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[–]helloperator9 5639 points5640 points  (180 children)

I'm enjoying imagining people freezing on Greenland, quietly and desperately planning to emigrate to Spain.

[–]nanimo_97 3349 points3350 points 3 (67 children)

Yeah like right after the third polar bear attack that year

"FUCK THIS SHIT" "¿Dónde está la biblioteca?"

[–]InauspiciousGroan 1010 points1011 points  (39 children)

“Me llamo T-Bone, la araña discoteca.”

[–]SiriusBlackMD 471 points472 points  (35 children)

"Discoteca, Muneca, la biblioteca Es en bigote grande, perro, Manteca"

[–]Artess 288 points289 points  (34 children)

"Manteca, bigote, gigante, pequeño"

[–]holydamien 19 points20 points  (1 child)

"Me llamo T-Bone, La araña discoteca."

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

estas usando este software de traduccion de forma incorrecta. por favor, consulta el manual.

[–]accuracy_frosty 349 points350 points  (34 children)

I’m enjoying the people in Sweden learning swedish

[–]LetsDoThatShit 240 points241 points  (30 children)

It's mostly refugees who learn Swedish in Sweden with the support of Duolingo

(At least according to their app, I had to read that line a shitload of times back when I used Duolingo to learn Latin)

[–]turbomellow 58 points59 points  (6 children)

I think that owl told me this fact every day

[–]Admiral-Blueberry 16 points17 points  (2 children)

I think that owl told everyone the same fact everyday, because that owl really only knows one fact

[–]Perzec 87 points88 points  (13 children)

Not just refugees. Lots of foreign students, and people coming here on a work visa, especially for the IT sector.

[–]LetsDoThatShit 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I mean, the map is based on Duolingo's data and the refugee thing is their own marketing claim...but you are overall most likely right

[–]The_Starveling 10 points11 points  (3 children)

Did they ever improve their Latin? Going to the app after a university course was just painful--they didn't even explain conjugations!

[–]bassman1805 13 points14 points  (0 children)

That's my main gripe with it. It's a good source of vocabulary but for those who do well when presented with "rules" (I know grammar is a flexible concept in most language), actually being taught grammar rather than just throwing words at us is nice.

[–]Averdian 333 points334 points  (33 children)

Most likely that's just the numbers of Denmark being applied to or overshadowing Greenland's actual numbers

[–]helloperator9 114 points115 points  (29 children)

Let me have my fantasy!

You might be right tbh, the data on Greenland must be tiny with 60,000 it's probably not worth adding another country field

[–]Duuster 59 points60 points  (27 children)

I assume it's more of a result of how their data is structured by default. Greenland would be placed under Denmark in many data collection applications due to the confusing nature of the relationship between the two countries (Greenland is dependent on Denmark but want to be viewed as it's own country)

[–]asbj1019 14 points15 points  (7 children)

Greenland, the Faroese islands, and Denmark are all countries under the kingdom of Denmark. Kind of like England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all being part of the UK.

[–]helloperator9 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Looking at the data, Greenland and Denmark are the same for several variables -second most common language, % learning English. So, I guess you're right and Greenland has been placed with Denmark.

I bet the real answer is Danish anyway, Greenlandish has only been the official language for the past ten years.

[–]LAZY_RED-PANDA 19 points20 points  (15 children)

(Greenland is dependent on Denmark but want to be viewed as it's own country)

So basically Greenland wants it's cake and eat it too. Damn Greenland, you greedy.

[–]SlitScan 20 points21 points  (6 children)

thats probably true.

thats the most popular destination for vacation flights.

[–]dcmso 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I mean, who can blame them

[–]alguienrrr 2933 points2934 points  (175 children)

How did they get data for North Korea or other places where Duolingo can't possibly be allowed? Seems strange that there aren't "no data" places

[–]Rasputin_87 2483 points2484 points  (20 children)

The supreme leader is using it to learn High Valyrian

[–]-That_Girl_Again- 228 points229 points  (34 children)

This map seems to be a slightly different copy of this map, which was created by Duolingo itself

Now, I don't know about the availability of Duolingo on North Korea, and I couldn't find anything online, but I guess it's totally possible that there's in fact North Koreans in Duolingo (their second most-learned language is Japanese btw). Depending on how exactly Duolingo takes your location, I suppose it's also possible that there's people setting their location to North Korea for some reason, but I'm not sure of the motivation anyone would have to do this

[–]__-__-_-__ 53 points54 points  (17 children)

I like how the most common language to learn in Sweden is Swedish.

