If you are looking to go and visit the beautiful country of Switzerland, you are going to want to be able to communicate with the locals so that you can get around easily. If you want to communicate with those who live in Switzerland, then you are going to have to learn Swiss German. However, does Duolingo teach Swiss German?
Duolingo does not offer the language of Swiss German, as it isn’t its own, separate language. Swiss German is a dialect of German, which Duolingo does offer courses for. If someone learns and knows German, the vast majority of Swiss people will be able to understand and hold conversations with them.
So, while Duolingo doesn’t offer a specific course for the dialect of Swiss German, it still is a great method for learning different languages and has a massive variety of different courses offered including German. So throughout the rest of the article, I will give you more information about Duolingo, its language options, and all you need to know to start learning Swiss German.
How Duolingo Teaches
Learning with Duolingo is fun, and research shows that it works! With quick, bite-sized lessons, you’ll earn points and unlock new levels while gaining real-world communication skills. One of the biggest reasons that Duolingo has become so effective and popular is due to the app making the language learning process into a game that is fun for anyone of any age.
According to Duolingo, they make their language learning process both effective and fun through just 4 simple methods. These methods are:
- Being Effective & Efficient. The Duolingo courses effectively and efficiently teach reading, listening, and speaking skills. This can be seen through some of the latest research!
- Making The Learning Experience Personalized. Combining the best of AI and language science, lessons are tailored to help you learn at just the right level and pace.
- Keeping You Motivated to Learn. We make it easy to form a habit of language learning, with game-like features, fun challenges, and reminders from the friendly mascot, Duo the owl.
- Just Making It Fun. Duolingo teaches that effective learning doesn’t have to be boring! And that you can build your skills each day with engaging exercises and playful characters.
List Of Duolingo Language Options
Duolingo is one of the best places to go when you are looking to learn a new language, as it helps millions of people learn a variety of different languages. Duolingo has many different languages that you can learn, and even when you are learning a difficult language, Duolingo helps make it fun and easy.
The languages that Duolingo offers include:
- Spanish (30.9M learners)
- French (18.5M learners)
- Japanese (12.9M learners)
- German (10.8M learners)
- Korean (10.8M learners)
- Hindi (7.47M learners)
- Italian (7.32M learners)
- Chinese (5.93M learners)
- Russian (5.18M learners)
- Arabic (4.00M learners)
- Turkish (2.94M learners)
- Portuguese (2.85M learners)
- Dutch (1.86M learners)
- Vietnamese (1.77M learners)
- Greek (1.50M learners)
- Latin (1.47M learners)
- Swedish (1.46M learners)
- Polish (1.42M learners)
- Ukrainian (1.37M learners)
- Irish (1.35M learners)
- Norwegian (Bokmål) (1.15M learners)
- Hebrew (973K learners)
- Indonesian (773K learners)
- Danish (655K learners)
- Finnish (637K learners)
- High Valyrian (613K learners)
- Hawaiian (608K learners)
- Romanian (603K learners)
- Czech (558K learners)
- Welsh (531K learners)
- Scottish Gaelic (445K learners)
- Swahili (439K learners)
- Hungarian (415K learners)
- Haitian Creole (373K learners)
- Klingon (305K learners)
- Esperanto (299K learners)
- Yiddish (292K learners)
- Navajo (288K learners)
- Zulu (68.7K learners)
- Xhosa (Being developed)
Is Swiss German a Hard Language to Learn?
When it comes to the hardest languages to learn, German is not in the top ten, however, it isn’t in the top ten of the easiest languages to learn either. Overall, German is one of those languages that will be difficult for some, easy for others, and for most people, it will be a language that takes a while to learn.
One of the main reasons German isn’t all that hard to learn is that German and English originate from the same language families and share more similarities than you probably realize.
Both German and English are Indo-European languages that stem from the Germanic family of languages. About 40% of German vocabulary is similar to English vocabulary, which is good news for native English speakers!
Since both languages developed separately from the same shared ancestor, they still share a large number of cognates. Cognates are words that are pronounced or spelled similarly in two different languages that also have similar meanings. And the good news is that English and German share a lot of them!
Differences Between German and Swiss German
Swiss German is not a language, but rather an umbrella term for the collection of Alemannic dialects that are spoken in Switzerland. Each canton has its unique dialect and manner of speaking, which is why Standard German (Schriftdeutsch) is used in formal settings, official documents, schools and universities, news, films, literature, etc.
Swiss German is also used when writing, for example, personal letters or text messages. However, since there is no official Standard of Swiss German, there are no set rules for writing and speaking. Even so, the Swiss can make some generalizations and compare it to Standard German in order to have a better grasp of it.
There are several differences between Swiss German and Standard German when it comes to spelling and pronunciation. In general, the Swiss tend to shorten words and sounds.
Other Online Swiss German Language Sites
The vast majority of the apps that will be able to help you learn Swiss German are German apps that default to using German as the base language, so you are going to want to know German before beginning to learn Swiss German.
Grüezi Switzerland
A great app for just learning about Switzerland, the Grüezi Switzerland app offers information about the country and will also have courses so that you will be able to learn Swiss German. However, this app is in German, so you will need to know German before using it.
uTalk Swiss German
uTalk Swiss German is an online website that teaches the Bernese dialect of Swiss German. This website is available in English, but since it is teaching a specific dialect, it is highly recommended that you have a good foundation in the German language before starting a Swiss German course.