A rare language is one that few schools and apps teach. Language teachers call them the less commonly taught languages, which covers every language except English, French, German, and Spanish. Most of the world's 6,700 or so languages are small, and 96 percent of them are spoken by just 3 percent of people.
The apps below teach smaller languages like Welsh, Maltese, Hausa, and Toki Pona. The table near the end shows which ones Bubblegum, Ling, and uTalk teach, with a guide to the apps for each language.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Bubblegum teaches 62 languages, and the table below lists 34 of the smaller ones, from Luxembourgish to Ilocano. Ask Poppy, your AI tutor, about any line you don't understand.
Bubblegum is not a person to talk with. For conversation, try the teachers and partners in Talk With People.
- Poppy writes each lesson at your level about a topic you pick, so you have something to read even when few books for learners exist.
- Read news and stories at your level too, and tap any word to see what it means.
- Learn the letters first in courses for Icelandic, Twi, Uzbek, and Azerbaijani, and the Cyrillic letters of Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Belarusian.
- Saved words come back in your next lessons through Regenerative Review™, and you can export them to Anki.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't import your own texts, like song lyrics or a letter from family.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Follow a Course
These apps teach lessons in order, and each one covers a long list of smaller languages.
Ling
Ling focuses on Asian and Eastern European languages. It also teaches endangered and lesser-known languages such as Taiwanese Hokkien, Lao, Sinhala, and Pashto.
- One subscription opens every language Ling teaches.
- Flashcards
Mobile
Mango Languages
Mango Languages teaches more than 70 languages, including Icelandic, Igbo, Tuvan, and Scottish Gaelic. Each lesson starts from a conversation between speakers.
- Courses for 10 endangered languages, from Cherokee to Yiddish, are free.
- Placement tests in some languages show you where to start.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Learn by Listening and Speaking
Pimsleur
Pimsleur teaches more than 50 languages for English speakers, and Twi, Ojibwe, Haitian Creole, and Icelandic are among them.
- Answer out loud in 30-minute audio lessons you can do while you walk or drive.
MobileWeb
Glossika
Glossika teaches 64 languages through spoken sentences. Its courses for Welsh, Manx, Catalan, Taiwanese Taigi, and two kinds of Hakka are free.
- Listen and repeat one sentence at a time, and the sentences you might forget come back for review.
MobileWeb
Learn Words and Phrases
uTalk
uTalk teaches words and phrases in more than 150 languages, including minority and endangered ones such as Cornish, Jèrriais, and Southern Saami. You can learn from more than 140 languages, so a Spanish speaker can learn Swahili without English.
- Every word is spoken by a man and a woman from the language's community.
- Free starter words let you try a language before you pay.
MobileWeb
Drops
Drops teaches vocabulary in more than 55 languages, and its list reaches Ainu, Greenlandic, Samoan, and Swiss German.
- Learn words through quick picture games.
Mobile
Memrise
Memrise lists 145 languages beyond its main four, from Ladino and Manx to Guaraní and Marshallese.
- For many smaller languages, you study word lists that other learners made.
MobileWeb
Talk With People
italki
italki lists more than 150 languages, and you book one-on-one lessons with a teacher.
- Find teachers for small languages such as Hausa, Maltese, Somali, and Luxembourgish.
MobileWeb
Tandem
On Tandem, you help someone with your language, and they help you with theirs. It covers more than 300 languages.
- Its language list includes Toki Pona, Akan, and 20 sign languages.
MobileWeb
Which Rare Languages Do Bubblegum, Ling, and uTalk Teach?