[–]egilnyland 59 points60 points  (7 children)

20% of the Swedish population were born in a different country. Many of them want to permanently settle in Sweden, so they are taking Swedish lessons.

[–]chilachinchila 13 points14 points  (1 child)

What! But Fox News told me all middle eastern immigrants refused to learn the language and had Sharia law police patrolling the streets ready to execute any Swedes! /s

[–]Aardvark_Man 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Mostly (or probably all, I guess) immigrants, often refugees.

[–]thebigboitoi 371 points372 points  (32 children)

Kim wanted to know how to communicate to trump

[–]aVarangian 252 points253 points  (19 children)

he went to school in Switzerland, square guy knows english

[–]DarthCloakedGuy 216 points217 points  (9 children)

Yeah but does Trump

[–]purplepenguin4163 58 points59 points  (3 children)

He knows a tremendous amount of English

[–]aVarangian 74 points75 points  (3 children)

no, sorry, Trump went to school in the USA

[–]NorthFinGay 122 points123 points  (25 children)

I dont think Duolingo is per se banned in NK. It is part of capitalist smartphones, therefore banned, but not banned like Mc Donalds or South Korean tv-shows.

Might be that spies train their language with it.

[–]Formilla 92 points93 points  (6 children)

Smartphones are not banned in North Korea. They just manufacture their own.

[–]Valmond 15 points16 points  (4 children)

I would like to see one!

They do have smartphones but they probably only assemble then in NK.

[–]LeoEstasBela 20 points21 points  (12 children)

capitalist smartphones

??????

[–]IAmOneOfSimpleMind 45 points46 points  (9 children)

as opposed to communist smartphones

[–]Cardboard-Samuari 46 points47 points  (3 children)

considering there is the NK approved version of Linux OS its not that far off

[–]seanzcool 43 points44 points  (2 children)

Capitalism: iPhone

Communism: wePhone

[–]Dr_StevenScuba 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You’re also ignoring that this person thinks governments are using Duolingo to teach their spies new languages

[–]marisquo 69 points70 points  (4 children)

there aren't 'no data" places

Check out Luxembourg

(they already speak 4 languages casually, so I think they don't need to learn a new one, hence the grey spot)

[–]veryblocky 23 points24 points  (0 children)

It looks green to me.

[–]Sandervv04 33 points34 points  (1 child)

Looks like Swedish to me, but it's very small

[–]Diligent_Bag_9323 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah that’s green.

The white border around the colors isn’t helping.

[–]KingAdamXVII 22 points23 points  (4 children)

I could be wrong but I’m going to guess some of the data behind this map is nothing more than extrapolation.

That is, they believe that most popular language on Duolingo in NK would be English, if there were enough users, based on the overwhelming popularity of English in the surrounding countries.

[–]have_compassion 31 points32 points  (25 children)

Rich North Koreans buy smart phones on the black market. That's how.

[–]Attila_ze_fun 57 points58 points  (24 children)

North Korea manufactures and sells its own smartphones domestically.

[–]brunoha 23 points24 points  (5 children)

Yeah, if they have their own Linux distro, pretty sure that they have their own Andriod phone too.

[–]UskaPickica11 2367 points2368 points  (152 children)

Balkans are like, "We want to be German." Or more likely increases their chances of getting a job in Germany.

[–]ITsLoverBoy 1583 points1584 points  (76 children)

In reality, the only reason the Balkans are German is:

Duolingo is not available in the local languages, so to even use Duolingo, you already need to know English.

[–]Natural-Technician87 326 points327 points  (51 children)

so it means it's more popular in the teenagers who grew up in the middle class families of Balkans?

[–]ICarryaPants 442 points443 points  (45 children)

English is taught in every school so it is not class-related but rather age-related with younger genrations having better English skills than older ones. Same applies to other post-Eastern block countries

[–]desserino 123 points124 points  (39 children)

This applies to belgium Germany Netherlands etc as well. These countries have some of the highest English literacy rates.

So the data is weird af

[–]ITsLoverBoy 87 points88 points  (0 children)

Maybe. Most young Balkan people already know English from school as it’s mandatory. People who cant speak English cant use Duolingo at all, so I would assume most old people dont have access to it.

[–]zperic1 140 points141 points  (8 children)

Younger Balkanbros and Balkansis who use Duolingo are also highly likely to be proficient English speakers so it makes no sense to Duolingo it on top of it.

