It’s probably irritating to get a duolingo question. Despite this I would like to know if duolingo’s kana courses are reliable. I’ve always been wary of the app because of what people say and my personal experience with it in other languages but despite this I feel like there’s not much that would be “wrong” per se if it’s just the writing systems being taught. My plan is just to use it as a memorization resource for on the go type situations if anyone is curious.
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I don’t think it does it well. Try this:
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/648991467
I did exactly this when I started about 4 months ago and don’t regret it at all. Felt like the pacing, repetition and different drills (listening, writing, etc) were really helpful, and I haven’t struggled with the kana since.
Just use the Tofugu guides instead of wasting your time on Duolingo.
I will say duolingo will certainly re-enforce your Kana. My experience being that it is VERY kana heavy. The important thing is to learn from multiple sources, within reason of course.
I don’t think it’s a bad system.
Even the regular course is good for solidifying basics.
EDIT: Notice I didn’t say for study. I just like how it focuses on sentences, where other apps don’t. Or if they do you often get sentences you don’t know all the words to. It’s got a good sentence progression.
I think Pastel Kana is still up. Its an app for drilling just kana
I learned kana well from duo. Don’t listen to the elitist hate brigades
Try LingoDeer. You can do the kana thru that app as well. Nice setup with repeated learning.
People have suggested a lot of good answers. I personally came up in the game using an app called Dr. Moku’s Hiragana and Katakana. What I liked about it was it trains you with mnemonics, like し “shi”, you draw it over the hair of a drawing of a woman’s profile. She has hair. Stuff like that, million ways to do it!
For learning the Kana I would have an image/guide to all of them opened up on my computer. I would write them out once a day, and then after that I would quiz myself on what I retained with [https://kana-quiz.tofugu.com/](https://kana-quiz.tofugu.com/) (I still do, actually since I don’t know them as well as I would like. Although I will say that for some combination kana, specifically ず vs づ and じ vs ぢ I struggle with the romanji for it because to me they sound the same so… ????)
For hammering in stroke order, I used the ‘Write Japanese’ app. (This is my on-the-go app) It might not be necessary for you to know stroke order/how to write them. I just found that I memorized it best by doing this combination of things. For a reference it’s taken me a little over a month to memorize the kana. Which might sound long for many, but I also have very little free time to study.
Honestly though, if I were you I would try a variety of things and stick with whatever works for you. Everyone has a different learning style, pace, goals, and interests. I used my method because my learning style is centered around reading/doing/my existential fear of failure and perfectionism. If duolingo suits you and you don’t like the other resources, then just stick with that.
duolingo is… okay, but you need to use it as a supplement and not the main source of study
I learned about 1000 kanji within 3 and a half months. I stopped daily training for several months and went back and my retention was extremely strong.
Not sure why Duolingo gets so much hate honestly.
I will say my complaint is that it doesn’t explain *why* some times one form or word is used versus another. But I found that I intuitively picked up rules, ne? And I learned to Google the things that really stumped me.
Just download a free kana drill app and do it for a few minutes a day for a week or so. You’ll learn them pretty quickly and after that you’ll be practicing reading (when learning words, reading subtitles, etc) so you won’t need to practice them anymore.
I made an app a while back just for drilling kana (https://getkana.com), you can also use it online at https://getkana.com/app
When I first started, I just printed the kana tables from Google images and forced myself to learn them.
Tofugu would be better
Duolingo has a “characters” tab that drills kana and it’s probably the best one I have seen yet. Just don’t bother with the course.
I learned kana through duolingo, it worked but it took longer than it should
i think you should be fine with duolingo + tofugu guide… don’t overthink learning kana there’s really no wrong way to learn it
I personally thought it was OK.
It’s fine. Literally any method will teach you the kana just fine, they’re the easiest part of Japanese.