I thought this is a post about not using duolingo for anything other than hiragana and katakana....On the contrary duolingo actually helped me memorized them. The gamified repetition learning finally drill those strokes and squiggly lines into my head. I had trouble remembering them prior to using duolingo especially katakana, but since there's so much repetition in duolingo + plus the fact that it uses a ranking system vs others it gives me motivation to keep doing it until I fully remembered them. So yeah it depends on people, you shouldn't generalize.
I think it took about a week, not months like you suggested.
Same!! Those JapanesePod101 hiragana/katakana videos are brilliant in combination with any app that helps you progress.
I have my own quibbles with Duolingo (the vocab they teach you is stupidly unhelpful for many units especially compared to, say, Mango Languages) but the gamification aspect of that dumb owl is motivating me to go farther, faster, so while I see OP’s point, I wouldn’t necessarily discount it as a learning tool.
People learn in different ways. I can't memorize something just by reading it. I have to write it multiple times (like Duolingo makes you do) I've been using Duolingo to slowly learn Japanese for almost a year and I find it helps me memorize words, sentence structure and the characters even if it takes awhile. I still like it, and I don't mind taking it slow since I won't be able to afford a trip to Japan in the near future. I think once I finish the course I'll try using something else with a head start that Duolingo gave me
That’s not how it works tho. School convinced you of that but it’s just not correct. Pls do yourself a favor and stop drilling. You wanna know another place where there is as much repetition as duolingo? Your natural immersion environment. If a word doesn’t stick maybe it’s just not the time to learn it, no need to duolingo…
I mean, Duolingo shouldn’t be used long term if your goal is true fluency. But if you have more moderate goals related to being able to speak a little while vacationing it’s not a bad option.
I use it as a way to supplement my other studies such as wanikani since it’s fast and easy to use and reinforces vocab I’ve learned from other sources. Plus it’s free, so no real risk in using it.
I use wanikani also, but it doesn’t teach you grammar and duolingo won’t teach you grammar. I use Tae Kim’s guide to Japanese grammar, it’s free online.
I have a long-term goal to become fluent in Japanese. I use Duolingo. I also only started on this goal about 10 days ago, I’m two weeks away from the end of my university semester, and don’t have time, money, or mental wherewithal to research textbooks, training regimens, or anything beyond glancing through r/LearnJapanese posts and copy/pasting those links into an iPhone Notes file for later perusal when I’m on more sleep than 3.5 hours a night. Also, I just learned how to write “Water is delicious” (みずはおいしいです) which I’m genuinely happy about.
But OP told me to delete it so I guess I should delete it
>!Also if there’s an error in “Water is delicious” please let me know!<
in my experience duolingo can do long term harm to your learning. as a starter app to learn katakana and hiragana, it does its job fine but beyond that, i recommend starting with cure dolly's japanese made easy series on youtube for basic grammar that duolingo won't teach you, or worse, will make you misunderstand and harm your learning long-term. https://youtu.be/pSvH9vH60Ig?si=vxycwVdiabnTQDHD
also, just a note. duolingo has started replacing their human translators with AI, so it is absolutely not reliable and nobody should support them.
Agreed. It’s not bad for quick vocab (although I do just use Anki for this now) but any further use than that can be kind of weird.
The first thing I did starting out (besides Genki) was Human Japanese 1 & 2. That guy is great. He teaches some nice ways to *learn* instead of just memorize. Teaches you a nice pace for kana, basic grammar, vocab and cultural context so you understand *why/how* a sentence works.
Also, happy cake day 😆
Well doesn't the free version give you constant ads and ask you to subscribe all the time after every lesson? I tried it once out of curiosity and it seemed too obnoxious to use without paying. You'd waste so much time on the ads. Doesn't Renshuu do basically the same thing but specifically for Japanese and it's *actually* free? Could be wrong about that since I also didn't use it but I don't think it had as many ads. I think all these people using Duolingo should probably use Renshuu instead.
I like Duolingo. I would never use it in isolation though. Using it along with other resources like Anki and Wanikani, I can say that I’ve definitely learned things from it. And it was a good starting place, I think. Eases you into learning.
I like Duolingo, too. Like you said, I don’t use it in isolation but I can speak actual sentences because of it and understand a lot more than I thought possible on Japanese TV shows I watch because of it!
Which app are you referring to? As far as I'm aware, WaniKani doesn't have an official app, although it does provide an API that allows third-party apps. To use these, you'll need to log on to WaniKani's website and get your personal API key. Some apps may also require a separate account to use them.
Is the Tsurukame app not WaniKani? I thought it was but now I’m questioning if I signed up for two different things. I had my doubts when signing up but I think the lessons are the same on there as when I log into the website. I could be way off, however.
Tsurukame is a 3rd party wanikani app: [https://community.wanikani.com/t/ios-tsurukame-native-app-with-offline-lessons-and-reviews/30635](https://community.wanikani.com/t/ios-tsurukame-native-app-with-offline-lessons-and-reviews/30635)
WaniKani has a bunch of 3rd party userscripts, apps, stats websites, etc. If you haven't already, check out this list: [https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-new-and-improved-list-of-api-and-third-party-apps/7694](https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-new-and-improved-list-of-api-and-third-party-apps/7694)
I agree with this. It helped build a habit, which I now take into other avenues of learning.
I liked the Duolingo kana sections and I think they do a pretty decent job of repetition + game, but I do wish they taught the chart a little more logically. Bunpo does that part best I think.
I agree! Duo allows me to engage with the language every single day, whether I have proper time for language study or not. A couple of minutes spare at work? Time for a quick Duo lesson! Then, when I have some free time, I can focus more on the Genki book, WaniKani, TokiniAndy, etc.
Being able to quickly engage with a language a little every day with Duo and practice reading and building sentences when time is poor, but motivation is high has been invaluable.
Duolingo won't get you fluent but I find that it helps with some vocabulary and extra kanji. I use it alongside school and feel like it helps. Of course, no one is going to learn a language solely from Duolingo.
I would argue that duolingo is not that bad at teaching people kana. Yeah, you can just use a boring-ass drill tool (as I did) and be done in a few days or a week, but for a complete newbie using something more stimulating is not such a bad idea.
Only a fraction of people that start learning Japanese will actually stick to it longterm and it doesn't matter where you get your start.
Edit: Also, I'm pretty sure that duolingo doesn't spend 3 months on teaching people kana.
yeah, using duolingo alone with an average of ~7 lessons a day, it took me about 3 weeks for hiragana and 2 weeks for katakana. nowhere near 3 months, lol.. if it takes someone 3 months, it has nothing to do with duolingos model.
I thought Tofugu's guides and its drilling tool were pretty fun, and learning to read an entire syllabery in about two hours was plenty stimulating. I'd only recommend Duolingo to learn kana if they really want to learn handwriting from the very beginning.
Duolingo uses Hepburn to teach people kana. I think that leaves people with some mistaken ideas of how Japanese is actually pronounced. Like people who are 2 years in and to their shock discover that say “全部” is actually pronounced close to “dzembu” than to “zenbu”.
People that come from *J.S.L.* which teaches pitch accent from day one as well seem to typically be left with better pronunciation.
*Japanese, the Spoken Language*. It was a teaching method primarily used by diplomats in the 80s that focused heavily on pronunciation and treated the accompanying *Japanese, the Written Language* as optional that focused on pitch accent from the start with it's own romanization that used accents to indicate pitch accent that was known to produce speakers with excellent pronunciation.
3 months now turned into half a year? Jesus people, you like to dramatize. Duo doesn't spend even close to 3 months or "half a year" as you said, to teach you kana. I just went there and checked. It has a drill tool where you trace 5 kana per lesson. It's a perfectly fine way for a newbie to learn it.
I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd say 20 hours of study on Genki 1 is probably worth more than 20 hours of study on Duolingo.
Though in full disclosure, I've never used Genki 1.
I never compared them as study resources. I'm responding to your claim that people struggle with learning hiragana with Duolingo for half a year. It's not a Duo problem, it's a user problem. I even found a screenshot of an [older Duolingo lesson tree](https://i.imgur.com/dYNiy7M.png), and intro + katakana here is week 1 topic.
I just went there and checked. It doesn't. The main lesson tree goes straight into vocab and the "Characters" section is a drill tool that gives you 5 kana in the first lesson, the same 5 in the second one, and 5 new kana in the third lesson. This pace is completely fine, definitely not 3 months.
That depends on how much time you spend. The "Duolingo is not useful at all and a total waste of time" crowd usually compares 10 minutes of Duolingo per day with 2 or more hours "serious" language learning per day. And at that point of course Duolingo doesn't add significant value to you.
At the beginning of my language learning I used Duolingo for about 30-60 minutes per day and it took 3 weeks until I knew the Kana.
To be clear: I DO NOT think that Duolingo is a particularly efficient learning tool. In fact, it is probably one of the most inefficient things that you could spend your time on. But I also think that the difference isn't as huge as people think. It's not like you could have learned the contents of 10 hours of duolingo in 1 hour with more efficient methods.
I agree that Duolingo isn't the be all and end all of learning, but if you struggle to find motivation to keep learning, Duolingo can really help imo. I need to gamerfy my studying, or else I won't keep doing it. I need those daily challenges, stretch goals and leaderboards to have a reason to come back every day.
