why isn't there a japanese course on duolingo

One of the more common complaints about the Japanese Duolingo course is that it introduces too many kanji, too early, and too often in lessons. Plus, Duolingo doesn’t show you how to write them. After those introductory hiragana lessons, words that are in hiragana, are always in hiragana.

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What are the best Duolingo courses?

What are the best and the worst courses on Duolingo? Duolingo is a great tool to learn/practice/play with languages. Unfortunately, all courses are not the same, and some are better than others. "Vietnamese for English speakers" is for me a very bad course. There is no lesson for the tones (which are really important in this language), often no ...

Can I learn Japanese with Duolingo?

There are various ways you can explore to learn the language, and one of them is using Duolingo. Foremost, you can definitely learn Japanese with Duolingo. The app is structured in a way that makes learning fun-filled, easy, and straightforward for everyone. However, you cannot have a good level of fluency when learning with Duolingo.

Is Duolingo reliable for learning Japanese?

Yes, it does. The Duolingo Japanese course teaches you to read hiragana, katakana, and about 90 essential kanji. You should know enough kanji to pass the JLPT N5 test if you complete the Duolingo Japanese course. The very first thing you will learn on the Duolingo course is hiragana.

Can you actually learn a language with Duolingo?

Duolingo is now one of the most popular language-learning apps and it has gained prominence through ... to “Don’t give up! Do you really want to end this session?” (in Spanish, of course). Using the analytics that are tied into Expurrimenter, the ...

Can I learn Japanese on Duolingo?

Yes, Duolingo has a Japanese course aimed mainly at beginner students.

Can I get fluent in Japanese with Duolingo?

No you won't.No app can boast the ability to get a student fluent in their target language - it's as simple as that.You can certainly make good ear...

I am a beginner in Japanese, should I use Duolingo?

If you are just venturing into this fantastic new language I wholeheartedly recommend it for learning Hiragana and Katakana to give yourself a basi...

How can I download Duolingo?

You can download Duolingo here for Apple devices and here for Android.

Japanese and Korean, by the numbers

According to the 2021 Duolingo Language Report and our latest course numbers:

Pop culture has young people excited about Japanese and Korean

So who are these millions of learners? A lot of them are under 30 and especially interested in entertainment and pop culture, according to our report on trends among Asian language learners.

Learning to read Japanese and Korean on Duolingo

Our new reading tools help you learn to the sounds and shapes of the new writing systems you'll need for Korean and Japanese.

Dive into Japanese Stories

In 2021, we also introduced Japanese Stories! These bite-sized narratives get you reading and listening to Japanese through fun dialogues that are as big on the melodrama as they are on learning value. Stories allow you to integrate reading and listening practice in one fun activity -- and you can repeat stories to get extra speaking practice!

And there's more to come!

This year brought a ton of love -- and some exciting new features -- to Korean and Japanese on Duolingo, but we're not finished yet! We've got big plans for making our courses even more fun and even more effective in 2022. What features are on your wishlist?

How does Duolingo work?

Duolingo starts by offering you a chance to either start from scratch or take a placement test. If you know literally nothing about Japanese, it’s best to start from scratch, at which point it will walk you slowly, painfully, and ineffectually through the kana ( the sorta “alphabet” of Japanese ).

How many acceptable answers are there in Japanese?

So, that means that for each and every word, there’s (or should be) a minimum of four acceptable answers. But the complications don’t stop there. Japanese has a grammar that’s impressively alien to the (from the English perspective) European framework. Pronouns are often optional.

Is Duolingo a controversial language?

Duolingo is a bit of a controversial tool, especially when it comes to Japanese. Scorned by many, loved by others, this free, interactive language guide has spawned endless internet pages of debate. Well, today, I’ll be adding my thoughts into the mix. To do this, I’ll be experimenting with Duolingo in Japanese and comparing it with my own ...

Is Duolingo good for beginners?

Duolingo could be a waste of time, depending on your needs and skill level with Japanese. It is probably best for the beginner in Japanese when used alongside other resources. For experienced Japanese learners, it would be best as a way to brush up after a break from studying.

Is Duolingo fluent?

It depends on your definition of “fluent.”. If get a foothold on reading the news counts as some kind of fluency, then yes, probably. If you want to hold conversations, watch TV, or read novels in Japanese, then I’d have to say the answer is no. You’d need to practice those things specifically in addition to Duolingo.

Is there a stroke order diagram for kanji?

There’s no stroke-order diagrams for the kanji. This is another oversight that would be very helpful. The audio doesn’t know what the answer is in word bank questions. See, in Japanese, a Chinese character can usually be pronounced multiple ways.

Is Japanese on Duolingo?

Japanese on Duolingo. Japanese is one of a handful of languages that presents unique challenges to Duolingo’s system of language education. The writing system is not just wholly different in appearance, but also wholly different in application.

