Don't use Duolingo to learn Arabic (WARNING!) ｜ Arabic101

Islamic education

Transcript

00:00Duolingo is possibly the most popular language-learning app at the moment to learn English, Arabic

00:07and many other popular languages.

00:10But if you or your children are using this app, you need to pay extra attention to what

00:15you're about to see in this video.

00:19While their slogan is, learn a language for free forever, what they are actually offering

00:27in reality is more than just language learning.

00:31They are clearly pushing certain agenda elements that you should be aware of, especially if

00:36you let your children learn or play with this app on their own.

00:41So, what is wrong with this app?

00:45Well, this could be seen in many things that are found within the app itself.

00:50Here are some examples of the sentences you or your children can be learning through this

00:56app when exercising.

00:59Some of these sentences are straight out blasphemous, like God is inspired by you, or we come from

01:08mother nature, which are ideas that we shouldn't normalize or consider them to be okay to see

01:14like that.

01:16Other sentences found within the app directly contradict our Islamic values.

01:23Alcohol consumption, even involving children, eating pork and you know the list.

01:30Not to mention other sentences that contain just very weird ideas or concepts, which are

01:36against human nature to say the least and are in fact really disturbing, even for non-Muslims.

01:43And there are actually hundreds of other examples that can be found.

01:48Just google weird Duolingo sentences and you will know exactly what I mean.

01:53And now, if you are thinking, well, many of these sentences must be AI generated or that

02:00they are not really deliberately promoting certain facts or type of ideas.

02:06Then I would say, just keep watching till the end.

02:10A couple of years ago, Duolingo introduced a new set of characters, which act like your

02:16companions in the app.

02:18One of these characters was a Muslim woman, called Zari.

02:24That's how she looked like in the beginning.

02:26However, quickly afterwards, the character of this woman was changed to become a 16-year-old

02:32girl who looks like that.

02:35Now you can obviously see the difference in both her attire and attitude.

02:41First changing her hijab, from covering her hair, to showing part of her hair, and from

02:48the generic, normal expression, to showing this new version of the character specifically

02:54in positions that are not typical for a Muslim 16-year-old girl to be doing outdoors.

03:01You might see these things as trivial or petty things to talk about, but they could

03:06be very effective with children by normalizing certain ideas or attitudes in the minds of

03:12the new generation and even older Muslims.

03:15These characters have fans and they even make fan art for them, so it would be naive to

03:21completely dismiss their effect on our children.

03:24Other strange choices for their characters is these two.

03:28Throughout the app, we can see that this male character is only portrayed doing house chores,

03:35while the woman is portrayed riding a motorcycle and wearing a man's clothes, pushing certain

03:42ideas about gender roles.

03:45But just by taking a quick look at the profiles they made for these characters, you start

03:51to understand what is happening more and more, and what kind of agenda is being pushed through

03:57this app.

03:58And in certain cases, these ideas are just being straight out given to the learner, which

04:04I'm sure you don't or any of your children to be learning a language like that or even

04:10to be exposed to such things.

04:13Even short stories that are found within the app for learning purposes are also filled

04:18with this stuff, again normalizing things that go against our religion and human nature.

04:27So what's the takeaway here?

04:29Well, if this was a single occurrence or an isolated incident, we could have said that

04:35this is just a coincidence or a mistake on their part.

04:39But there is a direction or trend that this company is taking which is clear to see when

04:45looking at the full picture.

04:46I am well aware that this is not an Islamic app nor is it from a Muslim company, but that

04:52is exactly why we need to be extra cautious, especially for those who don't know or don't

04:58see it yet.

04:59It is therefore our duty to protect ourselves as well as our children and to warn others

05:05about the reality of this platform.

05:08The company itself is very straightforward in that respect and they don't shy away from

05:14promoting their ideologies or pushing them into their app.

05:18So why would we be any less direct in warning others against this platform?

05:24If you can avoid using it, then do, but if you can't, then know that there are many questionable

05:30things in it, especially if it is used by children.

05:34You certainly don't want them to repeat sentences or be introduced to concepts that can damage

05:39their fitrah, identity and their perception of this world.

05:46Thanks for watching.

05:47If you want to start reading and understanding the Qur'an in Arabic, then you should start

05:51your journey right here.

05:53Don't forget to check out my latest book, which goes perfectly with this free course.

05:58I'll leave the links for all of them in the description, so check them out.

06:03Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.

Category

Transcript

Recommended