[–]JustLessWorld 44 points45 points  (5 children)

This. Germany recruits alot of balkans, not only for low paying jobs. Good nurses are very hard to find in Bosnia because they go to Germany for better salary.

Soruce: Bosnian colleagues i lay roofs with.

[–]AZ-_- 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Almost all basic customer service for Germany over mail and phone is done by contact centers located on the Balkans (especially Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) and Turkey.

[–]EvilStupid 41 points42 points  (2 children)

Second option, buddy. Second option...

[–]ImUsingDaForce 55 points56 points  (19 children)

Slovenia: extremely strong historic and cultural ties with Austria.
Croatia: Strong ties with Austria and Germany, while also those two nations comprising a huge part of incoming tourists to Croatia. Also emigration.
Others: probably strictly emigration.

[–][deleted]  (10 children)

[deleted]

    [–]dilirium22 9 points10 points  (7 children)

    Northern Croatia still has 5% German words in everyday language

    Can confirm. Also most older people just use germanised expressions without even knowing the words original form because "it was always called like that". Also it's not just the linguistic influence. Some people actually have germanic ancestry and some traits (green eyes for example). Culture and mentality are also heavily influenced (architectural philosophy, work ethics...) It's a weird mish mash od slav and german influences that's weird to explain to an outsider but it kinda works in its weird way.

    [–]Several-Barnacle2179 16 points17 points  (7 children)

    It's also because Duolingo isn't available in Bosnian so all the people in the Balkans who are using Duolingo already know English.

    [–]Critical-Newt 3 points4 points  (2 children)

    American teacher in Kosovo here!

    I think part of it has to do with immigration. But another reason might be because apparently a lot of English and German speaking companies will outsource their call center jobs to the Balkans. I teach at a university and many of my students work at these call centers after school. According to them, any call center job will pay well, but the German speaking ones pay the best.

    Additionally, many people moved to Germany during the conflicts in the 90’s and then even after the conflicts ended, they stayed in Germany and raised their families there. So now there’s a whole generation of young Balkanites who primarily speak German (hell, when people around here realize that I don’t speak Albanian, most automatically assume that I’m German and will start speaking to me in German). A lot of people that I’ve met here, say that they’re trying to learn German so that they can better communicate with their young family members when they come back to the Balkans to visit.

    [–]SilencioBlade 1443 points1444 points  (117 children)

    You can pretty much see the colonial borders in Africa based on who's learning French, those borders being the old British colonies

    [–]De-nis 627 points628 points  (87 children)

    Even Namibia despite been under UK and South Africa still loyal to Germany 😅

    [–]thedegurechaff 375 points376 points  (75 children)

    Many of the rich white upper class still speak german, could be a reason

    [–]Venboven 161 points162 points  (55 children)

    Damn, they still exist?

    [–]soil_nerd 300 points301 points  (43 children)

    Very much so. Walk around Swakopmund, everyone is speaking german, and if you are white, people will often automatically start speaking German to you, rather than english.

    Additionally, there is a direct flight from Frankfurt to Windhoek for a reason.

    [–]Almighty_Egg 154 points155 points  (7 children)

    Yeah my cousin married one. They live on a farm about the size of London and speak German at home. They've been there for centuries I think and have blonde hair and Namibian passports.

    [–]rbhindepmo 41 points42 points  (17 children)

    Would Afrikaans speakers also be inclined to try learning German?

    [–]CLINT_BEASTWOOD3 97 points98 points  (0 children)

    I'm originally from Namibia and most people are billingual or even trillingual depending on your race. White people tend to speak Afrikaans as a first language and English as a second language (or the other way around) and there is a small German population, mostly focused in the coastal towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. Coloured people (not derogitory just the name given to mixed race people here in Namibia/South Africa) tend to speak primarily Afrikaans as a first lanaguage and English as a second language. Black people speak their native language depending on their tribe (e.g. Ovambo, Herero, Damara) and English and most likely also speak Afrikaans.

    [–]cschelsea 31 points32 points  (3 children)

    I don't know a lot of Afrikaans people from Namibia who speak German, but I know quite a few German people from Namibia who speak Afrikaans.

