Hope Wilson, a learning scientist at Duolingo, explained that despite Latin being considered a “dead” language, there are plenty of people interested in learning. The app offers everything from Spanish to Mandarin to Klingon to High Valyrian from Game of Thrones. The course is designed for beginners and anyone else needing a basic to intermediate level refresher on Latin. The course will be accessible through Duolingo’s website and on Apple and Android phones. In December of 2018, Duolingo reached back out to Seward, telling him that they had been impressed with his enthusiasm and were planning to create the course with his help. “We got to talking, and I got into this diatribe about a Latin course on Duolingo,” Seward said, remembering the lunch conversation. The project started a little less than a year ago when Duolingo invited David Seward, a Latin teacher at Winchester Thurston Upper School in Shadyside, to lunch. Nearly 24,000 people had signed up for notifications about the course before it even launched, according to Duolingo. The Pittsburgh-based language learning company debuted it first Latin course for English speakers Wednesday. Latin may be a dead language, but it is very much alive on Duolingo.

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