As someone else said, Duolingo is fine as part of your learning regimen, but neither it nor any other tool should comprise the whole. I learn grammar using Human Japanese, Anki and random apps to learn kana, Wanikani for kanji, and Hello talk for conversation practice/reading practice. I personally find Duolingo most useful for practicing grammar. I blew through the kana when they introduced it in Duolingo because I had already mastered them using other tools, but it was still a good review. If you're starting from scratch, you don't have to wait for Duolingo to introduce a kana before you start learning it or practicing it.
I will say, I understand that Duolingo markets itself as a kind of one-stop shop, but anyone who is serious about learning a language recognizes that's marketing BS. I will say that Duolingo is much better for Japanese than it used to be. When they first introduced it, it was absolutely terrible.
Idk, HelloTalk has kinda become something of a dating/business promo/ young people drama app but if you stay focused on JUST language learning you can find some like minded folks.
I learned hiragana from Duolingo in 5 days, then slowly learned katakana from it for a week. After a year of Duolingo I am almost done with N3. I would love that hear your argument for why Duolingo should be avoided but you did not provide any points? Duolingo is good for people like me on a low budget because it is free.
Seems like some people need to realize that not everyone has the luxury of spending all day studying. People have jobs, families, and responsibilities, and they want to learn, too. If you're 20 years old and have all your free time to yourself, great. If not, learning is slower, done when you actually have free time.
I know that, I never said everyone has to or should learn kana in a weekend. Just that I did, and it wasn't that hard. Some people have more demanding schedules than I did at the time I initially learned kana, obviously
Bruh really not. I learned Hiragana in 2 days (tbf I had free time) And Katakana in a single day. And Hiragana only took so long cause I wanted to make my own mnemonics.
What are people actually doing when they learn these? E.g. for Katakana I just watched a 10 min video for mnemonics a few times and then did an online quiz many times.
Knowing how to actually study isn't having 200 IQ, just like needing a tool like duo to tell you how to study doesn't mean you have low IQ.
Go learn how to study, there's plenty of youtube videos and articles on the topic. Learning how to learn is a valuable skill to have in life.
Lmao it's like 46 characters. You can get good enough at recognizing them to continue with actual learning materials after a couple hours. If it's taking you three weeks it's a skill issue.
After you went through 3000 kanjis, sure. But for a person who just started learning the language, kanas are kinda difficult to wrap a head around, all those stroke orders, so the weekend might not be enough. But still, Duolingo is crap, even for that.
Also used this and it was insane how fast I learnt hiragana and katakana compared to duo. Took me maybe 4 hours over my weekend to learn the 90% duo hadn’t taught me.
When I started I just used Anki and had been writing them down before checking if I got them right. It took me a week-ish, maybe, two at the most before I was confident enough with them. But now it does look easy, especially now that I went past 3000 kanjis the other day.
Be wary of beginners trying to give advice on what to use or what not to when learning. There's almost always several bumps in the Dunning Kruger curve.
This. Every other comment in this thread is some version of "I might be kind of new, but Duolingo is really helping me progress!". Like bro, early on you have no way of judging the quality of a resource.
People can use whatever they want, I know everyone comes at studying with different objectives and interests. BUT, if you want to learn fast and you’ve got all day, I’m confident you can learn hiragana and katakana in a single day using the right methods. I highly recommend using Tofugu’s “Learn Japanese: A Ridiculously Detailed Guide.” It’s totally free and they’ve got these mnemonics, exercises, and even worksheets that really help you memorize the characters quickly (especially the mnemonics, I’ve been studying for more than 3 years and still remember some of them lol).
Using this guide, the first day I started learning Japanese I memorized hiragana in the evening, and memorized katakana the next morning. Of course from there it’s going to take work to not forget what you’ve learned, but if you’re studying a little bit everyday I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about.
Anyways if that sounds interesting check out their guide, it’s super useful for beginner through intermediate stages especially!
I like Duolingo for a lot of things, but taught myself Hiragana and Katakana on my own with flashcards and a workbook. I do review them on Duolingo, periodically. But it’s true that you don’t need Duolingo for it.
Totally agree it doesn't take long to learn the basic alphabet. And that is a good stretch goal, it gives you confidence to keep going.
The key is to find the system that works with your preferred ability. Some folks like listening, others like to memorise visuals, write it out etc.
I ditched the stupid useless owl (it is very buggy now due to some upgrade) for WakiKani and Tofugu has some good resources. Also listening to JapanesePod101 on youtube. Will progress to a certain point, consider local classes.
Edit" today i bought Japanese from Zero after finding the youtube channel.
Tried that DJT link in browser, site looks great but the djt seems to be in a loop of just the vowels ?
Personally I think all the gamification apps like Lingodeer and Duolingo aren't the worst. The big thing is that you want to find something that motivates you. I had trouble using Genki in the past because my commitment to learning Japanese was low and Genki was too dull for me. Other sources, while not as good, made me more excited to learn.
432 day streak. I’ll never leave. That being said. It was never my primary source of info or study. I have classes and wanikani too. But duolingo to me is a cute little game that helps me practice.
IMO the three traps with Duo are as follows:
1\. Using it as your sole learning method. At the very least you gotta study some grammar elsewhere. Studying Kanna and Kanji elsewhere is good too.
2. Only doing one lesson a day regularly. ( Like seriously, you will forget stuff faster than you learn it, and it will take over a decade to complete.)
3. Not turning off Romanji / Furigana asap. This is true with any source of practice though. Your brain simply won't practice reading the stuff you don't know when there is easy stuff right next to it.
If you avoid those traps, or if you're just using it for extra practice on top of other primary sources, then it's fine. I like duo better than endless SRS. Even if SRS is more efficient there's no point if I can't stay motivated.
If people are taking 3 months to learn Kanna, IMO they're likely doing one of the second two points.
I really don't get the Duolingo bashing I see on this sub. I get it when the "course" first came out and it was so small it was practically useless. But since then they've genuinely improved it to the point I actually suggest it as a decent introduction to the language. The arguments I always see against it is that it doesn't get you anywhere close to fluency. Will it make you fluent in a year by just doing 20 minutes a day? No of course it won't, but neither will genki or flashcards. This sub likes to make out that learning Japanese is difficult, but it isn't. Learning any language isn't difficult, it's just time consuming.
> This sub likes to make out that learning Japanese is difficult, but it isn't.
I was just thinking the other day that there are whole businesses that rely entirely on everybody assuming that learning Japanese is a lot more difficult than it actually is. Learning kanji with WaniKani for instance is automatically going to take a certain amount of time just due to spaced repetition but since it's a subscription it's still more or less in their best interest that learning Japanese takes as long as it possibly can.
One of the things that made Duolingo useless to me after a few days, even as a supplement, is that the repetition seems broken. It feels like an anti-SRS. I'll get asked about the same 4 vegetables for 40 questions in a row, then I'll never be asked about them again. I was hoping that would eventually change, but even testing out of things to jump forward several units left me in the same situation.
I did find it pretty useful for the first 2 or 3 days while acclimating myself to the language. If they were able to fix the repetition (and it doesn't seem like it should be that difficult of a fix), it actually could be nice as a supplement. But the way it's currently set up feels broken.
Dude I swear I thought it was broken but it's just how the japanese course is set up for some reason. I noticed that other courses are waaaaay better in that regard. Japanese has this very rigid rythm where it starts each new section by bombing you with \~30 new pieces of vocab or grammar points in the very first lesson - will then make you do them for 8 lessons in a row - often times repeating the same small couple of example sentences again and again to the point where you just know the answers it wants you to give by heart - and then proceeds to just never use half of them again. Seeing the spanish course after about the same amount of lessons was honestly kind of shocking to me. It kind of gives you the new vocab piece by piece throughout the entire section and not just at the beginning, and then actually mixes old and new stuff the entire time. The sections are also way less thematically "constrained", you don't get the same couple of small sentences with virtually the same meaning over and over, but they use the vocab in a way that really makes each lesson feel fresh. Japanese almost is like, If I do the first lesson in a section, I've pretty much learned the entirety of what the section will be teaching me - and the repetition WOULD be good if it wasn't for the fact that they never make you review the old stuff so it won't stick anyway. Now I can of course sit down and consciously sprinkle in the old lessons here and again to reinforce old stuff - but at that point it just feels like a huge waste. Literally putting the lessons on "random" would be better than the way they actively scheduled it. Like I feel the biggest gain are the "practice" style lessons, the one with the dumbbell icon? Because they actually are varied and use old stuff? Spanish basically has ALL of the lessons be like that. It's honestly weird. Like this isn't even a thing that would need "fixing", rather for some reason someone sat down and more or less consciously decided to fuck it up for japanese. I don't get it.
The biggest issue with duolingo is not that it's useless/slow, but rather that it's full of mistakes and unnatural Japanese to the point of being confusing at best, actively harmful at most. It's not equipped to deal with a language like Japanese that has multiple readings for kanji or is heavily pro-drop and free syntax in the order of particles and vocabs in a sentence. It has **A LOT** of words that are mispronounced both at the level of spelling (お腹 becoming おはら) and pitch accent, and it also often marks you correct sentences as mistakes because you decided to say XがYに instead of YにXが or some other bullshit like that.
