Duolingo has announced that they will be releasing the world’s first Emoji Language Course…
Or, in the words of their April 1 press release, ‘Duolingo Launches 🌎 ’s 1️⃣st Emoji Language Course’.
Duolingo’s Emoji Course
They shared the following on their social media.
Announcing the world’s first Emoji language course! Behold, the final chapter in the evolution of human communication.
We love the example…
👁️💍🥸⏰🐷✈️ = I will marry you when pigs fly.
Who needs words, right?
Followers on Facebook were understandably excited.
Cavan asked:
Is this a hint of introducing Japanese or Chinese to Duolingo?
As Japanese Kanji and Chinese Chanji are practically emojis.
Taylor tagged a friend and said, “Check this out, I think we had a conversation like 2 years ago about people in the future communicating entirely via emojis 😂”
Keel said, “From hieroglyphics to emoji. Nothing has really changed.”
Zoe rejoiced:
Oh, finally. I’ve been needing this course since my grandparents discovered the internet. Thanks Duolingo
And Jaclyn queried, “Oh fantastic! Will there be an option to choose dialect between Apple and Android?”
However, there were a few Duolingo fans who were not so happy.
Sanorah lamented:
Oh dear god no!!!
Encouraging this is only encouraging ignorance. A lot of these kids can barely spell as it is and they have auto-correct!!
You should make a course to teach the difference between words like: then/than, it’s/its, there/their/they’re, your/you’re and so on. THAT is sadly needed.
The amount of memes I can’t bring myself to ‘like’ because of obvious grammar and syntax errors is staggering.
While Joseph cried:
For goodness sake! Can we make courses for languages that are actually useful for once? I’ve been longing for Chinese.
And Brandon said:
The final chapter?
It could be argued that we are returning to cave drawings.
In their announcement, Duolingo linked to a larger description of the course… which had more than a few emojis, as you can imagine.
In the larger press release, Duolingo Co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn said, “🤔👨👩👧🔠? 🧑🔬💡🗑️🕒”
If you haven’t yet taken the course and are not proficient in emoji, this translates to:
“Why do people even use words? Science has shown they’re a waste of time.”
The release also touched on the benefit of improved intergenerational communication. Grandparents are finding that they can better communicate with their grandchildren after taking the course.
All in all, while there were a few detractors, the news was met with a very positive reaction.
The third main reaction was from those who linked the announcement date, April 1st, and the unusual offering…
🌎 ’s 1️⃣st Emoji Course
That’s right, it was all an April Fools prank!
Though in saying that, they did have a
Emad said:
Holy cow! This is the second year you got me. I’m still waiting for the Japanese pillow to be released.
Christine pranked her daughter:
OMG…I showed this to my daughter this morning. I couldn’t bear to keep her believing that she could start the course tomorrow at school. She’s mad at me.
And Rachel said:
Happy April Fools to you too.
Bill got angry:
If you post this crap to my timeline I will delete and block you.
And Bryan shared some wisdom, stating, “With the way things are going, this almost isn’t a joke.”
There were several folk who knew it was a joke but thought it would be a great idea:
- Cherise said, “This should be a real course!”
- Brad said, “It honestly wouldn’t be a bad idea…”
- And Marvin shared, “Actually, I would very much like that.”
Duolingo is known for its fun and somewhat believable April Fools Day pranks each year, so stay tuned for the next one.
I’ve used the app to brush up on my French for our Kindergarten French Workbook and other French language resources for children, and it really is great.
The most popular languages on Duolingo as of 2023 are English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Russian, Hindi, and Chinese.
Surprisingly, the platform also offers Klingon… no joke!
