The need to preserve African languages and culture post-colonisation is essential, and thoughtful entrepreneurs have developed efficient apps for this course.
Many language-learning apps cater to more popular tongues, but there’s a rising awareness of the need to preserve and honour lesser-known languages, like those spoken across Africa’s diverse and expansive continent.
Exploring the world of African language-learning apps, this article emphasises how important these apps are for fostering cultural understanding, linguistic diversity, and connection.
Read also: Microsoft adds 13 new African languages to its translation service
Some of the top apps for African languages
Memrise
Courses in Swahili, Yoruba, and Zulu are available on Memrise, a platform that uses an innovative method that blends memory techniques with interactive learning. Memrise enhances the learning experience by incorporating video and audio content created by native speakers. To help users remember new words, the app also has mnemonic devices.
uTalk
Available Languages: uTalk provides a wide range of African languages, such as Swahili, Zulu, Yoruba, Hausa, and countless more. Amusing games, quizzes, and conversational exercises are part of the app’s feature set, which is designed with the user in mind. To further aid students in understanding the subtleties of pronunciation, it also includes audio from native speakers.
uTalk is great for people who are just starting out with a language and want to learn some basic phrases. Although it does not provide detailed language instruction or grammar explanations, it could be helpful for intermediates looking to fill gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation.
DuoLingo
Courses in Swahili, Yoruba, and Zulu are available on DuoLingo, making it a great resource for anyone looking to learn these African languages. The gamified nature of DuoLingo’s language learning system makes it fun and efficient. The app includes activities involving speaking, listening, and translating to help users improve their language abilities.
Nkenna
You can learn African languages like Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, Swahili, and Somali on NKENNE, which helps to create a community of people who speak these languages. Prepared by world-renowned educators, these lessons are supplemented with instructional resources like games, flashcards, quizzes, and progress monitors
Izesan
Originally developed for the Esan language, Izesan now offers lessons in fifteen other African tongues, including Fulfulde, Xhosa, Kanuri, Tiv, Hausa, Zulu, Yoruba, and Jamaican Creole. Learn various African languages with the help of this app’s interactive lessons that include flashcards and other exercises. The ability to arrange individualised study sessions with qualified instructors is a prominent feature of the app’s private 1-on-1 lessons.
The importance of safeguarding African languages
The rich cultural tapestry of Africa is reflected in the more than 2,000 languages spoken there. But a lot of these languages are in danger of dying out because of things like urbanisation, globalisation, and the prevalence of colonial languages.
Keeping African languages alive is important for many reasons, including transmitting traditional wisdom, narratives, and values from one generation to the next and preserving cultural identity. An easy and engaging way to promote and revive African languages is through language-learning applications.
Breaking down geographical barriers and promoting a sense of global community, language-learning apps make African languages accessible to a global audience.
Apps like this use interactive and immersive learning techniques to help users engage with the language in a more dynamic way than with more conventional approaches.
Mutual Appreciation: The two are inseparable; one cannot exist without the other. Users gain a deeper understanding of the rich histories, diverse traditions, and cultural practices linked to African lanages as they learn them through these apps.
Users aid in the survival of languages in danger of extinction by studying and using African languages, which are themselves in danger of extinction.
The proliferation of language-learning apps is a direct result of the exponential growth in the capacity of modern technology to facilitate cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.
The availability of language-specific applications on the African continent helps spread the word about the continent’s rich linguistic history while also making it easier for people to learn new languages. The rich history and varied cultures of Africa are preserved in the many languages spoken by its people, and these apps can help users discover more about them.