Why I'm Quitting the Japanese Duolingo Course (An Honest Review)
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2021
- Migaku reflink (1 extra month for free + support the channel): migaku.io/free-month/Livakivi
After having used Duolingo to learn Japanese for 800+ days, its time to say goodbye.
If you have any questions about the course, ask me in the comments, and I'll do my best to reply!
3 Years of Japanese Update video, where I speak Japanese: • 3 Years of Learning Ja...
Duolingo is what got me into learning languages on my own. Compared to my previous experiences of having learned Russian and English in school, it was genuinely enjoyable and motivational. However, despite Duolingo being a fun way to get started in a language, how long should you actually use it for, especially when it comes to the Japanese course, in 2021? That's what I tried to answer in this video.
I actually wanted to cover many different aspects of Duolingo as well, such as the direction the company itself is heading in, but I decided to just focus on giving a general overview of using Duolingo as a tool to learn Japanese.
A lot of people have asked, so here are the links to the alternative resources I mentioned in the video:
- Refold: refold.la/ (A great general guide on how to properly learn a language)
- Anki SRS tool for making and reviewing flashcards: apps.ankiweb.net/
- Tae Kim's grammar guide: www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/
- The Core 2k/6k vocabulary cards original source: iknow.jp/content/japanese
If you want to get it as an Anki deck, you'll need to Google for it, as I don't want to directly link to them, and the links for it always change as well.
- Wanikani for vocabulary/kanji: www.wanikani.com/
MUSIC:
Professor Kliq - Overhead (www.professorkliq.com/)
Hollow Knight OST - Fungal Wastes
AC/BC - You Shook Me All Night Long (PALEOROCK CLASSIC)
Professor Kliq - Our Universe (Intro)
Ghost Trick OST - Awakening
Yoshihisa Sakai & Embryo - Restaurant of the Soul Pt. 1
Pair, pare, pear video: • How to Pronounce PAIR ...
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top 10 saddest anime endings
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the video! If anyone has any other specific questions about learning Japanese with Duolingo, feel free to ask, and I'll try my best to answer!
EDIT: 3 YEARS OF JAPANESE PROGRESS UPDATE IS OUT, this time, I actually speak Japanese: ua-cam.com/video/JVAcg1FuyOY/v-deo.html
EDIT: 4 Year version as well lol: ua-cam.com/video/MQ-NZVj5cL8/v-deo.html
Fifth one is coming soon as well!
i need help, i can't get pass the New york part, the question was to say new york in japanese (ニューヨーク)
so i type ニューヨーク clearly the same and it says no, i wrote it correctly, there's no mistake but i still get rejected, i know the use of the big ユ and small ュ and i the hiragana of ニ and the number 二 duolingo still rejects me
@@biku3628 if you're having issues with some specific sentence, it doesn't hurt to just copy paste the correct solution. Not sure if you can do that on mobile, but on the browser version you can.
I used to study italian, I was very good actually, I speak it sometimes but only the basics like "Il nino magia la mana"
or "the boy ate the apple"
@@heinzguderian628 I'm pretty sure that's Spanish or something of the sort, in Italian what you said would be "il bambino mangia la mela"
@@theguardiangnome2955 It has been a while since I stoped the classes, I missunderstood some stuff
I do Japanese Duolingo everyday because I don't want him taking my family away. If I break my 365 day streak he will hold me hostage
LOL STOP IT - 💀✋
@@thecacklingcactus3594 I don't do it for education at this point. Duo is forcing me to do lessons and I don't want to die
what the fuck
@@thomasg8517 Look I've been where you are, just breath ok everything's gonna be alright
ey is the bird still stalking even u shower and sleep?
are you still alive?
if he disappears now, we know that the Duolingo owl has got him
Shh, Duolingo good, Duolingo good. All hail the Overlord!
lol
All hail lord Duo
@@duolingo6698 LOL
@@dezpappas9201 kono duo daa!
My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!
That book sounds interesting... Could you tell me more about it? Currently learning chinese 😉
@@ethirium4389 The practical manual clearly describes how to build your learning, how to develop your memory, why you forget how to develop your language skills to automatism, how to create a language environment for yourself, what a cultural shock is, and how to overcome it. As well as many other topical issues that people face when learning a language. Each person throughout his or her life has to deal with different cultures and languages one way or another. Knowledge of language greatly facilitates the interaction of a person with another type of culture, improves social status, provides career growth, provides great opportunities for self-expression and dissemination of ideas, opens up prospects for modern education, improves financial situation, contributes to the achievement of your goals and objectives. However, in the process of learning many people necessarily face difficulties, which they lack experience and necessary knowledge to overcome. This practical manual will become a desktop assistant for a large audience: for those who want to or are already learning a foreign language, do it alone or with a teacher, individually, in a group or educational institution (school, college, university, academy). The workshop will help to structure and organize your individual language learning process and will give you the opportunity to independently determine the methodology of learning a language that will be interesting and not burdensome. The methods presented in the book can be immediately applied in language practice. Each person can choose the method that is interesting and most adapted to him or her, as well as suitable to his or her pace and lifestyle, so that language learning becomes a natural and exciting process.
I worked for a company who was trying to win contract work in support of the Defense Language Institute. It's brutal. Some of their courses are designed to teach members of the military intermediate conversational Arabic, Russian, Chinese, etc. along with intermediate cultural knowledge. Some of the courses involve role-playing hostile situations where the students are having to interrogate someone who doesn't speak English, or decipher intelligence (like seized laptops/notes) in a foreign language. Absolutely intense.
36 to 64 weeks? I am FINISHING level 3 Duolingo Japanese TODAY after using it for about 2.5 months. I will finish level 6 by November or December. LOL Of course I know more Chinese characters than a common Japanese person. LOL LOL Of course, I am using wiktionary, Tae Kim's grammar book, many many other useful websites. I can now understand at least some Japanese news on NHK. It really depends on how hard you study. I use Duolingo as if I am playing my favorite video game. LOL
@@trumplostlol3007 are you really comparing duolingo to a proper school LOL.
I've always treated Duolingo more like a little supplement. I didn't think it would be suitable as a main resource . More like a kickstarter and then a way to practice some when I don't have as much time. It does have it's pros even though it's a bit lacking.