Each language in this table links to our guide to the apps for it. Of these 34 languages, Ling teaches 23 and uTalk teaches 32.
| Language | Bubblegum | Ling | uTalk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Albanian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Azerbaijani | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Basque | Yes | No | Yes |
| Belarusian | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bulgarian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Catalan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cebuano | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Croatian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Estonian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Filipino | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Galician | Yes | No | Yes |
| Haitian Creole | Yes | No | Yes |
| Hausa | Yes | No | Yes |
| Icelandic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ilocano | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Irish | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Javanese | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Latvian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lithuanian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Luxembourgish | Yes | No | Yes |
| Macedonian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Malay | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maltese | Yes | No | Yes |
| Nigerian Pidgin | Yes | No | Yes |
| Serbian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Slovak | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Slovenian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Somali | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Swahili | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Toki Pona | Yes | No | No |
| Twi | Yes | No | No |
| Uzbek | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Welsh | Yes | No | Yes |
Ling also teaches less-taught languages that Bubblegum doesn't, such as Georgian, Khmer, Yoruba, and Amharic.
How Many Languages Each App Teaches
| App | Languages It Teaches | Languages You Can Use It In |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 62 | 74 |
| Ling | 80 | 67 |
| Mango Languages | 70+ | 2 |
| Pimsleur | 50+ | 3 |
| Glossika | 64 | 2 |
| uTalk | 150+ | 140+ |
| Drops | 55+ | 16 |
| Memrise | 4 + 145 more | 22 |
| italki | 150+ | 19 |
| Tandem | 300+ | 14 |
Other Apps We Looked At (4)
- LoecsenFree beginner courses in 54 languages, with regional ones such as Breton, Corsican, Occitan, and Walloon.
- 50LANGUAGES100 free beginner lessons with audio, which you can take from and into more than 50 languages.
- Language TransferFree audio courses where you build sentences by thinking out loud, in Swahili, Greek, Turkish, and other languages.
- PreplyBook live lessons with tutors, including tutors for Maltese and Luxembourgish.
Common Questions
Which app should a beginner choose for a rare language?
If you are serious about learning a language, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Or start with Ling if you'd like game-like lessons in order, or with Pimsleur if you'd rather learn by listening.
Does Duolingo teach rare languages?
Duolingo teaches a few. On October 16, 2026, its course list had 40 courses for English speakers, including Welsh, Irish, Hawaiian, Navajo, and Yiddish. It had none for Maltese, Hausa, Twi, or Toki Pona, and guides such as Is Maltese on Duolingo? show what to use instead.
Which app teaches the most languages?
Tandem lists the most, more than 300, and it connects you with people who speak them. uTalk teaches words and phrases in more than 150, and italki has teachers for more than 150.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- CARLA, University of Minnesota: Definition of less commonly taught languages
- United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: Indigenous Languages backgrounder (6,700 languages)
- Bubblegum: Every language you can learn
- Ling: 80 languages, endangered and lesser-known languages, two free units
- Ling: Pricing (Ling Pro, flashcards, Dialog practice)
- Ling: App Store listing (you can use it in 67 languages)
- Mango Languages: Available languages (70+)
- Mango Languages: Endangered and indigenous languages, free to learn
- Mango Languages: App Store listing (placement tests; you can use it in 2 languages)
- Pimsleur: 50+ languages for English speakers
- Pimsleur: Learn Twi (ten lessons in Level 1)
- Pimsleur: App Store listing (you can use it in 3 languages)
- Glossika: 64 courses, free courses marked
- Glossika: App Store listing (you can use it in 2 languages)
- uTalk: 150+ languages, including minority and endangered ones
- uTalk: Language store pages
- uTalk: App Store listing (free starter words, single languages or topics)
- uTalk: Home (male and female speakers for every word)
- uTalk: Languages you can learn from (over 140)
- Drops: Languages (55+)
- Drops: App Store listing (you can use it in 16 languages)
- Memrise: Spanish, French, German, Japanese + 145 more
- Memrise: Learn Maltese (word lists created by other users)
- Memrise: App Store listing (you can use it in 22 languages)
- italki: 150+ languages
- italki: App Store listing (you can use it in 19 languages)
- Tandem: Supported languages
- Tandem: App Store listing (300+ languages; you can use it in 14)
- Duolingo: course list (read October 16, 2026)
- Loecsen: 54 languages
- 50LANGUAGES: App Store listing
- Language Transfer: Free courses
- Preply: Maltese tutors
- Bubblegum
- Mango Languages
- uTalk
- Drops
- Tandem
Checked on October 17, 2026 against each app's own pages.
