Your Amharic journey starts here. Start speaking the language of Ethiopia.
Whether you're reconnecting with your family's language or discovering Ethiopian culture for the first time, Selam meets you where you are. No textbooks, no pressure. Just a fun, beautiful way to start learning and speaking Amharic.
Built on cognitive science, every bite-sized lesson uses spaced repetition and active recall to help you build real, lasting memory. We pair this with native speaker audio, not generated voices, across 10 themed units, so you hear the language exactly as it's spoken and naturally retain what you learn.
The Ge'ez script (known as Fidel) has been written for over 2,000 years. With Selam, you don't just memorize characters, you learn to see the patterns, hear the sounds, and connect each symbol to real words spoken by real people. Every lesson brings you closer to reading and writing with confidence.
Language without culture is just vocabulary. Selam's Culture tab brings you the stories behind the words: Ethiopian traditions and articles that give every lesson deeper meaning. You're not just learning a language, you're experiencing a world.
New content added bi-weekly. Leaderboards to compete with friends. Sentence building and pronunciation practice. Drawing exercises to master Fidel characters. Tigrinya and Afaan Oromo coming soon. Selam is constantly evolving, and your feedback shapes what we build next.
"I was born in Ethiopia but adopted and moved to the states and slowly forgot Amharic. There were just not many good resources to learn. Now I'm so excited to learn and get to know my culture more!"
"My mom can't speak English well so I have to learn Amharic to talk to her. I'm going to Ethiopia next week and I need this."
"I'm from Ghana but wanted to relocate to Ethiopia and this really helps. You are really amazing for building this."
"I'm an adopted Ethiopian living in France. I want to learn Amharic because I never had the opportunity. Thank you very much, you don't know how much this will help me."
"I've been looking for something like this my whole life. My parents speak Amharic but I never learned, this is finally my chance."
"Finally an Amharic app that doesn't feel like it was made in 2010. The design is beautiful and the lessons actually stick."
Selam is free to download and you can try your first lesson for free, no account required. After that, a subscription unlocks all 10 units, 120+ vocabulary words, and full access to every feature. We offer a 3-day free trial on annual plans so you can explore everything risk-free.
Not at all. Selam is designed for complete beginners. Whether you've never heard a word of Amharic or you grew up hearing it at home, the app meets you where you are.
Selam is built specifically for Amharic, not adapted from a generic template. Every lesson features native speaker audio recordings (not AI-generated voices), the Ge'ez alphabet (Fidel) is integrated from day one with an interactive study tool, and a dedicated Culture tab connects the language to real Ethiopian traditions, history, and stories.
You'll work through 120+ vocabulary words across 10 themed units, from Greetings & Family to Food, Numbers, Colors, and Common Phrases. Each lesson uses multiple exercise types including image matching, audio exercises, translation, and tap-to-hear, all backed by spaced repetition and active recall to help you actually retain what you learn.
We add new lessons, vocabulary, and cultural content on a bi-weekly basis. We're always working on new units, exercise types, and features. Your feedback helps us decide what to build next.
Selam is available now on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Android is coming soon. Follow us on Instagram or TikTok to be the first to know when it launches.
Yes! Tigrinya and Afaan Oromo are on our roadmap. We're also building leaderboards, offline mode, and a kids mode. New content is added regularly, and your feedback directly shapes what we build next.
Free to download. No credit card required.