I’m not interested in Japanese, but for learning a language in general, i don’t recommend Duolingo (don’t know if the japanese course itself is bad). It’s only good for vocabulary, but it’s lacking in grammar.
I’ve heard good things of Anki (can vouch for, at least for latin, hebrew n ukrainian), Ringotan and Wanikani.
Anki is especially great, it’s just flashcards so it can be for any language, even more than just languages. It works for latin, hebrew and ukrainian and they’re all actually good.
But after all it’s your choice, these are just recommendations. If duolingo works for you, then it works.
I find that it’s pretty good, but I paid for premium so I don’t know if the basic version is as good.
What I like most, is that you can practice the language you are learning with example scenarios, and get feedback from other users.
You also get stars for doing lessons and giving feedback to other users, which with the streak helps me do the lessons regularly. (There is a leaderboard too but I just ignore it.)
I think it depends on your proficiency. I had typical classes for German and Spanish in middle and high school and found Duolingo fine for learning vocab (though I haven’t used it in a few years so ymmv).
Switched to Busuu (premium) two years ago and I definitely felt like I was progressing faster than with duo. I especially like the review feature for both vocab and grammar. Grammar in particular is taught directly whereas (at least when I was using it) duolingo meant for you to infer grammar via usage which limited my understanding.
Busuu also has a feature (one lesson in each module) where you can practice speaking or writing and a native speaker will give you feedback. I personally didn’t find this feature super useful and sometimes skipped the lessons using them.
They’ve just introduced an AI conversations feature for a few languages (english to german french and spanish I think) but I haven’t figured out how to update to that version yet. Potentially useful since I feel awkward about messing up in front of real people even if they’re on the internet.
Before subscribing to premium you could only sort of use the app because it would get stuck on a “do you want to upgrade” screen without a way to x out and you would need to close and open the app. Not sure if they fixed it or meant it to be that way for free users but it was rather annoying.
I tried signing up just now. I was not able to create an account due to Recaptcha. If you are able to fill out Google Recaptchas, it looks pretty easy to make an account.
Much better than duolingo. It works to teach hiragana first, and then all remaining lessons are entirely asked and answered using a Japanese keyboard. You’re encouraged to help others learning your language and get feedback from native japanese speakers. It does cost money, but it is definitely worth the low relative cost.
this is the first time I’ve heard of busuu, is it good? Better than the green bird?
I’m not interested in Japanese, but for learning a language in general, i don’t recommend Duolingo (don’t know if the japanese course itself is bad). It’s only good for vocabulary, but it’s lacking in grammar.
I’ve heard good things of Anki (can vouch for, at least for latin, hebrew n ukrainian), Ringotan and Wanikani.
Anki is especially great, it’s just flashcards so it can be for any language, even more than just languages. It works for latin, hebrew and ukrainian and they’re all actually good.
But after all it’s your choice, these are just recommendations. If duolingo works for you, then it works.
cool, thank you
I find that it’s pretty good, but I paid for premium so I don’t know if the basic version is as good.
What I like most, is that you can practice the language you are learning with example scenarios, and get feedback from other users.
You also get stars for doing lessons and giving feedback to other users, which with the streak helps me do the lessons regularly. (There is a leaderboard too but I just ignore it.)
I think it depends on your proficiency. I had typical classes for German and Spanish in middle and high school and found Duolingo fine for learning vocab (though I haven’t used it in a few years so ymmv).
Switched to Busuu (premium) two years ago and I definitely felt like I was progressing faster than with duo. I especially like the review feature for both vocab and grammar. Grammar in particular is taught directly whereas (at least when I was using it) duolingo meant for you to infer grammar via usage which limited my understanding.
Busuu also has a feature (one lesson in each module) where you can practice speaking or writing and a native speaker will give you feedback. I personally didn’t find this feature super useful and sometimes skipped the lessons using them.
They’ve just introduced an AI conversations feature for a few languages (english to german french and spanish I think) but I haven’t figured out how to update to that version yet. Potentially useful since I feel awkward about messing up in front of real people even if they’re on the internet.
Before subscribing to premium you could only sort of use the app because it would get stuck on a “do you want to upgrade” screen without a way to x out and you would need to close and open the app. Not sure if they fixed it or meant it to be that way for free users but it was rather annoying.
I tried signing up just now. I was not able to create an account due to Recaptcha. If you are able to fill out Google Recaptchas, it looks pretty easy to make an account.
Much better than duolingo. It works to teach hiragana first, and then all remaining lessons are entirely asked and answered using a Japanese keyboard. You’re encouraged to help others learning your language and get feedback from native japanese speakers. It does cost money, but it is definitely worth the low relative cost.