I've used Duolingo as a main resource in several languages. It works. You won't find an app better at drilling vocabulary. It's not as monotone as flash-card type systems, it has some grammar and flow in it, and depending on the language audio with different voices. At the beginning you just have to spent the time to drill that stuff, and that makes following other resources easier later. I've heard Americans that use Duolingo almost exclusively to learn my native language, and they are wayyy better than even those who study the language in University.
Same for me. I'm using it like a supplement, but I'm also reading books and writing as well to not forget what I have learned by far,
You ALL say that and don't have anything to bring up that someone won't call bad. So I'm sticking to duo lol.
@@Andreas-gh6is memrise n any srs is way better
@@no3ironman11100 if u pay pimsluer is the best. If u want free memrise
What he said: "Japanese is too complex to learn from a simple app like duolingo."
What weebs heard:
"Keep watching anime. You'll learn it better this way."
You can use anime as a supplemental practice resource. I'll often watch anime or live-action TV shows / read manga to put my japanese knowledge to an actual practical use. You can't learn japanese from anime, but japanese media is an invaluable resource.
@@perfect_rain9611 yep, it's a great way to challenge yourself or practice after learning a bit
SABAKU WA ORE NO STANDO DA
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
(Translation: The one who will judge you is my Stand!)
I learned Korean from watching kdramas and variety shows and listening to Korean music so I would say that Immersion (which is what watching anime would be) is definitely better than just Duolingo. Listening to the language being used in meaningful and real world ways is probably the most important thing if you want to become conversational in a language. Though becoming advanced requires extensive reading in addition.
Woah this totally works out because I was already planning on watching a lot of Anime anyway!
Loved it when Duolingo wanted me to learn Russian without ever telling me how to read Cyrillic, an interesting way to learn...
I mean, they pronounce the words anyway. So you can isolate which letters sound like what.
@@doritos6548 trust me, I'm russian but even in Russia we're not completely sure how do you pronounce different letters
Especially when it comes to vowels
Just....trust me
@Rainbow Dickhead when i was in my 5th grade, my friends begun russian class with "Caesar, morituri te salutant" (Caesar, those who are going to die greet you) phrase
@Rainbow Dickhead bc Russians don't pronounce unstressed letters, like if you have stressed "о", it will sound as "o", but is it is unstressed, it will sound as "a"
@@doritos6548 Yeah, but I feel like that's completely unnecessary work and time you use when you could do a simple rundown of what each letter would be in the Latin alphabet. So you could use your time to then learn the words, instead of wasting it trying to guess what sounds the letters make...
I completely agree with you and I feel as though Duolingo rlly is what it says. It's basically just getting you started in a language and "don't use Duolingo as your only language learning source"
no thank you I will use it as my only language learning source
Why would you pay for it for just a "starter"?
Also, as a starter, it forces you to wait too much time to do the lessons, making it a waste of time
Duolingo is good to get you interested in a language. But when you do have interest, the best thing you can do is drop it
I think its really important to know what your goals are and what you want to do. Starting duolingo is fine, but continue duolingo because you feel like you dont want to lose your streak is just not worth it for me. There are many ways of learning language that are way more interesting than something you already do.
Me identifico completamente, literally, Duo esta con eso de que hagas una lección diaria si o si, al inicio es todo genial pero luego no, ya que uno incluso termina el curso y te sigue mandando notificaciones para que practiques y es muy... molesto
You're only afraid to lose your streak as long as you think you want to learn that language and that Duolingo is a good tool for it. And Duolingo is always better than doing nothing - and nothing is the default for most people. Not many people can commit to study material in books every day for a couple of years.
@@Andreas-gh6isbut they can surely watch YT videos in their target language so... not everyone needs to hit the books.
I used Duolingo for German as I progressed I get sentences like
“The Cat ate a dinosaur “
Exactly what I need when visiting Germany
@@DrakeRing you never know what you will find there. Be prepared for all situation. Like when a cat eats a dinosaur
I unironically think that having single sentences hidden between the rest is really useful as it makes you question whether you *really* did understand the sentence ("does it *REALLY* say that? wow"). IF you're lucky enough that the foreign sentence pops up first and not the english one. Because then the "questioning yourself" part falls flat on its face.
That sentence would be in German:
' Die Katze hat einen Dinosaurier gegessen ' c:
@@DrakeRing There are other german speaking countries btw. 🤔
I have been speaking English for 18 years and I just found out today "pare" means "to trim".
Not only am I fluent in English since it's my first ever language, I, too, today just discovered that "pare" means "to trim." Probably because it's an older term
You've probably heard the expression "pare down" but have never seen it in print.
@@EresirThe1st thank you so much, I was a KP in kitchens for about 5 years and never knew why it was called that. To trim the potatoes, it makes so much sense now, I also a native speaker of English for all 23 years of my life have never learned of the word “pare”
25 years and same
Think "paring knife", those little knifes you use to skin fruit.
I tried doulingo, still using it. Can't escape it. The owl is watching
Better keep that streak up
This is a really good and informative take on this app, probably the best I’ve seen
As my old grandma always said: “A lesson a day keeps the green owl away.”
HAHA
^
gold comment
Best comment😂😂
727 likes...
*"I'm trying to learn Japanese, not perfecting my English grammar!"*
-Duolingo users.
The number of times I have misspelled a word in English and lost a life for it is infuriating
Who cares about grammar
That's one of the main reason why I started learning norwegian on duolingo
@@hellatze I do, but I learned it naturally from seeing patterns and memorizing exceptions.
THAT!
I used to use Duolingo a lot for Spanish, it helped me a lot. After some time though, things got kinda boring and I wasn't really making much progress so I quit Duolingo to some extent. A few months later and I started using Duolingo again and I love it! Duolingo definitely can't make you proficient in a language, but it is very helpful for learning the basics of a language! After a point things get repetitive on Duolingo, but it is very useful for starting off!
Before I joined Duolingo, I had an F in Spanish. Now a few years later, I have an A in Spanish! :D
Of course, I used some vocabulary lists from websites and Spanish Dictionary, so Duolingo wasn't the only thing I used, but still Duolingo is very helpful!
