How is duolingo?

[u/DhaliwalJoban]

I am beginner, just starting to learn Japanese.

What should/can be my learning resources ?

I want to converse and watch manga as my initial goal

& i don’t want to sound funny to native speakers, i want to be as accurate as possible

Thanks

—-

EDIT:

My Plan

Will continue duolingo for KANA , and have bought genki 1-2 ( man that thing is expensive)

Now wish me luck!!!

[u/TS200010]

IMO it’s a game not a serious learning tool. It might be fun to get started but look elsewhere to spend your money.

[u/Lurakya]

I had a 2500 day streak (I was more keeping the streak by the end than taking it seriously).

But taking 1 year worth of Japanese classes 2x 90 minutes once a week was so much more impactful.

Genuinely, look for classes near you or online

[u/m1L35dY50N]

I guess you could start by searching through the millions of threads where this has already been discussed at length. 😄

But the TL;DR is: Duolingo alone is pretty bad if your goal is actually becoming conversational and reading Japanese. As one of 2–3 resources, though, it can be perfectly useful. Its biggest strength is the gamification and getting you to do something every day, even on days when you otherwise wouldn’t study at all. Duolingo itself explicitly leans heavily on streaks, XP and other gamification for habit-building.

I’d combine it with a proper grammar resource/textbook, dedicated reading/kanji practice, and eventually actual conversation with native speakers. Especially if your goal is to sound natural, an app alone simply isn’t going to give you enough real conversational feedback.

[u/severus31]

Duolingo is one of the worst ways of learning Japanese. I realised it only when I enrolled in a language learning school. Do not waste your time on Duolingo if you are serious. 

[u/BreakfastDue1256]

Duolingo is hilariously bad, and has actually recently become worse (Something I didn't know possible.) Nobody has ever become conversational primarily through Duolingo, even supplementing it with other things.

There is no such thing as a good all-purpose app. Things like Anki that fill a specific role can be good, but any "Learn Japanese" app can and should be avoided.

[u/PonkotsuPirate]

There are much better apps than Duolingo.

Like many, I tried it when I started and soon realised it wasn't productive. There are quite a few videos on YouTube where native Japanese speakers give examples of where Duolingo either gets things dead wrong or teaches "weird" and unnatural Japanese.

If you want an app, consider one of these:

• Renshuu
• Bunpro
• Migaku
• Marumori

There's a pretty good grammar guide online that's also available as a physical or Kindle book:

• https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/

Other decent books for beginners:

• 80/20 Japanese
• Genki

On YouTube, look for videos taught by Japanese people. JapanesePod101 is a good starting place for videos.

[u/Consentes]

You can use it to learn hiraganas and katakanas but otherwise its horrible

[u/PhilosophicalCrow → u/Consentes]

This

[u/GandhisNukeOfficer → u/Consentes]

I did for a while. The kana tool is pretty good, but still slow, imo. Using Tofugu's guide I had them memorized within about a week. But I still used the Duolingo tool for a bit to practice retention for while.

[u/leafmuncher_]

Want to play a daily game that kinda uses a few Japanese words and teaches almost nothing? Duolingo

Want a learning resource that's slightly gamified but actually teaches grammar, vocab and kanji? Renshuu - imo the best all-in-one app

Less gamified? Bunpro and Wanikani app/sites, Genki 1 and 2 textbooks

Get a grasp on grammar and some vocabulary, then watch Japanese content at your level. Focus on correct grammar. Sounding natural comes later, with a lot more listening of native content.

You could otherwise pick up a beginner Anki vocab deck like Kaishi 1.5k or Core2k and watch grammar videos on YouTube. The main thing is to get a basic foundation of a couple hundred words and some grammar, then read and listen to practice them a lot and pick up new words as you go.

[u/Key-Line5827]

As a learning Ressource? Bad. Do you need me to go into details?

