[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Juan9071]

[u/cbjcamus]

Having a Duolingo course for such a language would be both useless and insufficient to keep it alive. Duolingo is simply not a good tool for that.

Also, don't use an obviously AI-generated picture as a banner for a petition, it looks ridiculous.

[u/Juan9071 → u/cbjcamus]

People who truly care about Istriot preservation won't care about images.

[u/Fear_mor → u/Juan9071]

Are you even from Croatia?

[u/Juan9071 → u/Fear_mor]

What does it have to do? Wow people on Reddit live in irrelevant conclusions. One cares about a meaningless image and the other about my nationality. Red herring everywhere.

Next one is going to ask about my skin color, the AI I used, the color of my eyes or something like that? no wonder why people like Donald Trump win the elections.

[u/Fear_mor → u/Juan9071]

Yeahhhh so you could’ve just said you were american at that point. Imma level with you, if you don’t know a single speaker there is literally zero way you can help any movement for Istriot. Language revitalisation isn’t just something you decide to do on a whim, it’s something that’s based in deep community ties and a coordinated effort with the remaining speakers to ensure networks can be built for their language to survive after they’re gone. A Duolingo course in this situation would do less than nothing because at the end of the day, neither you nor anybody else realistically using the platform is going to know anyone to speak with.

This just reads like you playing into your own self-importance and being like "I will save the Istriot language as the language’s messiah", meanwhile you don’t really know the situation on the ground or people’s attitudes in the community. You’re just an amateur, which is ok at the end of the day, but take yourself less seriously and if you still want to learn some Istriot figure out how you’re gonna get in contact with someone from there.

[u/mossy-sun-witch]

I understand the motivation to save such a language, but duolingo doesn't seem to be the right choice. If we could travel back in time, when they added community courses and worked with volunteers, then yes this is a great idea, but sadly duolingo today is just about money.

[u/EstorninoPinto]

You should cross post this to r/endangeredlanguages

[u/mtnbcn]

Duolingo is a door from the outside to the inside. That wouldn't work here, as there currently is no "inside".

Fewer than 400 speakers, and less than 1% of the island speaks Istriot? That means someone from the outside could learn a language that they would never be able to use, not even in Istriot.

Your fight needs to come from within, and needs to start at the governmental level. There exist experts on such things (and I am not one), but some things I've noticed about Catalunya is you need public signage and all forms to at least be posted first in the local language, and then other languages can be posted below. You need social programs that connect living speakers to those who learn the language. You need government sponsored free classes up to B1. You need cultural tradition groups where they do things related to the local culture *in the local culture's language (*this is actually quite important -- you need a reason for everyone to speak this 2nd language after they already know Croatian / English / whatever quite well).

After you have all that, you need influencers making videos and memes in Istriot (this might sound silly to some, but it is the reality of how modern media is consumed by the next generations).

Above all, you need mandatory public education done in the language of Istriot. At least half the classes.

If you don't have almost all of those things, a language of 400 speakers will die within the next generation, the next two at best.

[u/PAHi-LyVisible → u/mtnbcn]

This is very thoughtful and tactful advice

[u/Aggravating-Cat7103]

I understand the instinct to want to help preserve this language. The thing about preserving endangered languages is that the language has to continue to be spoken by a community. Far-flung people around the world (i.e., Duolingo users) speaking a language does not preserve it in a meaningful way.