Your LANGUAGE INSIGHT: Is Duolingo harming your Japanese Proficiency?

[@SEKAI.Insight]

One small correction! Of course Duolingo has a writing system. for Hiragana too, but still proven by this study (www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00168.html) writing down Hiragana on paper with a pen instead of using a tablet has a much better memorisation rate.

[@sociallyawkwardweeabootras1450]

I think Duolingo is pretty good for learning basics and familiarizing myself with random vocabulary (though it's pretty slow if you dont optimize your course). I'm a relatively busy person who took up Japanese as a hobby before eventually joining a Japanese class, and i was surprised how much Duolingo helped with overall familiarity of the language. It definitely will never get me to fluency though, that much is certain. But it's nice for very casual learning and building very small doses of vocabulary at a time. It kinda sucks for kanji because it'll be MONTHS before the app finally starts using kanji instead of just hiragana and katakana in its excercises and example sentences and i basically had to Speedrun the basics to get to that point

[@SEKAI.Insight]

You're right yeah. As a starting point duolingo can be good. For busy people it is also hard to find an entrance into Japanese language. If you compare Duolingo to other applications or learning options, what exactly is it that made duolingo easy to start learning Japanese? Like the stream system or just that it gives you small bits of Japanese?

[@moothu]

This was a great video, super underrated!

[@SEKAI.Insight]

Hey, I am happy that you liked it!😀

[@smallvillepodbr3]

Thanks for this video, Sekai Insight. What is the title of the dictionary? Akebi?

[@SEKAI.Insight]

no worries! I am happy if I helped you! The dictionary is called "Akebi Japanese Dictionary" on google play store. It is from the publisher Craxic. If you have questions how to use it, write me an email to [e-mail]

[@interaverse]

I found i learn better by turning off the pronounciation for each character on duolingo and only turn them on when i forget the pronounciation, thought maybe people would find this helpful. What you're recommending kinda seems less casual. Hopefully using pimsleur in combination would be good enough. Also duolingo does help you understand grammar and the nauances of japanese i think.

[@SEKAI.Insight]

Of course as a starting point Duolingo can be good, but at many places the grammar explanations lack depth. In my opinion even if it takes more time you should learn it the right way from the beginning. If you just use Duolingo and dont use any additional more in depth resources you risk to have the feeling of "knowing japanese", but you will not be able to use it the right way at all. Just scroll through reddit and you see how many duolingo elarners struggle after some years, because duolingo lacks depth

[@antoniochen380]

I tried Duolingo to learn Japanese for a year. Nothing new retained in my brain! What a waste of time!

[@SEKAI.Insight]

I am sorry to hear that😥 But now you know what to watch out for and which apps can help you! Any other questions I can answer you?

[@dcdales]

Re: 3:25 Speaking Flashcards uses your mouth and ears! : ) Then if you're in a loud area, you can read and type... No image generation, though... I wonder if they'll incorporate image generation in the future...

[@SEKAI.Insight]

Thank you for the correction DCDales!, I think with AI upcoming right now it will be possible one day!

[@dcdales]

@@SEKAI.Insight Oh, no - it wasn't a correction. I was just pointing out a different app that might be good in this respect. Good video, though!

[@SEKAI.Insight]

@@dcdales Ah I am sorry I missunderstood! Thank you for your recommendation! I will keep pushing more videos😎

[@blake3606]

Kanshudo is the best in my opinion

[@SEKAI.Insight]

Thank you for your recommendation. I didn't know about it yet, but it seems to be a solid way to learn Kanji!

[@OxysLokiMoros]

At what university in Germany do you study?

[@SEKAI.Insight]

Heinrich Heine University!

[@Ph34rNoB33r]

Good old HHU, brutalist architecture at its best. Used to be modern, now they struggle with the past (asbestos, PCB, railings getting loose). But Düsseldorf is definitely great for finding native speakers of Japanese. Well, better than other cities that don't have a Japanese population.