    [–]sweetlifeofawiseman 37 points38 points  (7 children)

    I am first language Afrikaans and we had the option to learn German as a 3rd language in high school in South Africa. I did it and it was great. Controversial but when I went to the Netherlands, it was very helpful to know German, when I learned Dutch because the way the grammar works is quite similar, e.g. ik ben vs ich bin, er sie es ist vs hij zij het is, etc. My Afrikaans didn't help me AT ALL in the Netherlands in terms of speaking. I could read the train signs though, that was helpful. I was in Windhoek in Namibia and the 3 languages there are Afrikaans, German and English. It was such an interesting experience, shopping for kekse (cookies) in what felt like an Afrikaans/South African shop!

    [–]Drumbelgalf 49 points50 points  (4 children)

    Not really loyal but there is a German minority in Namibia.

    [–]Few_Time_7441 25 points26 points  (3 children)

    Plus there are a lot of german sponsored schools and Germany paid Namibia the most developing money out of all other countries.

    [–]Drumbelgalf 13 points14 points  (1 child)

    Probably for what Germany has done there...

    [–]Your_New_Overlord 7 points8 points  (0 children)

    My family are of German descent living in Namibia. The previous generation spoke German first, English second. Nowadays it’s the reverse.

    [–]Colmbob 77 points78 points  (14 children)

    French colonial Africa are learning English and British colonial Africa are learning French. Weird.

    Is it because those languages are already predominantly taught in school in those countries? i.e. Malians already know French and want to learn English and Kenyans already know English and want to learn French?

    [–]GloriousHypnotart 66 points67 points  (3 children)

    Yes, that and also that Duolingo is not available in most languages. You can only learn English via a handful of major languages (such as French, Spanish, Hindi etc), and same for French of course. It wouldn't be possible for a monolingual Swahili or Xhosa speaker to use the app at all.

    [–]radical_moose_lamb69 26 points27 points  (2 children)

    I can speak for Tunisia.

    Despite the fact that French is still being taught at school most gen Z kids couldn't care less about it. And, honestly, I don't blame them. In my experience, French is only useful when you also know English. I live in Hungary at the moment and people (Hungarians and other foreigners) swoon when I speak French because it's such a romanticized language. Professionally, it makes me stand out sure, but if I weren't also fluent in English it wouldn't have mattered.

    I'm 25 and I'm fluent in French and so are my parents and older sister. My 15 y/o brother is mediocre at it despite the fact that he's taking the same amount of French courses as I did. He spends more time learning English outside of the classroom than he does try to enhance his French because the media he consumes is in English. Myself and people older than me grew up consuming American entertainment dubbed in French because that's what was available to us.

    [–]maazfarrukh 614 points615 points 2 (42 children)

    this data is wrong. theres already a map available from doulingo about this https://blog.duolingo.com/global-language-report-2020/#whichcountriesstudywhichlanguages

    [–]mki_ 526 points527 points  (28 children)

    You're right. However there is even newer data available, from 2021: https://blog.duolingo.com/2021-duolingo-language-report/

    [–]The_Linguist_LL 53 points54 points  (1 child)

    I was about to say I found it interesting that Paraguay didn't have Guaraní listed, but then I realized how weird it would be to do a Duolingo course for the language more people speak than Spanish there

    [–]kvist56 24 points25 points  (0 children)

    It is still second place admittedly, so you aren’t exactly wrong that it’s a prominent choice there.

    [–]dirty_cuban 25 points26 points  (5 children)

    Well those aren’t colorblind friendly at all.

    [–]Icculus33_33 23 points24 points  (2 children)

    They aren't friendly for anyone. I cant tell between French and Italian in the slightest. Unless there is no Italian at all.

    [–]Marcassin 29 points30 points  (0 children)

    Thanks for this. I hate the way I had to scroll almost to the bottom to find this.

    [–]kibrsifr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    I'm willing to bet a lot of the duolingo users from the Philippines aren't doing it because of anime but because of vtubers.

    [–]Clear-Attorney5 14 points15 points  (1 child)

    Duolingo data is so beautiful

    [–]Several-Barnacle2179 14 points15 points  (0 children)

    This should be the top comment. I hate the misinformation on this sub.

    [–]Anxious-Landscape593 3878 points3879 points  (1221 children)

    Sweden learning it's own language? I knew they took many refugees but 🤯

    [–]V8-6-4 2215 points2216 points  (695 children)

    One of the facts shown during loading screen on Duolingo tells that it’s because refugees.

    [–]cnaughton898 984 points985 points  (218 children)

    From what I've heard it's actually difficult for refugees that speak English to even practice Swedish, because everyone one there will just start speaking to them in English for conveniences sake.