Generally (from my experience) languages in school are just beginner phrases and sentences, you'll maybe do like 3 sentences then talk about summin else for another 3 sentences as a test which is perfect considering duolingo does nearly the same thing, I feel like schools and duolingo only stick to beginner and maybe lower lower fluency but that's all I really got out of Duolingo and School, generally the best way to learn is with multiple resources (duolingo can be included) and with people, when i learned japanese for 8-12 months I started texting japanese people, that really helped me due to the fact that texting/talking to people from that language gives you a big advantage over anything duolingo could really provide, great for newbies tho!
Getting over two years of content with a learning platform seems like a massive success to me. It might not be the ideal way for a highly motivated student to learn, but for an average person, the motivational tricks they use make it worthwhile. Good review!
I finished the Japanese course in 11 months. And it's much longer now. I definitely learned a lot of vocabulary.
I don't think anything should be your only tool for learning. Now that I know a decent amount of vocabulary watching anime seems pretty productive.
The duolingo heart system drove me insane. Nothing like having to redo an entire lesson because you got the last one wrong.
With my ADHD, I just have lapses of attention and accidentally put 'woman' instead of 'orange' into the missing gaps when I am thinking of 'woman' (bad example, don't judge). It's almost as if I'm not entering what I think is the right translation, rather what I subconsciously want the translation to be.
Or something.
Duolingo is a waste of time, youd learn more using anki
@@nosir1479 this is even worse when you have to translate in a third language because duolingo doesn't have the course in your language
@@alfredorotondo true tho
use it on mobile, there isn't the heart system
i started the german course and i felt like it was only teaching me how to say someone eating bread in different ways
The bear never plays piano
I would recommend you to watch some German youtubers and also buy some books if you're still a beginner not grammar books
I used it for about a year, learned a lot, got far through the course, AND THEN IT CHANGED ALL OF THE LESSONS AND STARTED ME AT THE BEGINNING. It wouldn’t even let me switch back to the lesson I was on. Definitely very angry after that one
My first language is german and I tried the Duolingo course just for fun. Wouldn’t recommend, you’d be better off buying a schoolbook or smth.
Deutschland mag Brot
Really great editing.
You just earned a new subscriber!
I started taking duolingo JP because i already follow a lot of Japanese content creators, and it’s a really cool experience noticing that I’m starting to understand certain characters and sentences, but being able to read some phrases doesn’t mean you can understand them. Duolingo is a bit difficult in that aspect
I really wish that Duolingo didn't force you to stick to the lesson order. Sometimes I want to brush up on a specific part of Swedish, and would rather not go through the entire course up until that point.
Whenever I make a new course I instantly go to the last checkpoint and memorise what they and after about 50 try’s I memorised it and complete it so I can access any part I wish
Think the best plan is to just find a native speaker who is willing to talk to you in the language youre learning.
Thats how a friend of mine did it, he had finished swedish on duolingo, but in the end he learned way more and faster just speaking with me, sure sometimes he had to resort to english to make a point across, but atleast then he learned more vocabulary.
I have Started leaning away from duolingo, and more to Lingodeer, cus their japanese course is way better imo, has example sentences, how to build sentences, how the grammar works. It prob is better cus its teachers who developed it.
Sadly lingodeer doesnt have alot of languages, mainly eastasian countries, and some regular luke german/french etc.
Why are you learning Swedish? To talk to pewdiepie ?? 👀
@@jjkembo8810really man? Some dude is learning a language and you think its bc of some youtuber?
Tempo yep.
Nah I’m joking. I’m also swedish tho so got a bit interested
Currently learning Spanish with this app and all I can say is
Juan is the true main character.
and Luis
Rivera
Juan the meme horse
Juan is a bad meme
PD: I'm speaker Spanish
I'm Juan
I don’t even trying to learn Japanese, but I stayed and loved because of your video edition you made here. Very funny! 😂
Very informative video, thank you.
"Excuse me,, I am an apple." -Duolingo Japanese 2021
I just got this one today lol
it legit gave me a sentence "the dog wants to become a professional football player" in my Spanish lesson
すみません,僕はりんごです
すみません、りんごです
In context, means - excuse me, is apple
すみません、私がりんごです
This means, Excuse me, I am an apple, no matter what context it is in.
Yes Disculpe yo soy una manzana
I remember when I started learning Portuguese, Duolingo gave me the sentence "os gatos não bebem cerveja" and I was like, ah yes... a sentence we all use daily... The cats don't drink beer.
Ty, now i know how to say the cats don't drink beer in Portuguese, i am going to Ronaldo's house to say him this! :D
i mean say what you want but you did remember everything in that sentence.
prolly a good call on duolingos part.
Falamos isso todo dia aqui no Brasil
@@Jao2321 rsrsrs ahh, entendi! Foi mal 😋
As a Brazilian, I will attest that my friend got his dog drunk once
I am in my first month using Duolingo, and all that I can say is exactly same with your point which is to get me started. Fortunately, I'm learning this language with external learning sources like Anki and Kanji Study.
Thanks for reminding us that it's okay to break the streak, because in the end of the day, we are here to learn.
Yep! The last thing caught my attention.
It's so true!
Think about why you started! Small progress adds up,bro.
And yes, you can always switch to something else to get better.
As bro said,duolingo can indeed be a great place to get started.
I love how Duolingo teaches you how to say "the black cat and the boy" before it teaches you to say "hi" or "my name is ____"
What course?
@@arnenesbye2420 I took french and german and they both said that
@@miecaf Strange it was one of the first things i learned
@@arnenesbye2420 in japanese course you learn many things before "i am" or "hello"
@@miecaf strange, in German the 1st thing I learned was Hallo (Hello)
This kinda feels like a sad character ark. Loosing touch with your roots because it feels like it’s holding you back
Wow why does it look like some anime ark to me????😂
That's so anime
Ark. Ouche
How melodramatic. It's an app. If you don't benefit from it anymore than what's the point?
@@anotherwowman Ahe, a classice mistak! Ouche isn'te a worde!
