Duolingo has been helping people learn different languages now for a while, since 2011 in fact, but now that it’s proven that it’s a working system it’s decided to target a different demographic. Now it’s teaching people how to speak Klingon. That’s right, Duolingo is taking on the challenge of converting Trekkies and possibly interesting those that know Trekkies to speak one of the roughest-sounding languages in the galaxy. If you thought the Trekkie you knew was an uber-nerd and proud of it, rightfully so, then maybe you should mention this and see if they’re interested. The course is free unless a person upgrades, which means that there won’t be as many ads and there will be a few extra features like offline access.
Just when you thought people couldn’t go any further with the Trekkie stuff someone else has to set the bar just a bit higher. It’s interesting enough really to think that people would actually go in for this, but then the idea that people would be walking around speaking Klingon to those that don’t care one bit about Star Trek is kind of comical. Imagine folks going around insulting people that they don’t like, or have wronged them somehow, in Klingon. Just imagine then the look of utter confusion on the face of the other person. Of course then you can imagine that the other person would just shake their head and perhaps think that the Klingon-speaking Trekkie was off their Ritalin. It’s cynical but it’s very true. In many ways this is just as interesting but non-applicable to life as learning to speak Elvish. Sure they’re developed languages but until someone actually starts up a kingdom or even a city in which this is the accepted language it’s more of a hobby than anything.
Learning to speak another language is great and learning to speak a fictional language is great as well, but at the end of the day the established languages of this world are what people are going to listen to and comprehend the most. If you’re at a Trekkie convention and find someone that’s as skilled in Klingon as you are then you might have a good time. Until then your chances of being understood by anyone are next to nothing since to be quite honest the average person does not speak Klingon, doesn’t WANT to speak Klingon, and won’t want to learn how to speak it either. In this Trekkies are kind of alone until they find one another, and even then they kind of need to be on the same wavelength so that they can actually converse with one another. So it’s a nice sentiment really for Duolingo to offer this language but at the same time it’s kind of pointless since unless a person is a Trekkie it’s possible that this language will be left alone for a while.
You can just imagine that if this takes off someone might actually chime in and ask for a language or two from Star Wars to be added in. Huttese perhaps?
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