Markus Castro
Duolingo, the world’s #1 language learning platform and the most downloaded educational app worldwide, extends the fun of learning to the Philippines through a much loved Filipino activity– the Karaoke!
True to its core of learning while having fun, Duolingo introduces its latest course: English for the Tagalog Speakers through Duolingo Duet.
The Duolingo Duet is a singing challenge that appeals to the competitive and fun-loving nature of the Filipinos. Duolingo encourages everyone to translate and sing no less than the iconic song “Äwitin Mo At Isasayaw Ko” in English and upload those on their social media pages.
Designed to be engaging and communicative, the English for the Tagalog Speakers course helps the beginner English speakers or those who want to brush up on their basic English skills. It allows the users to learn key grammar concepts and useful phrases. Quirky sentences were also included, such as “You’ll give me a bad haircut!” and “You already drank three cups of coffee this morning!”, or even the very popular, “It’s more fun in the Philippines!”
“We know nothing makes Filipinos happier than singing karaoke together. During the special time when everyone gets a little bit stressed, Duolingo wants to share the fun of learning a new language to a wider audience.” Haina Xiang, Marketing Director for Duolingo, explained. As the language App known for being fun and quirky, the course also aims to figure out the best words, sentences and exercises to use in the course, to minimize the risk of concepts getting lost in translation as they are translated from English to Filipino or vice versa.
English as a social mobility door opener
While the Philippines is generally an English proficient country, surveys for the annual English Proficiency Index shows that there is a consistent drop in the country’s ranking since 2016.
While more than 75% of the Philippine population understands English, fluency in English has been associated with higher educational attainment, door-opener to power and social mobility. The divide starts young, as those who went to private schools are perceived to have more English fluency compared to those who went to public schools.
Through the English for the Tagalog speakers course, Duolingo’s mission of developing the best education in the world and making it universally available, expands to the Philippines.
For those who are already proficient in English. Duolingo offers a total of more than 100 courses across 41 distinct languages to choose from, including Japanese, Korean, Spanish and more.
According to Haina Xiang, the App has an existing learner base in PH who studies at a peak of around 9-10 PM. Filipinos on average spend 15 min a day on the app.
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