2 years later, I still think the points you made about the issues of duolingo are very applicable. But one thing they did right was introduce new features that amplify their usefulness to absolute beginners, like the hiragana/katakana drill sections. Really helped me familiarise myself with the characters faster early on.
I think this is the best review of Duolingo. I’ve been contemplating on finding another tool to learning languages, but realized my learning style is super casual. I’ll stick to it for now because I like how it keeps me entertained and educated just enough. I will probably switch to another software if I ever find myself more committed to intense learning.
"i am here to learn japanese, not play the game that is duolingo"
Thank you for reminding me of this. I got so hooked on points and all that when why im here is for the language learning. This will also help in the future to prevent cost fallacy to happen to me
I literally just commented a really similar thing. I wish you could opt out of things like the league tables. I end up sitting there repeating the timed challenges for several hours just over and over repeating what I already know so I can be first place and getting super competitive then realising I haven’t learnt anything new in days because I’m just trying to win first place
I wish you could just be like “nope, opt out of this bit”
I currently have a 68 day streak and I can’t bring myself to break it, I enjoy duolingo but sometimes I realise that I don’t learn much from it, I try to watch UA-cam videos and write as much as I can down but it’s difficult when you’re learning by yourself
I just spent a lot of time this week trying to keep up with these people who spend all their time on duolingo... Like, I have assignments and other things I rather be doing so I need to let the leaderboard go before it consumes me.
@@commentbot9510 I’m just as bad. I once competed against someone who made 6500XP in a week on tje leaderboard. I hate the stupid thing. I get upset if I drop out of the top ten and don’t get to progress onto the next level even though none of it actually matters
@@josie5670 I feel this - rank 1 in my current leaderboard is up to almost 9000 xp. I was obsessively chasing him but then I decided not to look at the leaderboard at all and just do the lesson whenever I want. I've got nothing to gain even if I win.
So how did it go? Is the bird still staring at you while you're asleep?
He didn't reply to you, the bird probably blackmailed him.
@@ksjejejririehruehr9738 The heart he put on the comment is a cry for help
@@Vilonu It’s probably just his own heart.
@@auraemerald8434 oh shet
blink twice if your in danger
It really seems the way a tool like this should work is to just stay in the target language as much as possible. It asks you questions in Japanese and you answer in Japanese. Some fudging might be needed early on, but once you're past the first or second checkpoint that should end.
I’ve not gotten to 800 days yet but this is an amazing explanation
Thank you!
I hate the heart system. You take time out of your day to practice, but if you make enough mistakes you have to wait a long time before you can practice again, and mistakes is a great teacher. Its a real non-motivator for learning.
Plus, it doesn't make any sense from a monetary perspective being that if you're on the free version (paid has infinite hearts), they're making bank with ads they throw at you after every lesson. I've been on their free trial for the last week and I think I would have given up on the app by now if I'd have had to deal with the heart system.
Your supposed to practice the earlier skills to get more hearts
Exactly why I stopped using it.
@@kiyoko7709
You get hearts for practicing.
@@irvingceron1016 I am aware.
"I'm quitting the Duolingo course"
Duolingo: "You're quitting your life"
klk
I got a duolingo add when i first tapped this video
**reloads shotgun**
Learning a language is a lifelong thing. There is no easy path. But Duolingo is definitely helping me get started in a way that is motivating. I remember using Rosetta stone about 10 years ago for about 10 days.
damn the last sentence was the thing that i wanted to hear from the bottom of my heart now i am not lost anymore thanks
"I'm quitting Duolingo"
*Doorbell rings*
omae wa mou shindeiru
- Duolingo
@@GoofyAhhLion2937
NANI!?!
I got a duolingo ad at start
@@ilxvesushi4465 They're threatening you
LMAO
I stopped when they went from "I am an apple" to "I eat apples everyday"
Cannibalism!
すみませんりんごです
@@narutosmith4432 You're right, it was "Excuse me, I am an apple," not just "I am an apple." Thank you.
@@narutosmith4432 idk what it says but i think you're saying sumimosenringodesu xdddd
@@tory4410 it says"sumimasen, Ringo desu" (excuse me, I'm an apple)
@@tory4410 Yes, which means “I’m an apple”.
Great video. Very balanced and rational take on it (and great memes). I was curious just how far you could go with Duolingo and stumbled upon your content. I think you nail it when you say that Duolingo is useful to get you started and it definitely is better than not doing anything at all. Motivation is maybe the hardest thing when learning anything and if the gamified system is interesting to some people they should definitely use it.
Just started with duolingo Japanese after one of your videos and I've got to admit this video is pretty much how I intend to use it. Even in the Hiragana learning stage I'm already leaning towards redoing it and using it as a support to other methods once I have the absolute basics in place to profit from.
It's a friendly way to introduce basics in a fun way and I like that it's aimed at a younger audience, even at 59, because I recognise some jarring throwbacks to nursery and primary school right from the off in retaining even the basics, and it's a good mindset to start with imho.
I'll probably use it for a couple of years maybe, then unsubscribe and fondly remember it as I progress to junior school levels.
I used duolingo when I started with japanese because I had no idea how to begin with learning japanese. But after some months I found many other ways to study japanese so I slowly stopped learning with duolingo. Duolingo is good in the beginning
May I ask what other ways can u share with me and others? Been looking for other alternatives also.
@@ericapolinar7522 same here, any alternatives?
Eric Apolinar go hardcore and start with reading visual novels. Ready a dictionary by your side :p
same
@@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263 spread the good word my guy
Really interesting, been using it to learn another language so its fun to see feedback like this
Glad you enjoyed it! Also, nice legendary playlist btw
Duolingo is better for European languages than Asian Languages in my experience
@@Livakivi sorry for the late reply but thank you! :) and ye I really enjoyed it man, keep it up!
@@armandonavarro2665 same, I became relatively proficient in italian and german through duolingo, but learned absolutely nothing with japanese, korean, and arabic
@@armandonavarro2665 Duolingo also doesn't teach grammar rules. In Dutch, I noticed some words with "de" as their article and some with "het". I didn't know there were two different grammatical genders until I googled.
F
Seriously, respect for being that honest, that reflected and being able to break that streak!
You pointed out exactly what I was thinking recently. I started their Korean tree for the new year, but most of the lessons were duplicates or didn't explain the grammar, which made it confusing for me.