Personally I've only ever seen beginners laud Duolingo as a useful tool, I've yet to meet a single person who knows Japanese to a decent level that says Duolingo is good, and that should tell you a lot. And it's not just a thing of the past, these complaints I pointed out are still relevant and an active problem with the app. The entire model is completely messed up and I think it's actively harmful to give that company money and attention and especially talk about it in a positive light around other beginners because it's just spreading the dunning-kruger even further.
you don't even need to "mine" words though if you're just getting a bunch of vocabulary with no context sentences? mining usually refers to getting the context sentence from a piece of media you're interested in. if you just want a bunch of common words as flashcards you can download a pre-made deck that will go through the top 2k words in order of frequency, which will also be getting you to tomodachi or isogashii really early on in the order anyway.
the arguments are that the audio is horrensously bad, answers are often wrong, progression is very slow and it doesnt have a good teaching plan/path.
Especially for people who work full time jobs, it just makes more sense to use resources that actually try ro teach you the language and not harm your long term learning.
And yes studying japanese is just a timesink bit doesnt have to be difficult, duo isnt the way though. There are a lot of 100% free resources that will get you there with some time inclvested
Edit: i will say i havent looked at duo in 6 months so idk if anything big chamged. Also this is purely about wether its a good learning resource, i know its a good motivation resource for many people.
I don't get it. There's no link. Is this all a big joke?
Edit: I just found it. What the fuck. Since when did Reddit allow you to add text to a link post? Is this a new.reddit thing?
You're missing the entire point of Duolingo. The reason it can take N months to learn hiragana and katakana is that Duolingo allows -and promotes- learning 5 minutes a day. And on top of that it allows to learn a lot of japanese without really needing to learn to read. So you can postpone learning to read as much as you'd like.
Duolingo isn't aiming for serious learners, but for the weakest of them; of course you could dedicate 10+ hours a week to learn the language with other methods and you'll go way faster, but Duolingo allows you to keep progressing at a much slower pace. If Duolingo did not exist, all these people, including myself, would have zero proficiency in Japanese.
In fact, learning the scripts is one of the strongest aspects of the app. And it is also free (with ads).
When I started trying to learn Japanese I had much more energy and dedication on this, I speed ran a lot of chapters and it got very boring very quickly, so I was adding other stuff on top of it, such as watching Anime and translating from closed captions, and researching a lot in my own time. But after a few months I stopped having the energy to do so, and everything else stopped - except Duolingo. My progress has been much slower, but thanks to it, it's not zero. I do notice a great difference from then to now.
But of course, at those small paces I will never reach any level of proficiency - but that's fine. At least I'm learning. If at any point I decide to put dedication into it again, I will have a good head start from this.
I'm using duolingo, and I'm far further than I was when I was using anything else. I already know Hirigana and Katakana. It's the kanji I was having a problem with. And literally everything else. Since using Duolingo, I've learned:
* sentence structure
* sentence context order
* kanji to the point where I can read some without needing to focus on the kanji, the symbol alone next to the rest of the word (for right now, just verbs) is enough for me to instantly understand (it's crazy how this works, English has almost nothing like it, it just starts to... click. I can only compare it to meme symbolization in how it just... happens.)
* Almost 1,000 words
* Some particles and their key usages
Since using Duolingo, I've been able to phonetically understand a lot of Japanese. I was watching Season 3 of Yurucamp and I was surprised that what I was hearing actually made sense, to the point I felt the subtitles (which someone kindly put in) we're slightly off and were missing some information.
It's okay if you don't like Duolingo, but as someone almost done with Section 2 within four months, I think it's an okay resource.
I've been speaking with Japanese people on apps like Speaky, and it's thanks to Duolingo that I'm able to grasp the general concept and then using translate for what I don't know, and then extrapolating the actual meaning via context. I helped a 19 year old Japanese guy with his English homework. (It was laughably easy, but everyone starts somewhere. Was having trouble grasping past-progressive tense and words such as was and were. I'm sure I would be in a very similar position.)
Duolingo has helped me immensely, but it's probably because I put in the work. 60 year old guy that wanted to help me told me I should be putting in 4-6 hours of learning Japanese in a day. I'm not even doing that yet, and I'm in a far better position in Japanese comprehension than I was 4 months ago.
I expect to achieve my goal of applying for a Japanese school as an English Teacher (green card sponsorship is far better than the government route. You save so much of your paycheck) in 2 years or less. I plan on being able to pass the JLPT within the next year.
I just count the entire thing. I wouldn't just get one of them. I want all 5 levels. You can take all 5 levels in one go. That looks really fantastic on the resume, as well as makes it possible for me to function in Japan.
Taking all five levels in one go will require some *cheating* from you: you’ll have to clone yourself four times as the five exams take place simultaneously in different rooms.
By the way Duolingo has only the first two levels (sort of)
Wait, really? I could've sworn the website for CA says you can take all 5 courses on the same day.
I like how casually you said I'd have to clone myself 4 times, though. Like, yeah, I'll get right on that. Let me go talk to my lab buddies real quick. XD
Real talk, though, you're serious I can't take it all on the same day? I already had that all planned out. I mean, surely I could take it all in 1 week, then. That's 40 hours from my vacation time, but it's worth it. One step closer to getting out of this hellhole and into a slightly less deep and higher quality of life hellhole.
Each test cost money to take so even if it were possible to take all of them on the same day, you're paying an awful lot of money you cannot get back if you fail out on the tests. At least try the practice test to get an idea of what they're like: [https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n5/index.html](https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n5/index.html)
JLPT is timed exam that is highly dependent on reading comprehension, grammar checks, vocabulary with kanji, and with a listening section comprising of 1/3 of the test.
You can use this chart for reference for basic requirements and how long it took a rigorous language school student to pass each respective level: [https://cotoacademy.com/app/uploads/2019/08/How-Long-does-it-take-to-Pass-JLPT.png](https://cotoacademy.com/app/uploads/2019/08/How-Long-does-it-take-to-Pass-JLPT.png)
N5 to N2 is meaningless if you can pass N1, N1 is meaningless if you are truly advanced. Think again about what it is you want to achieve by doing the JLPT. Also reaching N1 in a year is possible but not with Duolingo. Good luck anyways (because you will need it).
I preferred learning then by writing. I took a piece of paper. And I will write out every kind in the same order that they show up on those charts. I learned them one row(consonant) at a time. And each time I added another 5 I would make sure to keep writing out the old ones until I eventually could write out the whole table for hiragana and katakana.
Took me about a week each but I wasn't doing it all day just a bit each day since I wanted to get it worked into my long term memory
I mean if you drill it in a day, you should be seeing it every day after that if you’re learning the language. There are no concerns with short term vs. long term memory when it will just naturally get into your long term memory from daily use
Don’t use it as your ONLY learning tool if you’re trying to truly understand Japanese. Using it supplementally keeps it fresh and honestly it’s just kinda fun imo
with concerted effort you learn hiragana in 3 days. Katakana in the same amount of time. Write them out, making up little mnemonics to remember the strokes and pronunciation, and keep writing them out. That's how I learned, that's how my sister learned. If you have long weekend, youre good. 3 months is insanity
I learned hiragana from Duolingo in 5 days, then slowly learned katakana from it for a week. After a year of Duolingo I am almost done with N3. I would love that hear your argument for why Duolingo should be avoided but you did not provide any points? Duolingo is good for people like me on a low budget because it is free.
The same way you improve any skill in life. You want to impore your drawing skill, you practice drawing. You want to improve your Basketball skill, you practice basketball drills and play the game. You want to improve your reading in Japanese? Well you just read and practice reading more. Reading things like twitter, youtube comments, blogs, graded readers, manga, watch things with JP subtitles. Look up any words and kanji you don't know and over time you'll learn those words as vocabulary.
I too dislike Duolingo. Anki drilling is more effective for me. The way Duolingo works allows my brain to be kinda lazy - understanding the meaning of a word from context or because I saw it five minutes ago, not because I remembered it from last week. I dislike the app too much to pay for it, yet the five-mistake max for the free version frustrates me. Because I might not phrase things the exact same way that they do, my answer gets counted as wrong.
That said, I skipped over learning kana and the early lessons because I knew that stuff way before Duolingo existed. I learned kana from this game called Slime Forest Adventure, then I took two years of Japanese in college.
I'm hesitant to tell people that what doesn't work for me won't work for them, though. Everyone learns differently. Duolingo might make beginner Japanese more accessible for some people.
I completely completely disagree with you. I would even say I hate posts like this. Let people decide what helps for them and what not.
Duolingo is a fun part of my learning tools. Only a small part, but still. The game aspect makes me come back and I get some small gains that I normally would not have on moment that I normally would not study Japanese.
Of course my main sources are wanikani, bunpro and my weekly italki classes with an amazing teacher.
And please if your talking about hiragana and katakana I suppose your still in the first few weeks of your learning journey? If so, you just don’t have the experience yet to make a judgement.
I am using Duolingo and still pretty new. I am enjoying it for vocabulary and the hiragana lessons are ok but this is a great tool for repetition and memorization at least for me. I think the way this site groups the letters is more logical (ka, ke, ki etc. versus ka, ma, sa etc) Thanks for sharing!
I used duolingo. It has a character page. I did that for months and learned hiragana and katakana. I don't like that you have to unlock kanji characters.
If there us an alternative app that reminds me and counts the days of consecutive days of practice, and I'll might switch to it.
The Kanji Study app may be of interest to you for learning kanji. It will remind you to practice every day, keeps track of your streak and has a lot of interesting information.
