Language Apps And Courses Supporting Ukrainian Refugees

It’s estimated that at present, there are over 4.2 million refugees who have fled Ukraine in recent months (10 million+ if you include those who are internally displaced).

Most of these people have gone to neighboring Slavic countries, with Poland being the largest recipient of refugees.

This has created an enormous demand for language services to:

Teach the Ukrainians the language of the country they’re temporarily residing/seeking shelter in, and
Provide Ukrainian language skills to support workers in those countries

A handful of language learning companies (courses and apps) have stepped up to help out which are listed below.

We’ll keep this list updated as we discover more offerings.

For Ukrainian refugees

Babbel

Babbel has made all of its popular courses freely available to Ukrainian refugees.

Languages include German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Indonesian, Norwegian, Danish and Russian.

In addition to this, Babbel have announced they are currently working on a Ukrainian language course.

Mondly

Mondly has announced that it has freely opened up its 25 European language courses to Ukrainian speakers.

All you need to do is select Ukrainian as your native language when signing up and the premium language content for all courses will be unlocked.

Busuu

Busuu recently shared that they have made their 13 language courses (incl. Polish) available to Ukrainian refugees.

The free offer is available for a 3 month period only.

LingQ

LingQ has encouraged Ukrainian people to reach out to them directly to gain free access to all language material.

Ling

Simya Solutions, the company behind the Ling app, is offering all language courses to Ukrainian refugees for free over the next 6 months.

These can be accessed by selecting Ukrainian as your native language when using the app.

For people wanting to learn Ukrainian

LingQ

LingQ has announced that Ukrainian will no longer come at a cost and is free to anybody wanting to learn the language.

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is giving away its Ukrainian phrasebook for free online.

This is a downloadable PDF version of the popular hardcopy you see in bookstores.

Download the phrasebook here.

Ling

The Ukrainian course on the Ling app is also free for anybody wanting to learn Ukrainian for the next 6 months.

Other forms of support

Duolingo

The Duolingo CEO has pledged to donate all ad revenue from the Ukrainian course on its platform to Ukraine relief.

These funds will go to UNHCR, International Rescue Committee and other organizations. Included in this relief package will be premium access to Duolingo for Ukrainian refugees.

Duolingo has also pledged to waive fees for its Duolingo English Test and freeze learning streaks for Ukrainian users.