*shows a fragment of english being weird*
"this fucking language man"
As a non native english speaker i inmediately subscribed. Awesome video
@Polandball even Spanish has stupid bullshit like el being the singular form of los instead of lo.
As a native english speaker i can tell you that I'm honestly starting to get sick of how stupid english's unwritten rules (and spelling in general) are.
Pfft, other languages don't come pear.
Yeah I had to pause the video there cuz it had me laughing my ass off :D It's mainly the tone he used, like I felt that xD
It's what it's
800 Days?! My mom was there 1001 days using duolinguo to learn English and didn’t learn much, she end up taking a course in King’s College and learned English in 7 weeks
Yeah, that's why the video said that Duolingo is only good for getting started, not to fully learn the language
She probably learned english pretty fast because of the knowledge she gained on DuoLingo tho lol
I mean, duolingo is a *free* app. Your mom went to a college.
The fact she already "learned" a bunch on duolingo means it was probably pretty easy for her to pick it up 'properly' in another method. One problem with learning w/duolingo is you can usually match pairs just by just by looking at one of the 'letters' in a word
@@joojok72 yup, she went to college for free hehe, there are many courses free from prestigious universities
this helped me so much, I just started and honestly, I was scared it wasn't useful.
this is an older video but that part about how when u hear the sentence u don’t translate to english in your head made a lot of sense and i think was a missing piece i needed to hear so thank you
“There’s nothing to lose.”
I have a caveat here. Some language courses are so broken (Irish, Swahili, Chinese) that it could teach you incorrect information, which could be hard to unlearn.
Just came across a chinese sentence today that, according to the forums, used the wrong measure word; it really is shocking how generally unreliable the courses are - not just in terms of making mistakes, but also in general inconsistency: you will never understand the meaning and difference between が and は in case you are also learning from elsewhere as they so often forget to accept both.
Yet at the same time it still remains one of the best free resources in terms of content available and accessibility: it is probably better value than みんなの日本語 as it covers multiple books worth of material and you can practice the questions as many times as you want; any new grammar rules that may be confusing and unclear (which is often the case) can be well explained by others in the forums.
Oh wow that's disappointing
Spanish too .. it just teaches you the same words .
@@edmundironside9435 As dougen likes to say though...nobody understands the difference between ga and ha, not even Japanese native speakers XD they just go on instinct
“There’s nothing to lose”
Looks at what premium costs
I’m brazilian and I tried learning italian through the portuguese-italian course but the translations were so broken that I quit halfway through. I then decided to try the english-italian course and completed it. In other words, the lessons were so broken that I found easier to learn through my secondary language than my native one.
I am Italian lol!
That's what I'm currently doing, I'm Brazilian as well but decided to learn Japanese through the English-Japanese course
Duolingo courses are like Wiki pages, they're maintained by wannabe translators who have a poor understanding of even their own language. I find anything but the Spanish course awful in duolingo
@@airor9874 same but i used the hebrew-english
SOU DO BRASILLL
Nichijou profile picture, very nice!
That outro was so fricking cool! And badass
2 years and no likes? Lemme fix that
Kawaiinihongo is great for learning japanese. At least that’s my opinion. I started out not knowing anything and now I’ve got a good base to build on. I know hirigana (I’ve been lazy with katakana, but I still know it descently) I know the some grammar and how to structure some different sentences. They have amazing art and the voice lines are really nice!
Me, who was proud because duolingo taught me how to say black cat: oh
@@isaacsfansubs4721
➡️➡️
↗️ ↘️
The Joke ➡️ 🧍♂️(You) ➡️
@@adamwaris1565 😂 LOL
Kuro neko
Gato negro
Chat noir
黒猫
Black cat
"I'm here to learn the language... not to play the game of duolingo." This is very insightful. The gamefication of a goal has the unintended side effect of the game reward becoming more important than the actual goal. (Probably worth thinking about this in relation to teaching/testing/grading in general.)
8:17 I love that you used the best minecraft playthrough as an example (0u0)
ight thanks bro just saved my life, after starting this a couple of hours and now i addicted to it.
Duolingo teaches vocabs well but they don’t put much into teaching how grammar works
My thought exactly because as j learn new sentences i learn variations of these sentences but they dont teach the individual words in the sentence and that makes it confusing to tell what is saying what
very true. i learned a bit of mandarin there and its hard to figure out how the grammar works when they only teach you what a specific word means without trying to understand that a word can mean different if you place it wrong.
Three days and im out.
Whenever I find myself in that situation, I look it up online and usually I can find an answer to why the grammar is acting a certain way, and then I come back to Duolingo with some understanding
Duolingo does have a grammar section, but since they updated to the crowns system a few years ago it became a bit hidden away behind some clicks and scrolls while before it was just in your face as you were to start a lesson, it could be ignored, but not missed. Although have in mind that I'm talking based on my own experience with the languages I tried which Japanese isn't one of them, so it might not have much, but I doubt that it has nothing at all.
There is a Tips section, and some courses have very detailed explanations of the grammar but for some bizarre reason they don’t implement it on mobile.
Thank you!
I’m almost two years in on my Japanese Duolingo. With my ADHD, I’m scared to stop using it, because the 600+ streak is the only thing keeping me coming back consistently.
I know it’s not very effective, and I usually find myself doing one of the early lessons just to keep the streak going, but I do enjoy the process. I felt so much pride while watching “Letters from Iwo Jima” and translating some of the non-subtitled conversations for my husband!
Despite the 2-year timeline, my bare-minimum approach still just has me on “where is the bathroom?” phrases. I’ll try out some of your resources once my brain can fixate on language learning again. I’m doing it for fun, and I’m sure I could buckle down if I knew I was going to be visiting Japan.
I appreciate the gentle “I really committed to this and was able to move on” message. My heart sank at your 0-day streak haha!
I guess if you finished the Japanese course on Duolingo, you might as well try a new language if you are just sticking around for the streak.
Like, I know said you're doing it 'for fun' but TWO entire years on that app? Firstly, I can't imagine it's fun for you any longer, secondly, how did you not realise you weren't progressing sooner? If I was still being taught the phrase for 'where is the bathroom' after 2 MONTHS I think I'd have moved onto to something else.
