I have a feeling I already know what will be said, but what is the general consensus on using Duolingo to learn? I haven’t started it yet, but it’s probably one of the most accessible methods for me currently and I wanted opinions on if it has any benefits for a beginner.
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It really is not bad for learning hiragana and katakana, but I personally would not go any further with it.
If you are serious about learning, no. That’s the answer.
Honestly… its not the best. As everyone here has already said. But! It’s good for hiragana/katakana and a great intro in general in my opinion. It’s how I got started on my journey. was it the best? No. Was it the most efficient? No. But it was better than nothing and it helped me get hooked on learning the language.
tldr: its not great but if its the easiest for you now, anything is better than nothing. Just dont expect it to carry you.
petition for daily duolingo thread
Here is a YouTube video that may help you make an informed decision, from a native speaker to those considering Duolingo.
https://youtu.be/F2Z20ZPIDak
Depends. I only care about reading Japanese so I can play visual novels, so it’s been huge for me as it does a decent enough job of showing me how sentence structure works and teaches me new vocabulary.
Before Duolingo, I tried books, but I prefer Duolingo for masking the answers so I can think things thru to challenge myself.
Also, every answer in Duolingo you can click a button on the bottom of the page to visit their Duolingo forum where there’s always people asking questions why Duolingo phrased a sentence the way it did and there’s always several responses from proficient Japanese users who help make sense of it all.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lulilanguages.j5a
This app is better and completely free, only go in the order that it’s in, don’t skip.
LingoDeer is a little bit better IMO.
It has been good for learning vocabulary and drilling stuff. It never was good for primary learning, although the forums helped a bit with that.
It has been going downhill lately, though. First they introduced new voices that mispronounces many words, usually on’yomi instead of kun’yomi. Then they closed the forums. And now they are introducing a path system that takes away the flexibility it used to have and force everyone to learn the same way.