Is Kuma Sensei a good place to learn Japanese?

Having a solid goal in mind and a roadmap to help you get there will do wonders for you as a learner. The 6-step study plan here on Kuma Sensei is a good place to start. It’s chock-full of study tips and important factors worth considering for anyone wishing to learn Japanese.

Is Duolingo a good way to learn Japanese?

Duolingo is a fun, free way to get your feet wet as a Japanese learner. While it can help you build a foundation for more serious learning, it ultimately won’t leave you with the skills you need to make your way around in the language.

Is Duolingo a good app?

In any case, Duolingo is a well-made app with a smooth, clean user interface. It does a great job of keeping you motivated and hungry for more learning, which should make it a popular study resource among beginners. However, the reality is that Duolingo’s Japanese course leaves a lot to be desired for serious learners.

Is Duolingo smart?

Like I mentioned before, Duolingo is smart. It knows when you’re starting to get weak in a certain skill and will push you to review things you’ve learned in the past. Before you start tackling new content, make sure your skills are freshly topped-off. Everything you learn in the early stages of Japanese ends up being the foundation upon which you continue to learn. It’s like Bruce Lee always said: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Does Duolingo teach grammar?

It doesn’t teach grammar. Duolingo assumes you’ll pick up on grammar rules via its inductive approach to teaching. If you liken it to learning how to drive a car: Yeah, technically, you can just get in, turn the key, play with some buttons and knobs, and you’ll probably figure out how to make it go.

Is Duolingo addictive?

Duolingo makes learning addictive. Meeting your daily learning goals will earn you some of those sweet, sweet Lingots, which you can exchange for things like power-ups and bonus content. Duolingo also seems to be rolling out achievements (still limited to the Android platform as of May 18, 2017). I hope they continue to expand on the achievement system in the future, as it’s one of the more compelling aspects of gamification, in my opinion. (Everyone likes having nice, shiny badges to show the world how hard they’ve been working.)

Who invented Duolingo?

Duolingo was founded by Luis von Ahn, a Carnegie Mellon professor, MacArthur Fellow, serial entrepreneur, TED speaker, and the inventor of CAPTCHAs, those annoying “challenge-response tests” many sites and apps use to prove we’re human and not a computer bot.

What are some examples of Duolingo exercises?

Two key examples? 1) translation exercises, and 2) matching / fill in the blank exercises.

Does Duolingo have a translation?

Sadly, apps like Duolingo serve to normalize and reinforce this behavior. Incidentally, translation is very much within Duolingo’s D NA since the original version of the app was created to both teach learners and gather crowdsourced translations of sentences on the internet.

How to improve listening skills?

This helps prioritize development of your listening skills and shows you what you understand in real time with your ears versus what you can parse out word by word with your eyes.

Does Duolingo have input?

While Duolingo does provide some input (listening and reading exercises) and an itty-bitty bit of output (typing and pronunciation exercises), this is a far cry from authentic input (e.g. reading manga or watching anime) or true output (e.g. speaking with a native Japanese speaker). These two factors―authentic input and true output―are ...

Is Duolingo good for Japanese?

Duolingo lets you leverage the power of “reverse learning”. If you are a beginning Japanese learn er, the standard “Japanese for English Speakers” course is a good place to start. But once you have a decent amount of 日本語 under your belt, I highly recommend checking out Duolingo’s English for Japanese Speakers course.

Why are courses updated?

There is no such thing as a “finished” language course. So at Duolingo, we’re always working to make our courses better! If you’ve gotten an update, it’s because we’re excited to share the latest changes to the existing course.

What kinds of improvements happen in a course update?

Additional content: Our goal is to teach the language you’re learning through B2 on the CEFR scale. So we may have added more content to get you closer to the B2 level!

What happened to my skills and levels?

Changes to the content sometimes also come with changes to the skills and levels in your course.

What exactly is changing in the update?

What will be changing depends on the exact nature of the update you’re getting. Most likely, however, you’ll be getting a lot of new words to learn and new lessons that focus on building up your language skills for communication.

I got new course content, but then it went away!

Yep! That happens sometimes. When we run these A/B tests, the new version of the course doesn’t always have the results we were hoping for, meaning this is not a better version of the course in question. When that happens, we’ll move people back to the previous version of the course (so they can continue learning on the best version).

Japanese and Korean, by The Numbers

• According to the 2021 Duolingo Language Report and our latest course numbers: 1. Japanese is now the 5th most popular language to study in the world, and is the fastest-growing language in the U.S. and U.K. 2. Duolingo currently offers Japanese courses for English speakers and Chinese speakers 3. There are over 15 million active learners in our Jap...

See more on blog.duolingo.com

Pop Culture Has Young People Excited About Japanese and Korean

Learning to Read Japanese and Korean on Duolingo

Dive Into Japanese Stories

and There's More to Come!