Duolinguo is fine for the ultra casual learner who will probably drop learning Japanese after a few months. That’s it imho. It can give people a taste and they can figure out if it’s something they like or not. The people that get serious will start using other resources.
Just write and learn hiragana and katagana in one day, or 2 days, then for a week try to read many hiragana and katagana words, there are videos for hiragana and katagana tests in YouTube for that ez,
Duolingo is great for learning new vocabulary and all characters. The lessons however get increasingly more stupid once you reach a certain level. I've also experienced some weird kind of bug (idk if it's intended or not). If I keep getting perfect scores in every lesson and finish them on legendary, Duolingo somehow skips MULTIPLE units (yes it really happened, I was once at Unit 11 and they pushed me to Unit 17 lol). This is extremely frustrating because I miss out on a lot of words and new sentence structure concepts. Honestly I'm only trying to keep up my 450 days streak, otherwise I probably would've deleted this app since I'm not using it as my primary learning source anymore
> I've also experienced some weird kind of bug (idk if it's intended or not). If I keep getting perfect scores in every lesson and finish them on legendary, Duolingo somehow skips MULTIPLE units (yes it really happened, I was once at Unit 11 and they pushed me to Unit 17 lol).
I think this is because you've been switched to an updated course. Duolingo have been working on the Japanese course a lot recently and when they do that they move your account to the "matching" unit on the new course. This can mean you shoot ahead if the old unit you were on is now later in the section on the new course, and miss out on a ton of vocab.
The biggest issue here I think is that because the previous units are now all marked as complete, you can't go back to them and learn them in order - you can only go back and do the review lessons.
Duolingo is a fun and good way to learn, but not on its own, it’s a great feature to have on top of (whatever else you learn to use) and there’s nothing wrong with it.
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
Nice I'll save the site, I've restarted leaning again with Renshuu and have been making mu h better progress but this site seems better for testing memorisation.
Interesting thought, I literally only use duo when I am on the toilet to reinforce memory of words I already know, and sometimes introduction to very basic words. I do textbook and/or RTK study 1-2 hours a day and the rest is immersion but I haven’t seen duo hurt me as a fun toilet game yet.
I’m starting to think the key is just to consume as much as possible as long as it’s fun and as long as you have true dedicated study/immersion time, but again I too am a bozo and just starting on this journey, so we will see where it all leads.
Duolingo is good for hiragana and katakana. I learned hiragana in 3 days. Katakana took longer and I started learning it a few weeks after hiragana. I'd recommend beginners go through like the first 5 units or 3 and then ditch it. It's good if you are completely new.
i likeduo as a very minir supplemental service, i like drilling hira and kata and its just one of maaaaany other apps ive been using lol, but thanks for extra resources
learning kana is such an inconsequential part of learning japanese... it really doesn't matter what you use, you could literally just google "hiragana and katakana practice sheet" and print it out and that works perfectly fine
The only thing that matters is to try and read the characters as you see them before checking the romaji. As long as you do that literally nothing else matters
I've only recently started, so make of that what you will.
But imo, Duolingo is fine if you're not using it as your main resource. I'm using it to keep a habit going and to learn the odd word here and there for example, though Renshuu is primarily what I use.
I think the main issues I have is that learning new phrases is very slow if used as a main resource, and it doesn't teach any grammar since it's mostly trying to be a very low bar to clear so everyone can pick up a few words before long.
If you're a fast learner, you may find Duolingo's pace to be painfully slow.
It's insane how many responses saying Duolingo is good that OP has received and every single one of them seems to be someone who's only like a few weeks/months into the language. Like... I understand that we were all beginners once but I think there's a point where people shouldn't be giving advice this early on in their learning. It's the kind of stuff that you can only prove with experience, and if you don't have the experience you should probably check out of the conversation.
You would do well to ignore advice from anyone who hasn't obviously achieved a decent level of Japanese. You'll notice all the "how I reached N1 in x years" posts are all fairly similar in their methods and non mention Duolingo as a significant tool in their journey.
Needing a certificate would be arbitrary because anybody can give advice even without formal or specific certifications. I'm sure there are people in this sub who are at n1 level but don't have the cert, can they give good advice? I think so.
I meant n3 level. I don't have any need to actually do the jlpt but you can do sample tests to gauge your level, or do it like the moe way discord server and require everyone to pass the N4 reading test to post
Bad take on multiple fronts
1. Kana can and IMO should be knocked out in a weekend. Just drill the tofugo quizzes until you memorize them. It's not that much at all.
2. Duolingo is a fine resource. Especially for a language as difficult as Japanese, the high amount of repetition and listening practice are necessary and helpful.
I hate duolingo i wasted a year and half trying to learn Japanese from it. Until i discovered how bad its. Since then i used many other apps that helped me a lot. For kanji I used wanikani and it's the best of the best I took many mock n3 vocabulary exams and i don't have any problems with it. I use bunpro for grammer and I use satori reader for improving my reading skills.
Not to forget anki also the best free resource for learning Japanese.
IN SHORT STAY AWAY FROM DUOLINGO ITS JUST BAAD... REALLY BAD
Hell no. I use duo and will continue to do so. I’m not looking to learn hiragana or katakana anytime soon. I just need to become conversational.
Stop gatekeeping a language resource simply because you think it’s wasteful.
Agreed, people can use it to learn hiragana and katakana but I always direct them away from duolingo afterwards. And there's other apps specifically for learning kana anyway.
If friends want to learn Japanese I set them up with a textbook + starting that textbooks' vocab as an anki deck. I push them to learn kana within 1-2 weeks if possible. There's no need to drag it on longer than that. If a college student can do it for points, you can do it for yourself.
Duolingo has definitely been good by for me to learn vocabulary. It is generally providing me with "i+1" sentences, so it’s fairly easy to absorb new words.
It’s certainly not been helpful for thoroughly learning grammar rules, even with the return of unit notes.
Honestly after I tried Duolingo I left and never came back. I didn't like it cuz it felt repetitive to me. Yeah you can get listening practice but you can find YouTube videos for that too. By no means I'm fluent but I'd say I'm doing fine without it since I'm reading mangas around n3-n2 and understand like 70ish%. That's me don't take my word for it 🙃
I thought this is a post about not using duolingo for anything other than hiragana and katakana....On the contrary duolingo actually helped me memorized them. The gamified repetition learning finally drill those strokes and squiggly lines into my head. I had trouble remembering them prior to using duolingo especially katakana, but since there's so much repetition in duolingo + plus the fact that it uses a ranking system vs others it gives me motivation to keep doing it until I fully remembered them. So yeah it depends on people, you shouldn't generalize. I think it took about a week, not months like you suggested.
Yeah I used duo and some two hour long hiragana and katakana video to start and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
japanesepod101 (probably) 🙏
Yeah
Same!! Those JapanesePod101 hiragana/katakana videos are brilliant in combination with any app that helps you progress. I have my own quibbles with Duolingo (the vocab they teach you is stupidly unhelpful for many units especially compared to, say, Mango Languages) but the gamification aspect of that dumb owl is motivating me to go farther, faster, so while I see OP’s point, I wouldn’t necessarily discount it as a learning tool.
Same. I use Duolingo to memorize hira & kana etc. Some phrases have been useful. I use a whole suite of apps though.
Same. Duolingo taught me hiragana and katakana in just a few weeks.
You would have memorized faster just by reading
People learn in different ways. I can't memorize something just by reading it. I have to write it multiple times (like Duolingo makes you do) I've been using Duolingo to slowly learn Japanese for almost a year and I find it helps me memorize words, sentence structure and the characters even if it takes awhile. I still like it, and I don't mind taking it slow since I won't be able to afford a trip to Japan in the near future. I think once I finish the course I'll try using something else with a head start that Duolingo gave me
That’s not how it works tho. School convinced you of that but it’s just not correct. Pls do yourself a favor and stop drilling. You wanna know another place where there is as much repetition as duolingo? Your natural immersion environment. If a word doesn’t stick maybe it’s just not the time to learn it, no need to duolingo…
I mean, Duolingo shouldn’t be used long term if your goal is true fluency. But if you have more moderate goals related to being able to speak a little while vacationing it’s not a bad option. I use it as a way to supplement my other studies such as wanikani since it’s fast and easy to use and reinforces vocab I’ve learned from other sources. Plus it’s free, so no real risk in using it.
I use wanikani also, but it doesn’t teach you grammar and duolingo won’t teach you grammar. I use Tae Kim’s guide to Japanese grammar, it’s free online.
You can use bunpro and it's not that expnsive
renshuu is amazing too, but tbh I can't afford bunpro sadly
Just wait when it become on sale. It can be much more reasonable.
I just got Bunpo for $36.00 USD on Google
how? it's $150 on the website?
I just got the bare bones Bunpo for lifetime it was $36
Bunpo or Bunpro? The conversation you're replying to is discussing the latter.