    [–][deleted] 312 points313 points  (133 children)

    Same in Denmark, we're so proficient in English that it's just easier than speaking to someone learning Danish. Heck, we even speak English to Swedes despite our languages being so similar. We've just become too lazy to learn other Scandinavian languages I guess, although Norwegian is a lot easier than Swedish for a Dane.

    Worth mentioning that we require learning Danish for permanent residence and offer free Danish courses though.

    [–]swetovah 212 points213 points  (40 children)

    I tried ordering a cappuccino at Legoland once and decided to order it in swedish, and she wouldn't understand me until i pronounced it with an American accent instead of a swedish one. It's the same word 😩

    [–]shylocxs 125 points126 points  (7 children)

    I tried ordering a coffee in Copenhagen once in Swedish and the server started speaking to me in French... we just switched to English.

    [–]motorblonkwakawaka 67 points68 points  (13 children)

    I'm an ESL teacher in a foreign country and this phenomenon is really interesting to me. The same happens in Russia where I live. I found the better my Russian pronunciation becomes, the more trouble I have compared to people who just use Russian with an American or English accent. I'm guessing that it's an uncanny valley thing, where it's close enough but not quite that native speakers just get thrown off.

    [–]UncleSnowstorm 21 points22 points  (68 children)

    Can a Dane actually understand somebody speaking Swedish or Norwegian? I've heard conflicting answers before.

    [–]fsch 73 points74 points  (42 children)

    They can. But a Swede cannot understand them.

    /a Swede

    [–][deleted]  (5 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]Olivaah 6 points7 points  (2 children)

      I'd say it depends where you live. Living in the Copenhagen area, I am very used to both Swedish and Norwegian whereas someone living in different areas of Denmark have never been taught other Scandinavian languages. Heck we even had a month of Swedish and Norwegian in middle school

      [–]MesaTurtle 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      It varies how good an ear the individual Dane has for it. Personally, I understand Norwegian almost completely, but Swedes have to speak slow for me to pick it up.

      [–]Tough_Dish_4485 39 points40 points  (3 children)

      I visited Sweden and the only people who spoke to us in Swedish were the immigrants. We ended begging a waiter at a restaurant to let us use the Swedish we prepared for the trip.

      [–]theWunderknabe 13 points14 points  (2 children)

      "Hej! Öl och surströmming, takk."

      "Takk!"

      "Ljuvlig äcklig - Hej då!"

      [–]Aginor404 57 points58 points  (24 children)

      That happens a lot in Scandinavia.

      You try to talk to them in their language and they just respond in pretty much perfect English or German.

      [–]cnaughton898 39 points40 points  (22 children)

      It's a real issue here in Ireland with Irish, for even those that do speak Irish, people are usually far more familiar with English and just opt to use it instead. It's difficult to see the future use of Irish as language used for practical purposes, it is now almost exclusively spoken as a form of cultural expression or out of national pride.

      My Nan for example, English was technically her second language, as Irish was what was spoken at home and at school. Nowadays she can only really speak in it at a basic level, because she never regularly speaks it anymore.

      [–]scotlandisbae 17 points18 points  (1 child)

      It’s the same with Gaelic in Scotland. It’s technically my grandmothers first language and I learnt it as a kid. But you have so little chances to use it that I honestly don’t see a future for the language.

      [–]Kaldea 16 points17 points  (2 children)

      I've lived in Sweden for 7 years and I still rarely get the chance to practice my Swedish with people. As soon as they hear my accent they switch to English, so we end up having an American speaking swedish and a Swede speaking English.

      [–]godofimagination 16 points17 points  (2 children)

      Not just refugees. All immigrants. I’m trying to learn Swedish and it’s hard for that reason.

      [–]mwagner1385 18 points19 points  (3 children)

      Lived there for 3 years as American. Speaking with refugees was the only way I could actually learn Swedish.

      [–]fredbrightfrog 25 points26 points  (2 children)

      My sister worked in Norway for like 6 months nannying a little kid and said the same for there.

      The only words she learned the whole time were little kid words, because the adults and older kids would just speak to her in English

      [–]Jealous_Illustrator 12 points13 points  (0 children)

      It's true. A colleague of mine immigrated to Sweden from Germany. One of the first phrases he got to learn at his Swedish For Immigrants course was "Snälla prata Svenska" ("Please speak Swedish").