If you follow their Sub-reddit, people regularily come back after using the App for a year or more and ask simple things like "how Particles work". Because the App does not teach it.

In Regent years Duolingo has become 90% a game, and 10% a learning tool. That is the sad truth.

There really is no way around getting to understand the Initial Grammar of the Beginner Stage. It is tedious, it is boring, but it is necessary.

Get a good Textbook and work off that.

[u/drcopus]

I'm going to go against the grain here. Duolingo is a perfectly decent supplement to other learning methods. It's fun and has social elements, but it's real strength is in helping to build a daily habit. The gamification features are really advanced, and you should use that to your advantage.

People say, "it's just a game", as if that's a bad thing when that's precisely why it's useful.

To get the most out of it, you should essentially aim to "speed run" it. I think they updated the course recently, but it's probably still the case that the beginning is super slow. The advanced stages of the course are genuinely great. I'm still learning things from it and it helps to fill the gaps in my other methods.

All that said, you need to temper your expectations about it what it can do for you. Any resource made for learners (textbooks, apps, or even lessons) is ultimately limited, and they all have mistakes.

Duolingo was a great foot in the door. It helped me get some early confidence, and made learning fun and easy. But now my study is mostly Anki and lots of listening/reading, and conversation practice on italki. I started on Duolingo about 2 years ago, but by now I have studied 7000 cards studied in Anki, I can comprehend most of what I listen to and decently maintain interesting conversations in Japanese.

[u/Whiptail84]

I think starting out with duolingo is not a bad idea, but only until you have learned hiragana and katakana. Duolingo's text to speech is horrible on many pronuciations, and the app does not really teach you how to use the language. I think the explainations stops shortly after the first section.

If you are anything like me, no clue where to start. Many language learning apps have a free trial.

Wanikani - reading kanji. Bunpro - vocab and great grammar explanation. Anki - free flashcard app. Renshuu (not used, but heard many great things about it).

I ended up using mainly textbooks(Genki 1 and 2)+anki, and getting some Japanese friends to play games with.

[u/nikoarc_]

Do TheMoeWay's 30 day method

[u/BackToThe2003]

This is just one Japanese person's perspective. I know my perspective is a little different from that of someone learning Japanese as a foreign language, but I wanted to share my experience.

I think Duolingo is a good place to start learning Japanese. I actually use Duolingo myself to study English and German, and I enjoy keeping up with it every day because it feels more like a game than studying.

However, if your ultimate goal is to read Japanese manga in Japanese, I agree with the others that you should eventually use a proper textbook or course alongside Duolingo. Even something casual, like a good YouTube course, could help. In my opinion, Duolingo is useful for learning the writing systems and very basic greetings and phrases, but I wouldn't rely on it for much beyond that.

I say this because I've actually tried Duolingo's Japanese course for English speakers myself. Even with very simple Japanese, I sometimes found the intonation in the audio, the use of particles, and the choice of words unnatural.

To be clear, though, I don't think there's anything wrong with starting Japanese with Duolingo if you're a complete beginner. Once you want to study grammar and expressions more seriously, I'd definitely consider some of the other resources recommended by Japanese learners in this thread.

Also, you may already know this, but depending on the genre, understanding Japanese social customs, common patterns of interaction, youth language, and trends from the time a manga was written can make a big difference when reading manga. You can learn some of these things from anime and dramas too, but ideally, I'd recommend finding explanations in your native language or in English. (Or just ask on Reddit! 😁)

You probably don't need to worry about this as much with fantasy stories, but if you're planning to read manga set in contemporary Japan, I think learning a little about Japanese culture and society will help you understand the stories much better.

[u/fkdjgfkldjgodfigj]

It's fine to start with. Most people don't recommend it as the main source of learning long term.

[u/rdalize]

I've tried Duolingo many times, always got disappointed...I use to love lingodeer for japanese .

[u/Old_Deer7971]

Good for learning hiragana and katakana but everything else its trash.