MORE than 65,000 people in five days have signed up to learn Gaelic after it was launched on the free language tuition website Duolingo.
The figure is higher than the number of people who identified as Gaelic speakers in the last census.
The Scottish Gaelic course was launched in the run-up to St Andrew’s Day last week, with nearly 20,000 people signed up ahead of its release.
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It has now accrued more than 65,000 learners in just five days, the developers said. According to the last census in 2011, 57,375 people could speak Scottish Gaelic and Edinburgh University has suggested 5460 are currently studying on other platforms – 62,835 in total.
Colin Watkins, Duolingo’s country manager in the UK, said: “To have more people learning on Duolingo in under a week than can speak the language or are currently learning elsewhere is amazing.
“It’s testament to how easy, fun and effective learning on Duolingo can be whether it’s learning Scottish Gaelic or Spanish, Latin or Japanese. We’ve seen everyone from Alex Massie, Sanjeev Kohli, Irn-Bru and the author of Outlander get involved.
“We hope people from across Scotland sign up and start learning. At the very least it will help you understand place names and road signs.”
Watkins did, however, point out that Gaelic has “still some way to go to catch Esperanto, Navajo and Klingon”, which have around 300,000 users each.
Users learn a language by playing various games including typing words or phrases, matching grammar and also speaking or listening to sentences to earn “crowns” and progress their knowledge through a number of levels.
Words and phrases in early rounds of learning Scottish Gaelic include boy and girl, various animals, and discussing chicken and Irn-Bru.
Ahead of the course’s launch, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “The Gaelic language is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural identity and we want to ensure those who wish to learn and use the language are given every opportunity to do so.”
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