Duolingo has ~1350 kanjis and Jlpt n3 has ~650 kanjis .. so N3 is possible right ?

13 comments

1. DuoLingo is a really bad Japanese teacher that you’ll want to quit long before you reach N3.

   The fastest/most efficient way to learn kanji is to blast through all 2,200 in a couple of months using mnemonics, then spend the rest of your Japanese study time learning vocabulary and grammar. [Beginner’s guide.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/19FEIOJWbLhJQ-AmepxFBMC2ebhJJr9RBUMfMeatYuq8/edit?usp=sharing)

2. Duolingo is a decent starting point for Japanese, but within a month or two it becomes completely useless. If you want to learn kanji, wanikani has been very helpful for me personally.

3. I don’t know if you can pass JLPT N3 by using Duolingo.
   I have tried Duolingo for about 2 weeks and found it very inefficient compared to following books like Genki so personally, I wouldn’t recommend using Duolingo but I do not know how effective it may be for others.

4. You sound like you want a shortcut to learning Japanese. Duolingo is garbage and doesn’t teach you any grammar. It just makes you memorize phrases. If you don’t want to understand Japanese, go ahead and use it. If you actually care about learning Japanese, get something else. You’re being stubborn for no good reason

5. If you really want an app, use Lingodeer. It’s similar to Duolingo but much better for Asian languages.

6. no. get some n3 textbooks. remember the jlpt has listening, grammar and vocab elements, does duolingo give you listening exercises, long form texts? get yourself some shinkanzens and you’ll be glad you did

7. By your comments you seem to be looking for people who agree with you rather than an actual answer.

   Also kanji isn’t everything, and duolingo is shit at actually teaching it. I remember using duolingo a few years ago and nothing stuck. It’s kinda useless.

8. You need to buy and study a N3 review book

9. Japanese Grammar: Coban app is free, made my a native Japanese speaker, and recently they added N3 kanji. They will be doing N3 grammar and vocabulary in the future so keep an eye out for that. So if you are simply using Duolingo cause it’s free it’s time to dump Duolingo in the trash.

   Shujinkou is a video game that teaches Japanese and it touches N3 level, but doesn’t teach the total of what you need to know for N3.

   WaniKani is an amazing tool for learning Kanji and vocabulary that use kanji.

10. Why would you not use other sources? You’re not going to get good at Japanese only using one or two study methods. The thing with kanji is that they can be used in many words and of course there are often a handful of readings. Do not rely on Duolingo.

11. I might sound quite harsh, but, your question in itself prove that you won’t make it……

    I mean, JLPT is about global Japanese understanding, not about kanji. You sure have some kanji but you also have some vocabulary and need to make sure about the kanji reading in each vocabulary word you will encounter. But this is only a part of JLPT. You also have grammar, reading and listening. Maybe Duolingo can also provide all of that, I don’t know, but judging your question, again, I highly doubt…….

    In any way, I do recommend working with various sources to learn Japanese. For Kanji and Vocab, I do love Wanikani, but you need to pay, so Anki might be also useful (and is free).

    For grammar, I use different books, Minna no Nihongo (the grammar translation part !!!) offer good explanations of grammar points, so it is good for self studies, but doesn’t especially focus on the JLPT. I also use Nihongo Saotome which focuses only on JLPT grammar points but doesn’t have much explanation so I recommend having a teacher to get a good explanation.

    Italki or any other teacher. Italki offers quite fair prices to my opinion. I know you have to pay, but it’s very good to practice speaking and listening. With my teacher we talk about new grammar points in Japanese exclusively. So I learn grammar and also practice Japanese. Worth it to my opinion.

    For reading, Kanzen Master is good. It offers various situations and the level isn’t too easy so it’s very good practice. It has answers provided and explnation on how to read each type of texts so it is also good for self studies.

    Anyway good luck for the JLPT.

12. As someone who’s an intermediate in JP, I can say – use Duolingo only for light sentence practice. From a learning standpoint it’s horrible with its overly strong focus on translations and being very inconsistent at it. Any slightly more nuanced grammar structure is a chore to work with on Duolingo.

    To work towards N3, start with Minna no Nihongo, Genki 1+2 or any other book that would get you to N4 and then from there either Tobira which covers N3 very well or something geared specifically towards the JLPT.

13. 5000 words, 1350 kanji, Duolingo is an incredible companion to learn japanese vocabulary!

    Indeed we have to use many other methods to learn it decently, but Duolingo can follow us during so many years, from start to JLPT N3 at least!