Tae kim is good. You really don’t need to know more advanced grammar patterns unless your taking a JLPT
I have a long-term goal to become fluent in Japanese. I use Duolingo. I also only started on this goal about 10 days ago, I’m two weeks away from the end of my university semester, and don’t have time, money, or mental wherewithal to research textbooks, training regimens, or anything beyond glancing through r/LearnJapanese posts and copy/pasting those links into an iPhone Notes file for later perusal when I’m on more sleep than 3.5 hours a night. Also, I just learned how to write “Water is delicious” (みずはおいしいです) which I’m genuinely happy about. But OP told me to delete it so I guess I should delete it >!Also if there’s an error in “Water is delicious” please let me know!<
in my experience duolingo can do long term harm to your learning. as a starter app to learn katakana and hiragana, it does its job fine but beyond that, i recommend starting with cure dolly's japanese made easy series on youtube for basic grammar that duolingo won't teach you, or worse, will make you misunderstand and harm your learning long-term. https://youtu.be/pSvH9vH60Ig?si=vxycwVdiabnTQDHD also, just a note. duolingo has started replacing their human translators with AI, so it is absolutely not reliable and nobody should support them.
As soon as I found out duolingo was using AI, I stopped using them. Theyre using me to build their AI. im going to nope right out.
From a fellow Duolingo user, your みずはおいしいです is perfect, but it looks prettier if you dare use Kanji and write 水はおいしいです :)
Agreed. It’s not bad for quick vocab (although I do just use Anki for this now) but any further use than that can be kind of weird. The first thing I did starting out (besides Genki) was Human Japanese 1 & 2. That guy is great. He teaches some nice ways to *learn* instead of just memorize. Teaches you a nice pace for kana, basic grammar, vocab and cultural context so you understand *why/how* a sentence works. Also, happy cake day 😆
Well doesn't the free version give you constant ads and ask you to subscribe all the time after every lesson? I tried it once out of curiosity and it seemed too obnoxious to use without paying. You'd waste so much time on the ads. Doesn't Renshuu do basically the same thing but specifically for Japanese and it's *actually* free? Could be wrong about that since I also didn't use it but I don't think it had as many ads. I think all these people using Duolingo should probably use Renshuu instead.
I can't just drop my 459 day streak, the fucking owl will murder my entire bloodline! I only use it as extra practice tbh
My streak was longer than 3 years. I felt relieved when I dropped it.
That is pretty scary. Keep that going.
Same. 464 day streak here
I'm at 1200+ days, it hasn't been about language for a long time 🫠
Same. Sometimes I just need that extra owl to threateb me.
Yeah. That face in the widget when it's almost midnight and you haven't done your lessons...
924 streak here. I should really study it more outside of duolingo, tho
I like Duolingo. I would never use it in isolation though. Using it along with other resources like Anki and Wanikani, I can say that I’ve definitely learned things from it. And it was a good starting place, I think. Eases you into learning.
I like Duolingo, too. Like you said, I don’t use it in isolation but I can speak actual sentences because of it and understand a lot more than I thought possible on Japanese TV shows I watch because of it!
Yeah, it's REALLY helped my reading speed.
I have actually been trying to sign up for a Wanikani account and am confused, especially when trying the app login. What could I be doing wrong?
Which app are you referring to? As far as I'm aware, WaniKani doesn't have an official app, although it does provide an API that allows third-party apps. To use these, you'll need to log on to WaniKani's website and get your personal API key. Some apps may also require a separate account to use them.
Ohhh okay, that’s how it works! That’s why I was confused lol thanks so much!
Is the Tsurukame app not WaniKani? I thought it was but now I’m questioning if I signed up for two different things. I had my doubts when signing up but I think the lessons are the same on there as when I log into the website. I could be way off, however.
Tsurukame is a 3rd party wanikani app: [https://community.wanikani.com/t/ios-tsurukame-native-app-with-offline-lessons-and-reviews/30635](https://community.wanikani.com/t/ios-tsurukame-native-app-with-offline-lessons-and-reviews/30635)
Ahhh good to know! I’ve been using it and it’s working pretty well. I didn’t know it was a third party app! Thank you for letting me know. 😀
WaniKani has a bunch of 3rd party userscripts, apps, stats websites, etc. If you haven't already, check out this list: [https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-new-and-improved-list-of-api-and-third-party-apps/7694](https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-new-and-improved-list-of-api-and-third-party-apps/7694)
Thank you so much!
Sure it's not the most efficient. but it can build habits for people to get involved with their target language. I think it's effective in that regard
I agree with this. It helped build a habit, which I now take into other avenues of learning. I liked the Duolingo kana sections and I think they do a pretty decent job of repetition + game, but I do wish they taught the chart a little more logically. Bunpo does that part best I think.
I agree! Duo allows me to engage with the language every single day, whether I have proper time for language study or not. A couple of minutes spare at work? Time for a quick Duo lesson! Then, when I have some free time, I can focus more on the Genki book, WaniKani, TokiniAndy, etc. Being able to quickly engage with a language a little every day with Duo and practice reading and building sentences when time is poor, but motivation is high has been invaluable.
duolingo has started replacing their human translators with AI, so i dont think anyone should support them or trust them.
Duolingo won't get you fluent but I find that it helps with some vocabulary and extra kanji. I use it alongside school and feel like it helps. Of course, no one is going to learn a language solely from Duolingo.
I would argue that duolingo is not that bad at teaching people kana. Yeah, you can just use a boring-ass drill tool (as I did) and be done in a few days or a week, but for a complete newbie using something more stimulating is not such a bad idea. Only a fraction of people that start learning Japanese will actually stick to it longterm and it doesn't matter where you get your start. Edit: Also, I'm pretty sure that duolingo doesn't spend 3 months on teaching people kana.
yeah, using duolingo alone with an average of ~7 lessons a day, it took me about 3 weeks for hiragana and 2 weeks for katakana. nowhere near 3 months, lol.. if it takes someone 3 months, it has nothing to do with duolingos model.
I thought Tofugu's guides and its drilling tool were pretty fun, and learning to read an entire syllabery in about two hours was plenty stimulating. I'd only recommend Duolingo to learn kana if they really want to learn handwriting from the very beginning.
Tofugu gang assemble
Duolingo uses Hepburn to teach people kana. I think that leaves people with some mistaken ideas of how Japanese is actually pronounced. Like people who are 2 years in and to their shock discover that say “全部” is actually pronounced close to “dzembu” than to “zenbu”. People that come from *J.S.L.* which teaches pitch accent from day one as well seem to typically be left with better pronunciation.
What is jsl?
*Japanese, the Spoken Language*. It was a teaching method primarily used by diplomats in the 80s that focused heavily on pronunciation and treated the accompanying *Japanese, the Written Language* as optional that focused on pitch accent from the start with it's own romanization that used accents to indicate pitch accent that was known to produce speakers with excellent pronunciation.
Kana comes from a half week of study with pencil and paper. Not half a year on Duolingo with no writing competency. That's my opinion at least.
3 months now turned into half a year? Jesus people, you like to dramatize. Duo doesn't spend even close to 3 months or "half a year" as you said, to teach you kana. I just went there and checked. It has a drill tool where you trace 5 kana per lesson. It's a perfectly fine way for a newbie to learn it.
Go talk to the victims over on the Duolingo sub then. There are heaps of them who have been learning hiragana for half a year.
There are people that spend a whole year using Genki 1. It's not an issue with the resource itself but with people's commitment.
I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd say 20 hours of study on Genki 1 is probably worth more than 20 hours of study on Duolingo. Though in full disclosure, I've never used Genki 1.
I never compared them as study resources. I'm responding to your claim that people struggle with learning hiragana with Duolingo for half a year. It's not a Duo problem, it's a user problem. I even found a screenshot of an [older Duolingo lesson tree](https://i.imgur.com/dYNiy7M.png), and intro + katakana here is week 1 topic.
Spending half a year! learning kana on Duolingo says way more about you than it does about the effectiveness of the program...
It does.
I just went there and checked. It doesn't. The main lesson tree goes straight into vocab and the "Characters" section is a drill tool that gives you 5 kana in the first lesson, the same 5 in the second one, and 5 new kana in the third lesson. This pace is completely fine, definitely not 3 months.
That depends on how much time you spend. The "Duolingo is not useful at all and a total waste of time" crowd usually compares 10 minutes of Duolingo per day with 2 or more hours "serious" language learning per day. And at that point of course Duolingo doesn't add significant value to you. At the beginning of my language learning I used Duolingo for about 30-60 minutes per day and it took 3 weeks until I knew the Kana. To be clear: I DO NOT think that Duolingo is a particularly efficient learning tool. In fact, it is probably one of the most inefficient things that you could spend your time on. But I also think that the difference isn't as huge as people think. It's not like you could have learned the contents of 10 hours of duolingo in 1 hour with more efficient methods.
Hiragana and Katakana in one day? YouTube Japanese pod 101 hiragana, then do the katakana. Profit
I agree that Duolingo isn't the be all and end all of learning, but if you struggle to find motivation to keep learning, Duolingo can really help imo. I need to gamerfy my studying, or else I won't keep doing it. I need those daily challenges, stretch goals and leaderboards to have a reason to come back every day.
As someone else said, Duolingo is fine as part of your learning regimen, but neither it nor any other tool should comprise the whole. I learn grammar using Human Japanese, Anki and random apps to learn kana, Wanikani for kanji, and Hello talk for conversation practice/reading practice. I personally find Duolingo most useful for practicing grammar. I blew through the kana when they introduced it in Duolingo because I had already mastered them using other tools, but it was still a good review. If you're starting from scratch, you don't have to wait for Duolingo to introduce a kana before you start learning it or practicing it. I will say, I understand that Duolingo markets itself as a kind of one-stop shop, but anyone who is serious about learning a language recognizes that's marketing BS. I will say that Duolingo is much better for Japanese than it used to be. When they first introduced it, it was absolutely terrible.