@@futurez12 It's almost 3 years in, and I still have the streak going. Frankly, it's the mix of serotonin seeing that number creep up, and knowing that I haven't given up yet that keeps me going. Duolingo also created more classes, and it has been a big help with the Hiragana. I can sort of sound out words in Japanese now, with barely any effort practice-wise.
Surprisingly, it is still kind of fun. It's not for everyone, and that's fine. You may have heard that "even cleaning for 5 minutes makes your house cleaner than it was before." That's the approach I'm taking with learning Japanese. I could buckle down and learn it, but then I'd have to give up some of my other passions to do so. For now, I'm happy with the bare minimum. I'm looking forward to my weirdo brain deciding to prioritize it again!
@@katuni08 That's good that you're aware of what's going on in your mind, but honestly, that's not a good sign. The fact that you're _waiting_ for the motivation almost certainly means that it isn't there and isn't likely to come. Great if you're having fun and don't care about that. Nothing wrong with that. 👍
@@futurez12 That's kind of just how ADHD works. That motivation comes out of nowhere really and hits like a truck. Once I'm in a state of hyperfixation, it'll be the only thing on my mind and it's obsessive. I've had two phases of hyperfixation on Japanese that both lasted about a month. And it was day in and out none stop learning. Literally everything I wanted to do had to have some way to help me learn. But the sad thing about hyperfixations is once they pass the motivation goes back to zero. And then it becomes a waiting game for that burst of energy to come back. It's really not the worst though. Cycles of hyperfixations is how I learned to play the piano. Atleast in my experience, once I fixate on something it'll always come back later.
The course has been updated constantly and I have gotten backto Japanese on duolingo, they even added a kanji section! It is a lot more fun and helpful. They also have a speaking input option too wich I prefer over typing.
i love duolingo's interface and the way they set things up. the simple and understandable layout, how they test you in many different fields, the little character and motivations that just make it overall feel more friendly and fun to use (rather than just a boring black and white site that has no decoration. duolingos website design just makes me feel happier and more comfortable learning there)
hOWEVER. they are very bad at explaining stuff. it took me awhile to figure out that "tips" is where youll be learning what your actually doing. but even then they dont explain everything and i really think they could word stuff to use more understandable words because i have a hard time even making sense of the little blurbs
for example, i'm currectly learning dutch and have kept up a consistent streak of 46 days (around 6 weeks) and theres gendered nouns in dutch. masculine, feminine, and neuter. the word "the" can translate into either "de" or "het" depending on the gender of the noun. so "het konijn" is the rabbit and "de olifant" is the elephant. but duolingo explains none of this and just has you guess whether its de or het. and it doesnt teach you the gender of the nouns either. which is horrible considering a lot of other things depend on wether or not the noun is a de or het word, and language needs to build on itself. so you cant just not explain one of the basic building blocks of dutch, the genders of nouns. im using other resources and figuring it out but i definetly think there should be some tool to learn the genders of nouns. especially since a bunch of other languages are like that
Let’s have a funeral for the streak 😭
And for you.
@@duolingo8001 jesus
@@duolingo8001 oh shit
@@duolingo8001 😂😂
@@duolingo8001 im sorry
I’m 3 days in to learning Japanese and it’s looking tough, wish me luck.
i think you have better luck memorising the alphabets (hiragana does have it right?) and memorise a few basic words.
I wish I could use romaji 😢 it's so logical and easy for me to read song lyrics in romaji
I also am on my third day of learning Japanese. Thing is I’m struggling to memorise the greetings part since Duolingo doesn’t even introduce some of it slowly, it just gets you straight into it which I find really difficult and infuriating to do. The tips help me more sometimes more than the actual practices. I’m just hoping writing everything down as I learn will help me ^^
@@nindie duolingo sucks
I use duolingo, it’s good to study new vocabulary. also remember the alphabet. But it’s not good to know the grammar. And don’t think you can just use anime for study japanese. I recommend japanese movie or drama not anime or manga. You can see the real life conversation. For start to learn japanese, hiragana and katakana. Master it. Then learn basic grammar. I can say N5 level. Then you can watch japanese drama and study from there. Better is make a japanese friend for practice. I have japanese best friend to video call and practice. They can fix your pronunciation, grammar and correct your sentence to natural way. And about kanji, you can learn by some youtube video. Kanji for 6 years old, 7 years old. It’s good to start. When you learn new words, write both kanji and hiragana. You can see how kanji look like and how to pronounce it by hiragana. NEVER USE ROMAJI. Hope all good for peoples who study japanese
ive aspired to learn Japanese and even took some lessons from Duo Lingo myself, though until i saw this video i hadn't really understood how i would get past the inaccuracies of how some mediums teach lessons on Japanese. Seems what you mean to say, without meaning to basically repeat you, is that in order to truly learn you would have to incorporate it into your life as you learn it rather than just perceiving it as simple lessons to learn from with a definitive end. Might just take another crack at it, though i know ill have to be much more serious than my first time. Good vid! i enjoyed this
why did I get emotional at the end when you left duolingo lmao? Nice video very entretaining and insightful!
Yeah, Duolingo is a mixed bag in general. I don’t recommend using just Duolingo for any language since the sentence structure and formation abilities of it are very questionable, but it is very useful for keeping your ass grinding, which is an extremely useful skill for language learning. Early on it’s good, but honestly if you’ve got a month or two of consecutive Japanese down from Duolingo I’d suggest dropping it. For learning a language in similar language structure(ie English to German), I’d say it’s good to give more time with it.
I've been wanting to learn German for some time, as it would be my third language and here in the east/south Europe it's generally used as much as English, and this comment motivated me to try and actually learn it because both English and Serbian, two languages I'd say I'm fluent in, are kinda similar to German so it should be even easier for me to learn it xd
.
Wow what an amazing video. If you continue with that quality you’ll blow up soon
Thanks Dank Meme san
Is that a threat or compliment? Xd
Spike can't talk, and u know that
Omg spike watches that content?
