The case for the introduction of a Duolingo Mongolian course

The Khalkha Mongolian language is the de facto national language of the east Asian country Mongolia. It is the most widely spoken dialect of Mongolian in the nation and the best known Mongolic language. The language has a rich history, using multiple scripts throughout history. Historically, the script simply known as Mongolian Script or Hudum Mongol bichig, has been the most predominant, however since the communist period of Mongolia, the script was replaced briefly by the Latin and then by the Cyrillic script. Ever since then, the Cyrillic script has been the one used in official documents and in every day life for many Mongolians. In 2020 the government of Mongolia announced plans to restore the traditional script in Mongolia by 2025. As a result, the language is in a transitional period between Cyrillic being the only predominant script in Mongolia, to the traditional script returning. While inside of Mongolia, many projects have been introduced to help return the traditional script, outside of Mongolia, educational tools for the language are few and far between, especially for the traditional script. As such, I believe it would be extremely helpful for such a popular tool like Duolingo to introduce a way for people to learn the language. 

Why is this important?

Languages are an extremely powerful thing, as both tools of communication and as symbols. As such, introducing a way for the common everyday person to learn a language like traditional Mongolian would be a powerful way to show appreciation for the language, and to allow the world to become an easier place for people to communicate and live without having to use foreign languages. Don't get me wrong, a Duolingo course wouldn't change the world, but it would nonetheless have a significant impact on communication and lesser known and spoken languages.

Why Duolingo?

Duolingo is massively popular, easy to use and a great starting point to learn a language. With its over 500 million registered users, by introducing the traditional Mongolian script as a language course they would be able to raise massive awareness for the lesser known language and efforts to bring it back as a primary language in Mongolia. If Duolingo were to add Mongolian, in the traditional script, they would be able to make the language much easier to start learning outside of the nation. 

Why now?

In a time where the language is being returned into Mongolia, the amount of speakers will almost certainly increase. By also increasing the amount of people outside of the nation who are interested and able to learn it, Duolingo would be able to allow many more people to be able to communicate with the next generation of Mongolians and understand the current events of Mongolia. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you have learnt something and I hope you sign the petition.