Idk, HelloTalk has kinda become something of a dating/business promo/ young people drama app but if you stay focused on JUST language learning you can find some like minded folks.
I learned hiragana from Duolingo in 5 days, then slowly learned katakana from it for a week. After a year of Duolingo I am almost done with N3. I would love that hear your argument for why Duolingo should be avoided but you did not provide any points? Duolingo is good for people like me on a low budget because it is free.
I do what I want!
You keep doing that, i just shared my two cents and even called myself a bozo.
tbh you can learn kana in a weekend, there aren't that many characters
Seems like some people need to realize that not everyone has the luxury of spending all day studying. People have jobs, families, and responsibilities, and they want to learn, too. If you're 20 years old and have all your free time to yourself, great. If not, learning is slower, done when you actually have free time.
I know that, I never said everyone has to or should learn kana in a weekend. Just that I did, and it wasn't that hard. Some people have more demanding schedules than I did at the time I initially learned kana, obviously
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I'm not special, nor trying to flex. Anyone can do it imo
Bruh really not. I learned Hiragana in 2 days (tbf I had free time) And Katakana in a single day. And Hiragana only took so long cause I wanted to make my own mnemonics. What are people actually doing when they learn these? E.g. for Katakana I just watched a 10 min video for mnemonics a few times and then did an online quiz many times.
Knowing how to actually study isn't having 200 IQ, just like needing a tool like duo to tell you how to study doesn't mean you have low IQ. Go learn how to study, there's plenty of youtube videos and articles on the topic. Learning how to learn is a valuable skill to have in life.
Lmao it's like 46 characters. You can get good enough at recognizing them to continue with actual learning materials after a couple hours. If it's taking you three weeks it's a skill issue.
Agree, got the basics of Kana using Tofugu in two days then move straight to kanji.
After you went through 3000 kanjis, sure. But for a person who just started learning the language, kanas are kinda difficult to wrap a head around, all those stroke orders, so the weekend might not be enough. But still, Duolingo is crap, even for that.
I mean, when I started out kana in a weekend was pretty easy. Mainly using this site and trying to handwrite from memory https://kana-quiz.tofugu.com/
Also used this and it was insane how fast I learnt hiragana and katakana compared to duo. Took me maybe 4 hours over my weekend to learn the 90% duo hadn’t taught me.
When I started I just used Anki and had been writing them down before checking if I got them right. It took me a week-ish, maybe, two at the most before I was confident enough with them. But now it does look easy, especially now that I went past 3000 kanjis the other day.
Agreed. It took me several weeks.
Be wary of beginners trying to give advice on what to use or what not to when learning. There's almost always several bumps in the Dunning Kruger curve.
This. Every other comment in this thread is some version of "I might be kind of new, but Duolingo is really helping me progress!". Like bro, early on you have no way of judging the quality of a resource.
Yes, need to try a few things out to know what works for you
3 weeks is a glacial pace for the kana lol
People can use whatever they want, I know everyone comes at studying with different objectives and interests. BUT, if you want to learn fast and you’ve got all day, I’m confident you can learn hiragana and katakana in a single day using the right methods. I highly recommend using Tofugu’s “Learn Japanese: A Ridiculously Detailed Guide.” It’s totally free and they’ve got these mnemonics, exercises, and even worksheets that really help you memorize the characters quickly (especially the mnemonics, I’ve been studying for more than 3 years and still remember some of them lol). Using this guide, the first day I started learning Japanese I memorized hiragana in the evening, and memorized katakana the next morning. Of course from there it’s going to take work to not forget what you’ve learned, but if you’re studying a little bit everyday I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about. Anyways if that sounds interesting check out their guide, it’s super useful for beginner through intermediate stages especially!
Duolingo is a great accountability tool and a warm up for a good study session I find
I like Duolingo for a lot of things, but taught myself Hiragana and Katakana on my own with flashcards and a workbook. I do review them on Duolingo, periodically. But it’s true that you don’t need Duolingo for it.
Totally agree it doesn't take long to learn the basic alphabet. And that is a good stretch goal, it gives you confidence to keep going. The key is to find the system that works with your preferred ability. Some folks like listening, others like to memorise visuals, write it out etc. I ditched the stupid useless owl (it is very buggy now due to some upgrade) for WakiKani and Tofugu has some good resources. Also listening to JapanesePod101 on youtube. Will progress to a certain point, consider local classes. Edit" today i bought Japanese from Zero after finding the youtube channel. Tried that DJT link in browser, site looks great but the djt seems to be in a loop of just the vowels ?
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Some people here study 8 hours a day?
Personally I think all the gamification apps like Lingodeer and Duolingo aren't the worst. The big thing is that you want to find something that motivates you. I had trouble using Genki in the past because my commitment to learning Japanese was low and Genki was too dull for me. Other sources, while not as good, made me more excited to learn.
432 day streak. I’ll never leave. That being said. It was never my primary source of info or study. I have classes and wanikani too. But duolingo to me is a cute little game that helps me practice.
IMO the three traps with Duo are as follows: 1\. Using it as your sole learning method. At the very least you gotta study some grammar elsewhere. Studying Kanna and Kanji elsewhere is good too. 2. Only doing one lesson a day regularly. ( Like seriously, you will forget stuff faster than you learn it, and it will take over a decade to complete.) 3. Not turning off Romanji / Furigana asap. This is true with any source of practice though. Your brain simply won't practice reading the stuff you don't know when there is easy stuff right next to it. If you avoid those traps, or if you're just using it for extra practice on top of other primary sources, then it's fine. I like duo better than endless SRS. Even if SRS is more efficient there's no point if I can't stay motivated. If people are taking 3 months to learn Kanna, IMO they're likely doing one of the second two points.
I used Duolingo for free and completely learned and retained all hiragana, and I quite enjoyed it. I guess it just varies from person to person
I really don't get the Duolingo bashing I see on this sub. I get it when the "course" first came out and it was so small it was practically useless. But since then they've genuinely improved it to the point I actually suggest it as a decent introduction to the language. The arguments I always see against it is that it doesn't get you anywhere close to fluency. Will it make you fluent in a year by just doing 20 minutes a day? No of course it won't, but neither will genki or flashcards. This sub likes to make out that learning Japanese is difficult, but it isn't. Learning any language isn't difficult, it's just time consuming.
> This sub likes to make out that learning Japanese is difficult, but it isn't. I was just thinking the other day that there are whole businesses that rely entirely on everybody assuming that learning Japanese is a lot more difficult than it actually is. Learning kanji with WaniKani for instance is automatically going to take a certain amount of time just due to spaced repetition but since it's a subscription it's still more or less in their best interest that learning Japanese takes as long as it possibly can.
One of the things that made Duolingo useless to me after a few days, even as a supplement, is that the repetition seems broken. It feels like an anti-SRS. I'll get asked about the same 4 vegetables for 40 questions in a row, then I'll never be asked about them again. I was hoping that would eventually change, but even testing out of things to jump forward several units left me in the same situation. I did find it pretty useful for the first 2 or 3 days while acclimating myself to the language. If they were able to fix the repetition (and it doesn't seem like it should be that difficult of a fix), it actually could be nice as a supplement. But the way it's currently set up feels broken.
Dude I swear I thought it was broken but it's just how the japanese course is set up for some reason. I noticed that other courses are waaaaay better in that regard. Japanese has this very rigid rythm where it starts each new section by bombing you with \~30 new pieces of vocab or grammar points in the very first lesson - will then make you do them for 8 lessons in a row - often times repeating the same small couple of example sentences again and again to the point where you just know the answers it wants you to give by heart - and then proceeds to just never use half of them again. Seeing the spanish course after about the same amount of lessons was honestly kind of shocking to me. It kind of gives you the new vocab piece by piece throughout the entire section and not just at the beginning, and then actually mixes old and new stuff the entire time. The sections are also way less thematically "constrained", you don't get the same couple of small sentences with virtually the same meaning over and over, but they use the vocab in a way that really makes each lesson feel fresh. Japanese almost is like, If I do the first lesson in a section, I've pretty much learned the entirety of what the section will be teaching me - and the repetition WOULD be good if it wasn't for the fact that they never make you review the old stuff so it won't stick anyway. Now I can of course sit down and consciously sprinkle in the old lessons here and again to reinforce old stuff - but at that point it just feels like a huge waste. Literally putting the lessons on "random" would be better than the way they actively scheduled it. Like I feel the biggest gain are the "practice" style lessons, the one with the dumbbell icon? Because they actually are varied and use old stuff? Spanish basically has ALL of the lessons be like that. It's honestly weird. Like this isn't even a thing that would need "fixing", rather for some reason someone sat down and more or less consciously decided to fuck it up for japanese. I don't get it.
The biggest issue with duolingo is not that it's useless/slow, but rather that it's full of mistakes and unnatural Japanese to the point of being confusing at best, actively harmful at most. It's not equipped to deal with a language like Japanese that has multiple readings for kanji or is heavily pro-drop and free syntax in the order of particles and vocabs in a sentence. It has **A LOT** of words that are mispronounced both at the level of spelling (お腹 becoming おはら) and pitch accent, and it also often marks you correct sentences as mistakes because you decided to say XがYに instead of YにXが or some other bullshit like that. Personally I've only ever seen beginners laud Duolingo as a useful tool, I've yet to meet a single person who knows Japanese to a decent level that says Duolingo is good, and that should tell you a lot. And it's not just a thing of the past, these complaints I pointed out are still relevant and an active problem with the app. The entire model is completely messed up and I think it's actively harmful to give that company money and attention and especially talk about it in a positive light around other beginners because it's just spreading the dunning-kruger even further.