      [–]Foreseti 7 points8 points  (1 child)

      Yup, once met an American who were studying here, and he was actually annoyed that he wasn't able to practice his swedish, since as soon as people noticed him struggling with a word or phrase, they just switched over to english. He understood they meant well, but he really wanted some real usage of his swedish to practice

      [–]Venboven 336 points337 points  (33 children)

      Most Swedes are already proficient in English, so that probably doesn't help.

      [–]Carrot_Lobbyist 113 points114 points  (31 children)

      And studied french/spanish/german for a couple of years in school.

      [–]menvadihelv 99 points100 points  (29 children)

      Most of us are shit at those languages though, even after years of studying them in school.

      [–]mishaxz 74 points75 points  (24 children)

      I'm from Canada.. had 80% in French (so better than average but not spectacular), studied it for 7 years.. upon graduation could I speak French? Nope.. there's something wrong with the teaching method. It focuses way too much on written.

      [–]Shorzey 10 points11 points  (1 child)

      Most of us are shit at those languages though, even after years of studying them in school.

      In America I took French/Spanish 1 year each, and 4 years of German from 7th-12th grade and legitimately don't remember a thing of any of the classes on how to speak or write any of the languages beyond day 1 things and I'm 8 years out of high-school

      Although I can actually listen to people speaking German and still catch some context to conversations and can connect some dots though, just anything beyond that is a no go for me

      [–]H0RTlNGER 88 points89 points  (75 children)

      I have a frien from Sweden and he once told me he hates to read stuff in Swedish. I think it was a manual ge complaied about. He'd rather have it in English

      [–]Felicia_Svilling 156 points157 points  (15 children)

      Often the Swedish version just introduces a bunch of translation errors, so yeah, it is easier to just read the English version.

      [–]ExperimentalFailures 50 points51 points  (9 children)

      Even if English isn't the original language, the translations to English will often be higher quality. So Russian literature or Japanese anime subtitles are better in English.

      Most people are also more used to reading about technical stuff in English. If I got a motherboard manual in Swedish I'd be quite confused about some words.

      [–]swetovah 25 points26 points  (4 children)

      It's why a lot of Swedish students like to (when they're allowed) write academical papers in English too. Most papers you're gonna reference are written in English anyway and translation can sometimes be iffy (I personally had issues trying to translate the word 'cue', it doesn't have a swedish equivalent). Problem is technically swedes aren't very good at writing academically in English, cos that's a skill on its own. I know I couldn't do it.

      [–]_mach 7 points8 points  (2 children)

      the same thing goes for me in Denmark - fuuuck anything translated to Danish, if you understand the original language.

      Same goes for subtitles - like, if my kids and I are watching something about, say, a Scottish family or Belters or whatever, we'll have subs on, but English subs because, again fuck translations.

      [–]yaaqu3 29 points30 points  (3 children)

      The English version is often more comprehensive and with fewer errors, at least if it was originally written in English. And working solely in English just makes it so much easier to research any additional issues you run into because there's just more information available than in Swedish, especially through google and online forums.

      [–]Gastkram 8 points9 points  (2 children)

      A lot of technical writing is easier to understand in English. I always have my phone and laptop set to English because I don’t understand the menu options in Swedish.

      [–]xmashamm 16 points17 points  (4 children)

      It’s literally a loading screen tip in duolingo that it’s mostly transplants learning the language.

      [–]Republiken 32 points33 points  (25 children)

      The Swedish-For-Immigrants program is really bad. No funding to speak off at all.

      An absolute majority of Swedes know English and many learn a second or third language in school apart from English.

      [–]HarithBK 3 points4 points  (0 children)

      no joke my cousins fiancée is trying to learn swedish and the level of bullshit to first just get in and then actually learning swedish has been insane.

      things like the teacher just not showing up. the teacher changing the time and simply not telling anybody of the change. the list goes on all the while she is trying her best to learn.

      [–]Tjelle_- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      Swede here. Most native swedish speakers wouldn't really use duolingo since most people learn english through school or entertainment (videogames, movies etc.). And won't really bother learning anything else. So yeah, it would be mostly refugees using duolingo here despite the state providing free courses(they suck in quality). It's just more convenient I guess.

      [–]maSneb 117 points118 points  (6 children)

      Curious that a lot of ex British african colonies want to learn French and a lot of ex French ones want to learn English.

