Why We Built Learn Kurdi — a Kurdish Learning App Made With Love
Learn Kurdi is a Kurmanji Kurdish learning app built by a Kurdish husband for his American wife, for the Kurdish diaspora, and for anyone who wants to learn one of the oldest living languages in the Middle East. This is the story of how it started — and the teachers who make it accurate.
A Love Letter to a Mother Tongue
Hi, I am Ferhat. I am Kurdish, and I grew up speaking Kurmanji Kurdish — the northern dialect of Kurdish spoken across Northern Kurdistan (Turkey), Western Kurdistan (Syria), parts of Southern Kurdistan (Iraq), and throughout the Kurdish diaspora in Europe and North America.
A few years ago, my American wife told me she wanted to learn my mother tongue. She wanted to speak with my family, sing Kurdish songs with me, understand Kurdish films, and one day raise our children with both of our languages. I was so happy — and then I started looking for Kurdish learning resources for her.
What I found was almost nothing. A few scattered YouTube videos. Some old PDFs. Textbooks written for linguists, not learners. Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone do not offer Kurdish. For a language spoken by 35 to 45 million people, the world of modern Kurdish learning apps was essentially empty.
The Gap We Are Filling
Kurdish is one of the largest languages in the world without a big, well-funded language-learning platform. That is a painful thing for every Kurd, especially for the millions of us living outside Kurdistan. Our children are growing up in New York, Berlin, London, Stockholm, Toronto, Chicago — and they are slowly losing the language of their grandparents.
I am a DevOps engineer by day, with a full-stack developer background. At some point I realized: if no one is going to build a proper Kurdish learning app, I will. For my wife. For my future kids. For every Kurdish-American, Kurdish-German, Kurdish-Canadian kid who wants to reconnect with their heritage. And for every non-Kurdish learner — partners, friends, travelers, scholars — who wants to learn Kurmanji Kurdish and cannot find a good place to start.
That is how Learn Kurdi was born.
“I built Learn Kurdi because I wanted my wife to be able to say "Ez ji te hez dikim"to me in my own language — and because I wanted every Kurdish kid in the diaspora to have the resources I never had.”
— Ferhat, Founder
Meet the Team
Learn Kurdi is only as good as the Kurdish inside it. That is why every lesson, sentence, story, and audio clip is reviewed by two highly respected Kurdish teachers. They catch mistakes, correct grammar, refine vocabulary, and make sure what you learn is the Kurdish real Kurds actually speak — not a robotic translation.
Mamoste Gulê
Mamoste Gulê is the founder and instructor of Kurdish Lessons, one of the most recognized Kurdish language communities on social media. She reviews every word, sentence, and grammar rule in our lessons to make sure learners get natural, authentic Kurmanji Kurdish — not translated textbook Kurdish.
Bahadin Kerborani
Bahadin is a PhD candidate in Kurdish studies at the University of Chicago and a Kurdish language instructor. He brings deep academic knowledge of Kurdish linguistics, literature, and history into our lessons, ensuring everything you learn is grounded in real Kurdish culture and usage.
Ferhat
Ferhat is a DevOps engineer with a full-stack background, and the founder of Learn Kurdi. He builds the app, designs the lessons, and keeps the servers running — so that his wife, his future children, and every Kurdish learner in the world can have the Kurdish learning app he wishes had existed when he started looking for one.
Why Our Kurdish Is Actually Accurate
A lot of online Kurdish content is machine-translated or written by people who are not fluent. That is how you end up with sentences that technically parse but no Kurdish speaker would ever say out loud. We refuse to ship that.
- Every lesson is double-reviewed by Mamoste Gulê and Bahadin Kerborani before it goes live.
- Every sentence is tested for naturalness — not just grammatical correctness.
- Every audio clip is checked for pronunciation and flow.
- We correct and regenerate whenever a user or our teachers spot something off. This blog and app have been edited and re-edited hundreds of times — and we love that.
- We teach the Latin (Hawar) alphabet — the most widely used Kurmanji writing system, and the easiest for English speakers.
What We Care About
Built Out of Love
Learn Kurdi started as a gift — a Kurdish husband wanting his American wife to learn his mother tongue. That love is still in every lesson, every story, and every audio clip.
Reviewed by Kurdish Teachers
Every lesson is reviewed by Mamoste Gulê (Founder of Kurdish Lessons) and Bahadin Kerborani (PhD Candidate at University of Chicago). If something sounds off or the grammar is wrong, they catch it and we fix it.
For the Kurdish Diaspora
Millions of Kurds live outside Kurdistan — in the United States, Europe, Canada, and beyond. Learn Kurdi is built so second-generation Kurds can reconnect with their heritage and mother tongue.
For Everyone
You do not have to be Kurdish to learn Kurdish. Partners, friends, travelers, journalists, scholars — anyone who wants to learn Kurmanji Kurdish is welcome here.
Where We Are Going
Our vision is simple: Learn Kurdi should be the best place on the internet to learn the Kurdish language.Not "one of" the best — the best. Because Kurdish deserves it, and Kurdish learners deserve it.
We are adding new phrases, lessons, stories, games, and cultural content every single week. We are working on Sorani. We are working on more stories from Kurdish folklore, more modern conversations, more music, more everything. And we read every piece of feedback from learners.
If you are Kurdish, thank you for trusting us with the language of our people. If you are not Kurdish, welcome — we are honored you chose to learn it. Either way: bi xêr hatî (welcome).
A Tiny Kurdish Love Dictionary
Since this app started as a love story, here are a few Kurdish words and phrases to carry with you:
Frequently Asked Questions
Who built Learn Kurdi?
Learn Kurdi was built by Ferhat, a Kurdish DevOps and full-stack engineer, with language review by two respected Kurdish teachers: Mamoste Gulê, Founder & Instructor of Kurdish Lessons, and Bahadin Kerborani, a PhD candidate in Kurdish studies at the University of Chicago.
Which Kurdish dialect does Learn Kurdi teach?
Learn Kurdi teaches Kurmanji Kurdish (Northern Kurdish), the most widely spoken Kurdish dialect. We use the Latin (Hawar) alphabet, which is the easiest Kurdish writing system for English speakers.
Is Learn Kurdi accurate?
Every lesson in Learn Kurdi is reviewed by Kurdish teachers Mamoste Gulê (Founder & Instructor of Kurdish Lessons) and Bahadin Kerborani (PhD Candidate at University of Chicago). We do not publish Kurdish content that has not been checked by fluent native speakers and Kurdish language educators.
Why are there no good Kurdish learning apps?
Big language-learning companies like Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone do not offer Kurdish, even though 35 to 45 million people speak it. That gap is exactly why we built Learn Kurdi — to make Kurdish easy to learn online with modern, interactive lessons.