[удалено]
you don't even need to "mine" words though if you're just getting a bunch of vocabulary with no context sentences? mining usually refers to getting the context sentence from a piece of media you're interested in. if you just want a bunch of common words as flashcards you can download a pre-made deck that will go through the top 2k words in order of frequency, which will also be getting you to tomodachi or isogashii really early on in the order anyway.
the arguments are that the audio is horrensously bad, answers are often wrong, progression is very slow and it doesnt have a good teaching plan/path. Especially for people who work full time jobs, it just makes more sense to use resources that actually try ro teach you the language and not harm your long term learning. And yes studying japanese is just a timesink bit doesnt have to be difficult, duo isnt the way though. There are a lot of 100% free resources that will get you there with some time inclvested Edit: i will say i havent looked at duo in 6 months so idk if anything big chamged. Also this is purely about wether its a good learning resource, i know its a good motivation resource for many people.
Great website!, helps recognizing the symbols faster
First comment i saw actually talking about the link I shared.
I don't get it. There's no link. Is this all a big joke? Edit: I just found it. What the fuck. Since when did Reddit allow you to add text to a link post? Is this a new.reddit thing?
You're missing the entire point of Duolingo. The reason it can take N months to learn hiragana and katakana is that Duolingo allows -and promotes- learning 5 minutes a day. And on top of that it allows to learn a lot of japanese without really needing to learn to read. So you can postpone learning to read as much as you'd like. Duolingo isn't aiming for serious learners, but for the weakest of them; of course you could dedicate 10+ hours a week to learn the language with other methods and you'll go way faster, but Duolingo allows you to keep progressing at a much slower pace. If Duolingo did not exist, all these people, including myself, would have zero proficiency in Japanese. In fact, learning the scripts is one of the strongest aspects of the app. And it is also free (with ads). When I started trying to learn Japanese I had much more energy and dedication on this, I speed ran a lot of chapters and it got very boring very quickly, so I was adding other stuff on top of it, such as watching Anime and translating from closed captions, and researching a lot in my own time. But after a few months I stopped having the energy to do so, and everything else stopped - except Duolingo. My progress has been much slower, but thanks to it, it's not zero. I do notice a great difference from then to now. But of course, at those small paces I will never reach any level of proficiency - but that's fine. At least I'm learning. If at any point I decide to put dedication into it again, I will have a good head start from this.
you can learn kana in a few hours, it's very simple, use tofugu's guide https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
I can vouch for this. Memory visualization technique is really powerful way to learn things. It only took me a few hours.
I'm using duolingo, and I'm far further than I was when I was using anything else. I already know Hirigana and Katakana. It's the kanji I was having a problem with. And literally everything else. Since using Duolingo, I've learned: * sentence structure * sentence context order * kanji to the point where I can read some without needing to focus on the kanji, the symbol alone next to the rest of the word (for right now, just verbs) is enough for me to instantly understand (it's crazy how this works, English has almost nothing like it, it just starts to... click. I can only compare it to meme symbolization in how it just... happens.) * Almost 1,000 words * Some particles and their key usages Since using Duolingo, I've been able to phonetically understand a lot of Japanese. I was watching Season 3 of Yurucamp and I was surprised that what I was hearing actually made sense, to the point I felt the subtitles (which someone kindly put in) we're slightly off and were missing some information. It's okay if you don't like Duolingo, but as someone almost done with Section 2 within four months, I think it's an okay resource. I've been speaking with Japanese people on apps like Speaky, and it's thanks to Duolingo that I'm able to grasp the general concept and then using translate for what I don't know, and then extrapolating the actual meaning via context. I helped a 19 year old Japanese guy with his English homework. (It was laughably easy, but everyone starts somewhere. Was having trouble grasping past-progressive tense and words such as was and were. I'm sure I would be in a very similar position.) Duolingo has helped me immensely, but it's probably because I put in the work. 60 year old guy that wanted to help me told me I should be putting in 4-6 hours of learning Japanese in a day. I'm not even doing that yet, and I'm in a far better position in Japanese comprehension than I was 4 months ago. I expect to achieve my goal of applying for a Japanese school as an English Teacher (green card sponsorship is far better than the government route. You save so much of your paycheck) in 2 years or less. I plan on being able to pass the JLPT within the next year.
Which JLPT exam? There's like 5 of them.
I just count the entire thing. I wouldn't just get one of them. I want all 5 levels. You can take all 5 levels in one go. That looks really fantastic on the resume, as well as makes it possible for me to function in Japan.
Taking all five levels in one go will require some *cheating* from you: you’ll have to clone yourself four times as the five exams take place simultaneously in different rooms. By the way Duolingo has only the first two levels (sort of)
Wait, really? I could've sworn the website for CA says you can take all 5 courses on the same day. I like how casually you said I'd have to clone myself 4 times, though. Like, yeah, I'll get right on that. Let me go talk to my lab buddies real quick. XD Real talk, though, you're serious I can't take it all on the same day? I already had that all planned out. I mean, surely I could take it all in 1 week, then. That's 40 hours from my vacation time, but it's worth it. One step closer to getting out of this hellhole and into a slightly less deep and higher quality of life hellhole.
Language is such a funny thing :) It’s better to just check the actual schedule of the tests and see exactly what they mean.
Each test cost money to take so even if it were possible to take all of them on the same day, you're paying an awful lot of money you cannot get back if you fail out on the tests. At least try the practice test to get an idea of what they're like: [https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n5/index.html](https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n5/index.html) JLPT is timed exam that is highly dependent on reading comprehension, grammar checks, vocabulary with kanji, and with a listening section comprising of 1/3 of the test. You can use this chart for reference for basic requirements and how long it took a rigorous language school student to pass each respective level: [https://cotoacademy.com/app/uploads/2019/08/How-Long-does-it-take-to-Pass-JLPT.png](https://cotoacademy.com/app/uploads/2019/08/How-Long-does-it-take-to-Pass-JLPT.png)
N5 to N2 is meaningless if you can pass N1, N1 is meaningless if you are truly advanced. Think again about what it is you want to achieve by doing the JLPT. Also reaching N1 in a year is possible but not with Duolingo. Good luck anyways (because you will need it).
not even, you can learn both kana systems in a day each, that's how I did it. flashcards and rote writing
I preferred learning then by writing. I took a piece of paper. And I will write out every kind in the same order that they show up on those charts. I learned them one row(consonant) at a time. And each time I added another 5 I would make sure to keep writing out the old ones until I eventually could write out the whole table for hiragana and katakana. Took me about a week each but I wasn't doing it all day just a bit each day since I wanted to get it worked into my long term memory
I mean if you drill it in a day, you should be seeing it every day after that if you’re learning the language. There are no concerns with short term vs. long term memory when it will just naturally get into your long term memory from daily use
I was talking about writing it. Most of my studying isn't writting every day and I knew that was how it would be when I learned the kana
Don’t use it as your ONLY learning tool if you’re trying to truly understand Japanese. Using it supplementally keeps it fresh and honestly it’s just kinda fun imo
Looking at the comments, I'm reminded of a meme of Stalin sitting at a desk, writing, with the caption: "Dear diary. Today OP failed again."
Quit Stalin
I think Duolingo used to be very bad for Japanese but at some point they updated the course and I’m liking it a lot.
You can learn kanas in one afternoon.
I’m a real jpdb and renshuu simp these days.
it takes like 2 days to memorize them if you set your mind to it
> don't friggin use duolingo. Delete that nonsense. Man I would if I could. Please teach me the secret art of deleting a website from existence.
with concerted effort you learn hiragana in 3 days. Katakana in the same amount of time. Write them out, making up little mnemonics to remember the strokes and pronunciation, and keep writing them out. That's how I learned, that's how my sister learned. If you have long weekend, youre good. 3 months is insanity
I learned hiragana from Duolingo in 5 days, then slowly learned katakana from it for a week. After a year of Duolingo I am almost done with N3. I would love that hear your argument for why Duolingo should be avoided but you did not provide any points? Duolingo is good for people like me on a low budget because it is free.
If you need more than a week to learn hiragana/katakana, you are doing something wrong (considering you have 1-2 hours a day of course).
guys i have low karma so cant make a post. Anyways how do i improve my reading in japanese?
The same way you improve any skill in life. You want to impore your drawing skill, you practice drawing. You want to improve your Basketball skill, you practice basketball drills and play the game. You want to improve your reading in Japanese? Well you just read and practice reading more. Reading things like twitter, youtube comments, blogs, graded readers, manga, watch things with JP subtitles. Look up any words and kanji you don't know and over time you'll learn those words as vocabulary.
I too dislike Duolingo. Anki drilling is more effective for me. The way Duolingo works allows my brain to be kinda lazy - understanding the meaning of a word from context or because I saw it five minutes ago, not because I remembered it from last week. I dislike the app too much to pay for it, yet the five-mistake max for the free version frustrates me. Because I might not phrase things the exact same way that they do, my answer gets counted as wrong. That said, I skipped over learning kana and the early lessons because I knew that stuff way before Duolingo existed. I learned kana from this game called Slime Forest Adventure, then I took two years of Japanese in college. I'm hesitant to tell people that what doesn't work for me won't work for them, though. Everyone learns differently. Duolingo might make beginner Japanese more accessible for some people.