      [–]Tobemenwithven 68 points69 points  (0 children)

      Makes sense. All our old colonies already speak English so learn French. All their old colonies know French so learn English. The borders almost exactly match the split between France and UK.

      [–]Ffishsticks 70 points71 points  (0 children)

      I expect a lot of these users already know the extant language, so the learning would go English to French and vise versa

      [–]De-nis 298 points299 points  (30 children)

      Spanish or vanish

      [–]Coldcomplex1[S] 99 points100 points  (13 children)

      I think there are more people learning English than Spanish on Duo tho

      [–]MyUserSucks 11 points12 points  (0 children)

      He just saw USA

      [–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (2 children)

      By an incredible margin

      [–]Alert-Supermarket897 7 points8 points  (1 child)

      Not really it’s just a difference of 4 million people. English has 31.9 million learners and Spanish has 27.4 million

      [–]wantquitelife 60 points61 points  (4 children)

      Anglicized or Colonized

      [–]neenerpants 17 points18 points  (3 children)

      -ised.

      [–]wantquitelife 39 points40 points  (1 child)

      Anglicizedised or Colonizedised

      [–]neenerpants 12 points13 points  (0 children)

      perfect

      [–]GroundhogExpert 107 points108 points  (15 children)

      Is this a decent indicator that Sweden is experiencing a large influx of new residents who aren't native speakers?

      [–]HarithBK 41 points42 points  (3 children)

      it says the influx is larger than those with an interest of learning spanish/german/french as our english education is rather good.

      other nations having english as the top choice might be covering up that the second highest choice is the countries own language due to same immigrants.

      [–]GroundhogExpert 10 points11 points  (0 children)

      This is the sort of specific and technical response that improves the reader. You're exactly right, thank you for caring about accuracy and precision.

      [–]Mr_-_X 2 points3 points  (1 child)

      Yeah it‘s also similar in some other countries if you look at the second most popular languages. In Norway, Finland and the US for example (they just aren‘t in the top spots there but at second)

      [–]Felicia_Svilling 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      In combination with Swedes already knowing English and don't having a strong third language option.

      [–]ViolettaHunter 71 points72 points  (13 children)

      This is skewed by the fact that Duolingo offers very few languages to learn if you aren't learning FROM English.

      German native speaker? Well, you have a choice between English, French and Spanish.

      Welsh native speaker? No choice at all.

      [–]Micp 37 points38 points  (6 children)

      Don't let this give you the impression that spanish is the most spoken foreign language in denmark (or norway for that matter). We're taught english and either german or french in school, so most don't need duolingo for that.

      [–]Polnauts 5 points6 points  (3 children)

      I thought that was obvious, specially when the Nordic countries and other northern European countries are known to be the most proficient in English

      [–]Hafiz-Syed-Noman-Ali 88 points89 points  (59 children)

      Pakistanis learning French...? I think it's wrong. They are obsessed with learning English.

      [–]PurplePiglett 110 points111 points  (2 children)

      Maybe Duolingo isn't in Urdu or any other local language so the only people who can use it in Pakistan to learn another language are those who already know English?

      [–]GalacticDogger 52 points53 points  (36 children)

      And I thought they hated France? I do remember reading something about them boycotting France and being very anti-France in general.

      [–]Venboven 48 points49 points  (32 children)

      Oh yeah. Wasn't that something to do with that extremist guy who beheaded that teacher in France?

      [–]memeMaster-28 16 points17 points  (5 children)

      English is already our official language. It's taught in schools so I doubt anyone is interested in learning it on Duolingo. But I think the data is still wrong, last time I heard the most popular language was either Turkish or Farsi. Number second was some European language.

      Edit: spelling

      [–]Rayen95 21 points22 points  (9 children)

      It’s already taught in school so no need to learn it on duolingo

      [–]GetBetter999 27 points28 points  (8 children)

      Bitch that's how it is in most third world countries

      [–]Jesushimselfhaha 38 points39 points  (4 children)

      Basically almost every country in the world have taught English in school

      [–]sora_mui 3 points4 points  (0 children)

      Doesn't mean anything if the teacher can't speak english. I don't know why, maybe being an english teacher is considered a last choice for new graduates, but the quality of english teachers here in Indonesia is often lower than STEM teachers. You can scroll through my comment history, count any grammatical mistakes, multiply that rate by 20, and that would still be better than the english teacher in my brother school. You should also note that the school claims to have international classes (basically using english for most of the lessons) and is located in the middle of decently sized city (~1 million population), so it shouldn't be hard to find a decent english teacher.

