Duolingo is good for the first few days to see what the language is about but as a main learning resource I’d say it’s pretty bad.
When I was starting, there was just not enough content and after finishing it all I still couldn’t understand hiragana fully.
Things have gotten better in recent years that’s why I decided to revisit Duolingo a few months ago but I found content to be so inconsistent and impractical. Sometimes they teach you something simple and sometimes you get a word that is usually at the end of any language course.
Many sentences are just dumb and/or have no use in real life.
Once I got to translate: 「私はりんご」which to be fair is a sentence that one could say and it wouldn’t be weird but not only you don’t have a context but the accepted translation was “I’m an apple”. Which is obviously ridiculous. Correct but ridiculous. It feels like they took out of context examples and decided to put it in “translate this sentence category”.
If you’re wondering btw how this sentence could be used it’s worth remembering that “私は” means “As for me” not “I am” so for example when someone asks your name you say:「私はトムです」which literally means “As for me Tom”. It sounds weird though so obviously we translate it as “I’m Tom”. Same with apple, “As for me Apple” can be an answer to a question “What fruits do you like?”
If you want to learn quickly I recommend downloading the Anki app. It’s a flashcards system where you can download premade decks of cards or create your own. I started with popular Anime/VN vocabulary deck and then some N5 vocabulary deck. When you want to go to the next level you download 2k/6k deck.
If you still struggle with hiragana and katakana then I really recommend tofu guide.. It was so good I learned everything in one day.
As for anything other than vocabulary Tim Kae’s “Guide to Japanese” is an absolutely amazing resource.
I also recommend Livakivi on YouTube. He also started with Duolingo and then got into sentence mining in Anki. Now he speaks really good Japanese. I like to watch him for motivation and to see just how much effort is needed for certain level.
Happy to help! I remember getting this video in the recommended tab on YouTube at the right time. If not for this video I’d probably give up on japanese tbh. I felt like I was working really hard with no results. His channel is a gold mine of great learning methods. Depending how serious you are you can do what he’s done or like me, study for just a 15 min a day. It might seem low but still depending on the topic I still can understand 70-99% of what’s being said.
Duolingo is good for the first few days to see what the language is about but as a main learning resource I’d say it’s pretty bad.
When I was starting, there was just not enough content and after finishing it all I still couldn’t understand hiragana fully.
Things have gotten better in recent years that’s why I decided to revisit Duolingo a few months ago but I found content to be so inconsistent and impractical. Sometimes they teach you something simple and sometimes you get a word that is usually at the end of any language course.
Many sentences are just dumb and/or have no use in real life.
Once I got to translate: 「私はりんご」which to be fair is a sentence that one could say and it wouldn’t be weird but not only you don’t have a context but the accepted translation was “I’m an apple”. Which is obviously ridiculous. Correct but ridiculous. It feels like they took out of context examples and decided to put it in “translate this sentence category”. If you’re wondering btw how this sentence could be used it’s worth remembering that “私は” means “As for me” not “I am” so for example when someone asks your name you say:「私はトムです」which literally means “As for me Tom”. It sounds weird though so obviously we translate it as “I’m Tom”. Same with apple, “As for me Apple” can be an answer to a question “What fruits do you like?”
If you want to learn quickly I recommend downloading the Anki app. It’s a flashcards system where you can download premade decks of cards or create your own. I started with popular Anime/VN vocabulary deck and then some N5 vocabulary deck. When you want to go to the next level you download 2k/6k deck. If you still struggle with hiragana and katakana then I really recommend tofu guide.. It was so good I learned everything in one day. As for anything other than vocabulary Tim Kae’s “Guide to Japanese” is an absolutely amazing resource.
I also recommend Livakivi on YouTube. He also started with Duolingo and then got into sentence mining in Anki. Now he speaks really good Japanese. I like to watch him for motivation and to see just how much effort is needed for certain level.
Wow, damn. Right info at the right time. Watching his 800+ Days on Duolingo vid and I’m at the exact same point he started using other things. TYSM! 😃
Happy to help! I remember getting this video in the recommended tab on YouTube at the right time. If not for this video I’d probably give up on japanese tbh. I felt like I was working really hard with no results. His channel is a gold mine of great learning methods. Depending how serious you are you can do what he’s done or like me, study for just a 15 min a day. It might seem low but still depending on the topic I still can understand 70-99% of what’s being said.