500th like
Ive been learning japanese almost exclusively with duolingo for a few months and i agree with all of this. I don't yet have a very vast vocabulary, though, so i do intend on using it for a while more, but im also going to start branching off to other learning methods
Amazing video
I think the good thing about Duolingo is that it's repetitive and I manage to remember most stuff because of that
Same. I use it cause it helps me review things and remember them to some extent of course
The advice for those who learns Russian with duolingo: quite the course immediately. It wont help you anyhow: you wont learn endings, word’s gender, suffixes and prefixes with this app. I am russian and i decided to take duolingo course for fun and 30% of sentences had wrong translations. Just an advice that if you want to learn russian normal - watch youtube videos about people who know language and can give you advices on learning.
Sorry for my english
Thank you my friend now hitler is gonna to execute me for learning Russian
XD
Sorry for your English? No, you speak good English lol.
@@AcidifiedMammoth thank you!
Your English is good, don't worry :) I understood you perfectly
@@agostinastrawberry2200 thank you:)
Ive found that Duolingo is really good as a source of daily practice for some general review, but would really like if it recommended lessons to cover that I havent done in a while without needing to max them out
As someone who has been learning German for like 10 years at this point, I completely agree. I checked out the duolingo German course, and I completed it in like 10-20 minutes. And im not fluent. Its great at giving you a baseline to build from, but do not expect anything huge.
i started learning japanese with duolingo and it was great for learning the letters and such. but once i started getting questions wrong because i didnt use a capital letter, or period, etc, in my english translations, it really made me not even care at all and just want to quit. i should be learning my target language, not how many grammar mistakes i make in my native language. or if i translate a sentence to mean "i close the door." and it says im wrong, its supposed to be "i shut the door.". psh. just super discouraging.
Yeah, those are really frustrating. That's also a big reason why I find the English translation a big waste of time.
It also doesn't help that Japanese can have parts of the sentence more fluid in order, so long as the verb goes at the end and the particles are right. I remember putting a sentence together and it counted it as wrong even though there was nothing wrong with the sentence I put together. Oh, and we can drop the subject once we know what we are talking about so I find it feels like a big crutch by having us use 私 all the time.
@@graygreysangui yeah one time i put in an answer and it said i was wrong and literally gave me the exact same letter by letter answer as the "correct" example.
The same happened to me when i started using duolingo for Korean. I'm on a line of beginner and intermediate so i really got frustrated when it picked at my english translations
@@Rita_Arya so are you saying it shouldn't be so precise? Isn't the whole point to learn exactly what it's saying
The real question is how you survived 817 days of ads after *every. single. lesson.*
Maybe they use desktop version. No ads, no hearts.
I never get ads 😃
Adblockers exist, you know....
@@tsuumee4545 Not for iPhones
@@LesbiansMarie Nope, not on iPhone. Adblocker works just fine on my android though, never seen one ad in the app.
This was informative
Never thought I'd become one of these people but thank you cause you taught me how to learn more effectively instead of my old method of duolingo alone
I'm way beyond beginner so thanks for helping me not waste my time. I'm almost a week in now and I've been finding it tedious and easy at the same time. I really don't like the grammar-translation method
First in the japanese language you have to learn the kana alphabets which take a week at most, but for vocabulary, Anki is a really good app to learn vocabulary, there is also an app called easy japanese, which shows japanese news and you can click on words to see their meaning,
@@johnythepvpgod1470 there is also a guide called tae Kim’s or something like that which covers most of the grammar
You should test out into an appropriate lesson for you then, and then decide
i use memrise and mango and also do one on ones with Italki and Verbling to supplement duolingo.
"You shouldn't use Duolingo as the only learning source"
Me: "good, good" *proceeds watching another anime*
Hopefully with JP subs?
Maybe lots of you people already know that, but in case : a very helpful conceptis the " curve of forgetness " > that helped me a lot.
thanks for the insight, i will use duolingo to learn more vocab, but i agree that consuming the actually culture later would be way mroe beneficial
I gave up on learning on Duolingo a while ago, I got pretty tired of learning "The woman had a suitcase" in Spanish when all I wanted was to learn how to have a casual conversation. I found this guy yesterday who has really good and thoroughly-explained lessons on Japanese, and he's a much better teacher than Doulingo could ever be.
Who is said guy?
Still waiting
¿La mujer tiene una maleta?
so...why didnt you skip this lesson then?
is it Yuta Aoki? 😅
The hollow knight ost got me, i am SO happy everytime i find out somebody else knows that masterpiece.
yeaah!! I was looking for someone mentioning that detail!
^^^ me tooo
Yeah its my favorite game ever
Been waiting for silksong for more than 1 year... Still nothing
Trying to focus to Japanase.
*Fungal Wastes intensifies"
Fun fact, Duolingo recently added some reading comprehension exercises to their Japanese course where you either read a text and select what topic is talked about, or you select the appropriate response. Hopefully they keep adding more stuff like this and make it a better tool for learning Japanese.
But often one doesnt has to understand all three sentences to know the correct answer. Also the answer alternative often has nothing to do with the topic. So one can easily guess the correct answer by one identical word in Q&A.
They added one good thing but then removed the comment section, an INCREDIBLY helpful tool. You had a question about a sentence that you got wrong? No worries, just head to the comment section and you'll find an answer from some nice souls who already speak Japanese but still do this course to help others. You have a question right now? Well sucks to be you, hope you'll understand it some other day.
Downloaded the app a week ago. And I must say, it surprises me that it has writing lessons too. Also, my goal is just to understand Japanese conversationally, not fluently.
@@JustKicks-mo2jpdo you like any sort of Japanese media? Then try consuming media, whether it be UA-cam or shows, games, etc. It’ll be better than just using Duolingo.
Beautiful video
As someone who is known for being a Duo-basher, I have to say, this video explains it way better than I ever have. Brilliant work!
Thank You! I've watched and enjoyed your videos during my time learning Japanese, it's an honor!
How to get fluent in japanese: literally just read more.
Also remember that grammar is not real.
Damn right
We don't also understand grammar so much and so confusing when I was taking Japanese grammar class.