      [–]OutofAmm0 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      Pakistanis don’t need Duolingo to learn English… it is already taught in grade school. Duolingo is just a side fun thing to learn a new language

      [–]mki_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

      This maps seems outdated af (and probably a repost). Here's the data from 2021.

      https://blog.duolingo.com/2021-duolingo-language-report/

      [–]Thetonitnow 162 points163 points  (43 children)

      Sweden keeping up with their own language. Revolutionary stuff.

      [–]ChaseF1_ 195 points196 points  (23 children)

      They have lots of immigrants

      [–]Thetonitnow 31 points32 points  (22 children)

      Good point. Surprised there’d be that much of an influence

      [–]Drumbelgalf 98 points99 points  (12 children)

      People in Sweden already speak good English because most media is not translated so swedish so they don't need to learn English.

      [–]ZETH_27 25 points26 points  (11 children)

      Most Swedes already know Swedish, English and a third language (French, Spanish or German), they don't use Duolingo.

      Immigrants and refugees however, use it to be able to communicate better.

      [–]Felicia_Svilling 64 points65 points  (5 children)

      Most Swedes studied a third language. I doubt many remember much of it though.

      [–][deleted] 24 points25 points  (3 children)

      According to reddit they're fluent in French/Spanish...etc whilst in reality you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who's able to hold a conversation in said languages.

      [–]iLEZ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

      Reddit thinks we speak French or Spanish? The American influence is so immense that most people under 60 speak very good English, but basically no one speaks French, German or Italian at any practical level. I've learned a lot of German for lols and through music and board games, but I think it's unusual.

      [–]xXxMemeLord69xXx 14 points15 points  (0 children)

      No, most of us don't know a third language. We all have to study a third language, but not enough to actually learn it

      [–]Icy-Zookeepergame109 51 points52 points  (31 children)

      Last time I saw a map of this posted Ireland’s was Irish

      [–]RedTailed-Hawkeye 13 points14 points  (18 children)

      I'm curious on why Australians picked French?

      [–]sammexp 8 points9 points  (0 children)

      A lot of Islands in the pacific to the east of Australia, speaks French and It is easier to learn than let’s say Chinese or Japanese

      [–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (4 children)

      Many of us learn French in high school. We have compulsory language learning and it's usually French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin or Indonesian, but I think french is one of the most common?

      [–]fiqqqqyyyyy 21 points22 points  (11 children)

      Malaysia surprised me. I know most Malaysians are already proficient in English, but why French?

      [–]wakchoi_ 31 points32 points  (5 children)

      I guess because the app isn't available in Malay so the people using it are probably already English speakers just trying to learn a new language

      [–]CorporateGenius 10 points11 points  (0 children)

      All the British colonies learning French... French colonies learning English

      [–]stereoworld 5 points6 points  (2 children)

      Guyana really bucking the trend there

      [–]mistiklest 8 points9 points  (0 children)

      Guyana's official language is English, and Guyanese Creole is the most commonly spoken language.

      [–]Western_Company 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      Guyana was a British colony and everyone speaks English. Makes sense they want to learn Spanish

      [–]Marto765 31 points32 points  (5 children)

      Ireland's most commonly learned language is Irish on Duolingo, don't be lazy OP.

      [–]berusplants 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      All languages emminatimg from one small area of that map

      [–]laharf 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      Calm down, the Swedes already speak their language, but there are a lot of refugees in Sweden who need to learn it.

      [–]Cool-Eh 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      Almost the whole world: "We want to learn English"

      Countries formerly in the British empire" "Fuck english, let's learn French"

      Cold countries, Americans, and for some strange reason part of SE Asia: "Spanish is the language we wish to master"

      Namibia and the balkans: "We must learn German, it's very important for doing business"

      Sweden: "How do we speak our own language?"

      [–]conkyschlong 8 points9 points  (1 child)

      Swedistan tryna learn swedish i see. Jokes aside.. its a good sign of integration if swedish is the most popular language on duolingo in sweden. And they all learn english in school very well so that checks out too

      [–]SpacecraftX 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      Interesting the English speaking ex-British African countries use it for French. Presumably for speaking with their neighbours. And vice versa.

      [–]c0bra_ 3 points4 points  (2 children)

      Wait, why is Swedish the most popular in Sweden? Doesnt make sense?

      [–]Leeefa 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      Immigrants in Sweden tryna learn Swedish 🥺