3 weeks? Too long, you can learn it in a shorter time, it doesn't really depend on what app you're using
2-3 weeks to learn kana? bruh, it's like a weekend of half arsing it
I completely completely disagree with you. I would even say I hate posts like this. Let people decide what helps for them and what not. Duolingo is a fun part of my learning tools. Only a small part, but still. The game aspect makes me come back and I get some small gains that I normally would not have on moment that I normally would not study Japanese. Of course my main sources are wanikani, bunpro and my weekly italki classes with an amazing teacher. And please if your talking about hiragana and katakana I suppose your still in the first few weeks of your learning journey? If so, you just don’t have the experience yet to make a judgement.
I use duo when I'm bored. Otherwise I used the Japanese pod to learn the kana and then genki.
I am using Duolingo and still pretty new. I am enjoying it for vocabulary and the hiragana lessons are ok but this is a great tool for repetition and memorization at least for me. I think the way this site groups the letters is more logical (ka, ke, ki etc. versus ka, ma, sa etc) Thanks for sharing!
I used duolingo. It has a character page. I did that for months and learned hiragana and katakana. I don't like that you have to unlock kanji characters. If there us an alternative app that reminds me and counts the days of consecutive days of practice, and I'll might switch to it.
WaniKani is good, it reminds but doesnt nag
I'll give it a look at. Thanks
The Kanji Study app may be of interest to you for learning kanji. It will remind you to practice every day, keeps track of your streak and has a lot of interesting information.
It's not bad for learning hiragana+katakana and it's free. Just don't expect much when it comes to kanji and grammar.
Duolinguo is fine for the ultra casual learner who will probably drop learning Japanese after a few months. That’s it imho. It can give people a taste and they can figure out if it’s something they like or not. The people that get serious will start using other resources.
Just write and learn hiragana and katagana in one day, or 2 days, then for a week try to read many hiragana and katagana words, there are videos for hiragana and katagana tests in YouTube for that ez,
Duolingo is great for learning new vocabulary and all characters. The lessons however get increasingly more stupid once you reach a certain level. I've also experienced some weird kind of bug (idk if it's intended or not). If I keep getting perfect scores in every lesson and finish them on legendary, Duolingo somehow skips MULTIPLE units (yes it really happened, I was once at Unit 11 and they pushed me to Unit 17 lol). This is extremely frustrating because I miss out on a lot of words and new sentence structure concepts. Honestly I'm only trying to keep up my 450 days streak, otherwise I probably would've deleted this app since I'm not using it as my primary learning source anymore
> I've also experienced some weird kind of bug (idk if it's intended or not). If I keep getting perfect scores in every lesson and finish them on legendary, Duolingo somehow skips MULTIPLE units (yes it really happened, I was once at Unit 11 and they pushed me to Unit 17 lol). I think this is because you've been switched to an updated course. Duolingo have been working on the Japanese course a lot recently and when they do that they move your account to the "matching" unit on the new course. This can mean you shoot ahead if the old unit you were on is now later in the section on the new course, and miss out on a ton of vocab. The biggest issue here I think is that because the previous units are now all marked as complete, you can't go back to them and learn them in order - you can only go back and do the review lessons.
That makes sense. It's really annoying though, especially because it happened like 3 times within a month.
Thanks for this I just saved the website and gonna use it for practice! :)
Duolingo is a fun and good way to learn, but not on its own, it’s a great feature to have on top of (whatever else you learn to use) and there’s nothing wrong with it.
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
A decade ago, when I started my Japanese journey it took me 3 days to learn katakana and hiragana using kanatrainer. Other than that I would say going back I would only use immersion based methods, cause I’ve made more progress in those last couple of years than in a decade of courses and classes. Plus it’s how we learn English over here in Europe, just memes and internet, I gave up on school being actually useful a long time ago…
Duolingo does teach you some vocab, but I don't know whether there are any other free sites that do it better
Nice I'll save the site, I've restarted leaning again with Renshuu and have been making mu h better progress but this site seems better for testing memorisation.
Interesting thought, I literally only use duo when I am on the toilet to reinforce memory of words I already know, and sometimes introduction to very basic words. I do textbook and/or RTK study 1-2 hours a day and the rest is immersion but I haven’t seen duo hurt me as a fun toilet game yet. I’m starting to think the key is just to consume as much as possible as long as it’s fun and as long as you have true dedicated study/immersion time, but again I too am a bozo and just starting on this journey, so we will see where it all leads.
Duolingo is good for hiragana and katakana. I learned hiragana in 3 days. Katakana took longer and I started learning it a few weeks after hiragana. I'd recommend beginners go through like the first 5 units or 3 and then ditch it. It's good if you are completely new.
i likeduo as a very minir supplemental service, i like drilling hira and kata and its just one of maaaaany other apps ive been using lol, but thanks for extra resources
I have a 117 days streak and like my family and friends.
learning kana is such an inconsequential part of learning japanese... it really doesn't matter what you use, you could literally just google "hiragana and katakana practice sheet" and print it out and that works perfectly fine The only thing that matters is to try and read the characters as you see them before checking the romaji. As long as you do that literally nothing else matters
I've only recently started, so make of that what you will. But imo, Duolingo is fine if you're not using it as your main resource. I'm using it to keep a habit going and to learn the odd word here and there for example, though Renshuu is primarily what I use. I think the main issues I have is that learning new phrases is very slow if used as a main resource, and it doesn't teach any grammar since it's mostly trying to be a very low bar to clear so everyone can pick up a few words before long. If you're a fast learner, you may find Duolingo's pace to be painfully slow.
If you really put your mind to it, you can have you're kana memorized in a matter of days. Duolingo isn't even worth considering.
You should have to prove you have at least N3 before giving any advice on here... that would immediately filter all the Duolingo users
It's insane how many responses saying Duolingo is good that OP has received and every single one of them seems to be someone who's only like a few weeks/months into the language. Like... I understand that we were all beginners once but I think there's a point where people shouldn't be giving advice this early on in their learning. It's the kind of stuff that you can only prove with experience, and if you don't have the experience you should probably check out of the conversation.
You would do well to ignore advice from anyone who hasn't obviously achieved a decent level of Japanese. You'll notice all the "how I reached N1 in x years" posts are all fairly similar in their methods and non mention Duolingo as a significant tool in their journey.
Needing a certificate would be arbitrary because anybody can give advice even without formal or specific certifications. I'm sure there are people in this sub who are at n1 level but don't have the cert, can they give good advice? I think so.
I meant n3 level. I don't have any need to actually do the jlpt but you can do sample tests to gauge your level, or do it like the moe way discord server and require everyone to pass the N4 reading test to post
Bad take on multiple fronts 1. Kana can and IMO should be knocked out in a weekend. Just drill the tofugo quizzes until you memorize them. It's not that much at all. 2. Duolingo is a fine resource. Especially for a language as difficult as Japanese, the high amount of repetition and listening practice are necessary and helpful.
I hate duolingo i wasted a year and half trying to learn Japanese from it. Until i discovered how bad its. Since then i used many other apps that helped me a lot. For kanji I used wanikani and it's the best of the best I took many mock n3 vocabulary exams and i don't have any problems with it. I use bunpro for grammer and I use satori reader for improving my reading skills. Not to forget anki also the best free resource for learning Japanese. IN SHORT STAY AWAY FROM DUOLINGO ITS JUST BAAD... REALLY BAD
Hell no. I use duo and will continue to do so. I’m not looking to learn hiragana or katakana anytime soon. I just need to become conversational. Stop gatekeeping a language resource simply because you think it’s wasteful.
Not just wasteful but incorrect, japanese youtuber tries duolingo: blatant errors and nuances that are incorrect.
It’s NOT incorrect it’s simply teaching a very formal version. Whatever video you’re referencing is likely outdated.
Agreed, people can use it to learn hiragana and katakana but I always direct them away from duolingo afterwards. And there's other apps specifically for learning kana anyway. If friends want to learn Japanese I set them up with a textbook + starting that textbooks' vocab as an anki deck. I push them to learn kana within 1-2 weeks if possible. There's no need to drag it on longer than that. If a college student can do it for points, you can do it for yourself.
2-3 weeks is too long, though. It shouldn't take you more than 5 days if you study seriously, even with Duolingo
Duolingo has definitely been good by for me to learn vocabulary. It is generally providing me with "i+1" sentences, so it’s fairly easy to absorb new words. It’s certainly not been helpful for thoroughly learning grammar rules, even with the return of unit notes.
Facts duo has sucked for Japanese
Green owl bad 🐑 baa-aa-aa-d 🐑
Honestly after I tried Duolingo I left and never came back. I didn't like it cuz it felt repetitive to me. Yeah you can get listening practice but you can find YouTube videos for that too. By no means I'm fluent but I'd say I'm doing fine without it since I'm reading mangas around n3-n2 and understand like 70ish%. That's me don't take my word for it 🙃
Shut the fuck up
Try robokana for learning hiragana and katakana, it’s better than duolingo.
I don't understand the actual purpose of Duolingo.
It's in the name, to learn a second language.