Over 40,000 Ukrainians learning Polish using free app since May launch

More than 40,000 Ukrainians have begun learning Polish using the language app Babbel since it was one of three language courses made available for free to them last month in an effort to help refugees.

Poland has been the primary destination for those fleeing Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February, with up to 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees estimated to currently be in the country. The UN estimates that, overall, five million people have fled Ukraine, though hundreds of thousands of those have since returned.

In early May, Babbel, a German language-learning app, launched specially tailored courses, prepared in just one month, to teach English, German and Polish to Ukrainian speakers.

The firm told Notes from Poland this week that it now has over 250,000 Ukrainian-speaking learners using its platform. While English is by far the most popular course, “well over” 40,000 are learning Polish, it says.

Those doing so are offered courses at “newcomer” (A1) or “beginner” (A2) level, including introductions, common expressions and talking about one’s daily life.

“The creation of our Ukrainian courses is a project that our team poured their hearts into. As with many products, reality sets in when it is actually put to use,” said Arne Schepker, Babbel’s CEO. “In this case, it’s humbling to see hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians learn a new language with our platform and do so successfully.”

“When we started the initiative, we did so because we’re convinced that the provision of language learning is a critical service, especially for displaced people and – as shown in this case – meeting a real societal need,” Schepker added.

Not all Ukrainian learners are abroad, however. More than 45% of subscribers are in Ukraine itself, followed by 19% of learners joining from Poland and 13% from Germany. About 10,000 learners who took up the Polish courses are in Ukraine.

In mid-March, another language learning app, Duolingo, reported that since the start of the war in late February, the number of people studying Ukrainian had increased by 577% globally and by 2,677% in Poland, where many households were hosting Ukrainian refugees and volunteers were helping new arrivals.

Duolingo did not immediately respond to Notes from Poland’s questions regarding fresh data on how many Ukrainians are learning Polish using its app.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, over 200,000 Ukrainian refugee children have registered to attend schools in Poland. In most cases, they arrive speaking little or no Polish, making adaptation a challenge for them, existing pupils and teachers.

Main photo credit: Babbel press pack

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.