovenian pronunciation and accent, you can listen to the audio clips featuring the voices of native speakers. And to improve your conversational skills, you can practice conversing with the chatbot.
Overall, Ling is user-friendly and engaging, and helps you learn the language in a way that feels more like playing rather than studying.
Key features:
- Fun mini-games and challenges for beginners and beyond
- Listening and speaking drills
- Chatbot to practice daily conversations
2. Memrise
If your goal is to sound like a local, it’s worth diving into Memrise’s Slovenian course. It’s designed around audio and video clips featuring native speakers in their native contexts and real-life scenarios.
Memrise helps you learn useful and authentic Slovenian phrases to talk about what you’re actually interested in. Sure, you won’t get comprehensive lessons on grammar rules but you’ll hear Slovenian the way it’s spoken by locals.
To review and test your learning, you can take the quizzes after each lesson. You can also chat with MemBot to practice your speaking skills.
Key features:
- Learn practical and contextual vocabulary
- Hear Slovenian pronunciation from native speakers
- Challenging tests to reinforce lessons and improve skills
3. Glossika
Another strong option for improving your Slovenian listening and speaking skills is Glossika. This unique app has thousands of full sentences to help you acquire vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation naturally.
Basically, learning Slovenian on Glossika involves listening to and repeating sentences, which helps learners pick up the rhythm, structure, and patterns of the language. You can do this either with the full-practice mode (an intense training session) or the listening-only mode which can be done hands-free. Both modes allow you to record your voice so you can train your speaking skills.
Also worth mentioning is that Glossika personalizes your learning content by assessing your level and giving you something that’s one step beyond that for you to practice. This, along with the app’s SRS-based review system, helps improve recall.
Key features:
- Learning Slovenian words within the context of sentences
- High-quality native speaker audio clips
- Listening mode for hands-free learning
Other great resources to learn Slovenian
Ling, Memrise, and Glossika are perfect to get you started in your Slovenian learning journey. But these are not your only options. Below are more resources to help you down the road.
Italki: Find dedicated online Slovenian tutors on italki and get one-on-one lessons that can help you meet your learning goals. You can filter your options by checking their specialties, rates, and availability.
Colloquial Slovene: This comprehensive guide is designed to provide a step-by-step course to Slovenian as it is written and spoken today. It includes a wide range of exercises for regular practice, a full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries, and English translations of dialogues.
Cudoo: Find a range of online courses designed to help you learn the language anytime, anywhere. The courses are available in various levels, from beginner to advanced, and include 131 lessons in total. There’s also a Business Slovenian course for those who are planning a business trip or looking for a job in a Slovenian company.
- Slovene Dictionary Phrasebook By Snoj Nina
- Snoj, Nina (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Slovene Dictionary & Phrasebook: This bilingual dictionary and phrasebook contains over 3,500 entries for English speakers traveling in Slovenia. You’ll learn not just basic vocabulary terms but also Slovene slang and cultural information such as a brief history of the Slovene people.
50 Languages: Part-online course, part-phrasebook, 50 Languages features 100 easy Slovenian lessons designed for beginners. All dialogues and sentences are recorded by native speakers, and no prior grammar knowledge is required. The course is also available via the Android and iOS apps and as a paperback phrasebook.
uTalk: With over 2500 words and phrases, across 60+ topics covering everyday situations, uTalk lets you learn Slovenian online with practical, real-life situations. The app also provides fun game-based lessons that help improve your conversational skills.
Slovene: A Comprehensive Grammar: If you need a solid reference guide to contemporary Slovenian, look no further. This Routledge book provides a jargon-free and systematic description of all parts of speech to help you get an in-depth understanding of the language.
Slovene Learning Online: Developed at the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language in cooperation with the company DigiEd, this platform provides a free self-paced online course. Covering a wide range of topics covering everyday situations, including over 2500 words and phrases, this course is a good resource for improving your listening, reading, and writing skills.
Sloleks: This comprehensive online dictionary of Slovenian morphology is an ideal resource for understanding Slovenian cases and forms. It contains over 100,000 entries plus essential information on their part-of-speech category and their grammatical features.
Sandra Potisek: Sandra’s YouTube channel features a variety of travel-related content, including in-depth travel guides and tips on both Slovenia and London. But she has a playlist dedicated to Slovenian language lessons. The videos are short but insightful.
Conclusion
Despite the lack of a Duolingo Slovenian course, I hope you continue to study this beautiful language. As you can see from the list above, there are many resources you can tap to learn Slovenian and have fun while at it!
And if you’ve tried any of these apps, books, and websites, which one’s your favorite? Share in the comments below!