@japaneselanguage On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being great and 1 being horrible, how good is Duolingo for learning Japanese?

  • VioletTeacup
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    1 year ago

    This isn’t an easy answer, since it really depends on how you learn. On one hand, it’s free and useful for learning bite sized lessons on the go. It also doesn’t use romaji and tries to get you on kana very early on. On the other… well… There are a lot of grammatical issues you’ll encounter or bad habbits that you’ll learn. When I used it, I was having to check the chat logs on pretty much every question to make sure it was accurate. There’s also context that it misses out on, like when to use 「は」vs 「が」and other subtle differences. You will not learn the reason for any gramma. You will not effectively learn keigo, figures of speech, or really any practical Japanese skills. All in all, there are some benefits from using Duo, but it should never ever be your only tool. If you’re a total beginner, I’d recommend pimsleur or a similar audio program. Once you’ve learned some basics, you can move on to traditional gramma books, alongside media emmersion (reading, writing, and listening to things in Japanese are indispensable). And with all of this in mind, I think I’d have to give Duo a 3/10. I hope that helps and sorry that this turned into a novel!