Being Japanese student We had to take（●｀ε´●)
アニメとマンガと友達出来るともっと早く学べると思いますよ
ドラえもんの漫画で漢字を学んだりしてましたー
I can’t read Japanese though... what do you mean
@@pizzapie7My Japanese was (watch) Anime,(read)Manga and make some Japanese friends will prove your Japanese much faster and fun way.(When I was 3rd grade) I learn Kanji from Dorae-mon and lots of Syojyo Manga.
Japanese grammar is sucks for most of Japanese students＼(^o^)／
@@yoshikomizushima1361 Hey, i am learning Japanese and Spanish can we become friends ☺️
havent started learning Japanese yet, but when i do it.... oh boyyyy, my to watch anime list will grow, ahhh it will!
Im using it for france currently to get better at it because i learned nothing in school and failing french HARD. It honestly is helping and im already noticing i can understand things i didn't understand before. I'm hoping it'll show in my next test in school and am certainly hoping i will pass my final exam next year
Totally agree with your opinion young man. Duolingo needs to be used as a complementary resource, because at the end of the day, is a great way to getting started at the vast language of Japanese. I started my journey of learning this language by starting on Duolingo, and it really felt like an awesome language because of how easy was the beginner lessons, memorizing Hiragana and Katakana was easier than ever. But as you said, the longer you keep with it, the worse it gets. Duolingo is perfect in introducing you the language but to get consisntent and fluent in it, is imposible.
I'm currently at 615 days streak, and I just cant let go Duolingo, of course I been forcing myself to use another apliccations like Anki or even reading the newspaper in Japanese, and the difference of understanding and memorizing between Duolingo and another sources (the ones mention before) is tremendous. The bond I have for Duolingo is unmesurable because it was him that want me to get interested in the idiom, and sure it did. Everyday I spent at least 20 min onto learning Japanese, all thanks to Duolingo. It is true that maybe the learning in advanced courses in the aplication tend to not be beneffecial at all, but at least is the spark that starts the fire in the curiosity part of your brain. Duolingo is my friend and my companion until the end of this journey. I'm gonna keep it using because it became a routine for me, and the streak system is what keeps me using it. In my humble opinion for new learners, is to start with Duolingo, and then when you feel that you want more, start adding right away another learning resources, and transform Duolingo into a secondary resource of learning. Duolingo is awesome, but in life we have to keep going, and leave some things behind. Good Luck.
The fact you ended your 800+ streak and you explained everything in a simple yet effective way , is just inspiring
the fact you had the dedication and the mentality to move on is really good too
Keep up the great work ❤️
I'm almost unnecessarily bitter at Duolingo (used it for about 3 years and barely progressed), but seeing that 0 day streak crushed me
The little japanese I learned outside duolingo ( some basic sentances like "where are you?" ) was basically just like when I was learning english ( As a kid in front of an english movie/TV show with subtitles and brute forcing my way into knowing every word ). You don't even need anything to learn japanese other then such things. BUT it sure does help speeding things up MUCH MORE ( like 6years to 3 etc.)
“This fucking language man”
オラオラ、何？！お前ー jk I’m not even 100 cards into the n5 deck and I know my language is a wreck lol. I love your videos, man. Clicked on this the second I saw it.
@Ismail Ali a deck that has words or sentences for n5 level on JLPT (fifth hardest, so n2 is harder than n3, not the other way around)
I'm a native English speaker, and I didn't even know the word 'pare' existed. Haha my vocabulary sucks! 😂😅
@@DANGJOS You never used a paring knife?
@@cataloukitcat I don't know
@@Madhattersinjeans I am not a professional and have always used pairing knives. They come in average cutlery sets. Maybe we are different ages or from different regions...but they are very common in my world.
I have almost a 600 day streak on Duolingo for Japanese. I have used many of the other resources you mentioned as well. My biggest problem with Duolingo is that they try so hard to make the translation exercises so natural in both languages--or at least I think the Japanese version is natural--that they lose the vocabulary and grammar learning almost completely at times. In comparison, Lingo Deer says outright that the English meaning of the sentence will not sound natural, but this was an intentional choice to make you connect to the Japanese language more efficiently. I'm already a native speaker of English, so I don't need it to sound natural, I need to understand the nuance in my targeted language!
My second issue with it has to do with the lack of grammar guidance. If I get an answer wrong, could they at least point me to the concepts used in the lesson to help me research it on my own? Sometimes it's fairly obvious like verb tenses, but other times I don't even know how to begin to understand it.
Nevertheless I use it at least once a day to ensure that I make a conscious habit to practice Japanese. Not always, but often, practicing on Duo causes me to go off and do my other Japanese study methods--but if I'm not in a good place to sit down with a book and paper, at least having something to do on Duo will keep me from feeling like I lost progress and should quit. I am prone to quitting unless I have a regimented habit.
Hi, I am a beginner and just started with duolingo, once I get comfortable with the basics on duolingo where do you recommend I go next? All of the learning methods are very overwhleming and I am not sure what to pick first after duolingo
you don't learn a language by learning grammar - you learn the language by knowing which sentence patterns to say and when
This. I have a 200 day streak on Czech, my main problem learning was that Czech has a lot of alternate endings/beginnings to words, but duolingo doesn't actually teach you what you should use and when. For example, Jste, Jsme/jsem, and jsou. I often lost hearts getting these mixed up, and even though I did eventually figure it out, I did so on my own.
@@daomingjin that's what grammar is.
@@LuzionsYTi personally downloaded kanji study for kanji and I'm gonna try lingodeer since she mentioned it
ive been learning japanese for 252 days now. ive gotten 1st place in the diamond league so ive basically completed the "game" aspect of the app, i love the game like quality of the app, and i think the streak system is massively helpful and i think that without it i wouldve quit ages ago. im not really THAT far through the course (15% ish) as im kinda just taking it easy, some weeks ill grind hard and get through multiple lessons up to purple level/level 6, other weeks ill strictly do revision of past sections becuase i feel lazy. id be interested to see what you think of the japanese course now, as, in the past few months they massively changed it, finally giving us stories, and giving us a whole section on the home page just to learn the alphabets. stories are great for comprehension and new vocabulary. i have noticed in the last couple weeks that ive really slowed down at learning new stuff, but ive had lots of exams at school so it kinda makes sense