So I recently signed up for an actual Japanese class in my city. Real physical classes and homework and all that stuff. I’m going there once every Tuesday for 8 weeks. It’s the A1.1 course I think? I’m noticing I’m learning MUCH more quickly than I did when I tried to “learn” Japanese with Duolingo, but now that I’m learning it in a MUCH better way, I still use Duolingo on the side. Is that “okay”?
I know that learning Japanese through Duolingo is a bad idea, but having it on the side, is that okay? I’ve heard people say that Duolingo “learns” you Japanese WRONG and that it’s so bad and stuff, but is it really? I personally find it fun to max out all the units and having that green owl cheering for me. It’s fun! And I learn some words as well? Should I continue?
8 comments
if you don’t feel it hurts your learning it’s fine. duolingo is bad on its own because it’s just a game, really. it seems you understand that as you are playing it like one. as long as you learn enough from your classes and self-study to fill in the holes of duolingo or clarify what it “misteaches” it’s perfectly fine.
if it keeps you motivated and you’re having fun and not solely relying on it, yeah it’s perfectly “okay.”
Why not just play an actual game instead? The value you get out of 30 min of Duolingo is probably similar to 5 min of Anki and 25 min of doing something that’s actually just pure fun, which is what I would do instead. But hey, if it keeps you motivated, I don’t think it harms you or anything.
30 minutes of active study or intensive input is better than 30 minutes of duolingo. 30 minutes of duolingo is better than 0 minutes of active study or intensive input. If it’s the only thing you can motivate yourself to do it’s better than nothing but it’s a much less efficient use of your time than other things you could be doing.
The more activities you use to study the more synergistic effect it will have. It helps to break up the monotony of doing the same repetitive drills over and over, and getting those different neurons firing helps create extra connections in your brain that make recall easier.
If you feel like it’s useful absolutely keep doing it. I’d say “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t,” but I see how some people get really trapped into thinking they have to have the perfect method of studying and are terrified of doing anything different. Don’t be one of those people!
It will mess up kanji readings, for starters. That already says a lot about how much care is put into Japanese Duolingo, but then, if it helps motivate you, then perhaps the benefit might outweigh all the issues…
Saksegutt? Er du norsk haha? Hvis du liker apper så anbefaler jeg wanikani! De første 3 levlene er gratis, så du kan teste det før du payer noe. Desidert den mest hjelpsomme appen jeg har brukt (startet å lære japansk 8 måneder siden, leser allerede Manga). Den har lært meg rundt 800 kanji utenat 🙂
Du signer opp på nettsida, og for iPhone så bruker jeg tsurukame for å linke den til brukeren (burde finnes noe lignende for android hvis du søker opp wanikani). Jeg har vært veldig fornøyd med progressen min til nå hvertfall, så ikke nøl med å ta kontakt hvis du vil ha noen tips 😀
Duolingo won’t actively harm you, but I eventually gave up using it because it was so slow and inefficient. That time would be better spent focusing on your class work, or vocab and kanji flashcards, or reading, or listening, or… anything.
>is that okay?
Duolingo is terrible: few if any explanations, readings given are occasionally wrong, only offers sentences that can be easily translated, etc.