Hello Blurt Community! I'm making this post following our discussion in this post by @nasoe who is also learning Nihongo.
I have been fascinated by Nihongo ever since I first saw anime. I wanted to learn the language but I don't have the time to attend classes. Thankfully, there are a lot of mobile apps to learn from. Duolingo is the most popular among them.
Duolingo
Duolingo is a popular free language app. This is available in android, ios and online. It offers a fun way to learn a language since the learning experience is gamified. Learners can also choose how much time they can spend to learn each day. I used Duolingo to learn Nihongo and I can say that it's fun to use and engaging. It also kept me motivated as I try to compete in the leaderboards and keep my streak going.
What you can Learn
I learned the basics from Duolingo. The characters Hiragana, Katakana and some Kanji. I also learned a lot of vocabulary and grammar. In my opinion, this makes the time I spent on Duolingo worth every minute.
At this point, I can already read Hiragana, Kataka and some Kanji. I'm pretty satisfied since I feel that I'm progressing in my learning. I used Duolingo until I finished A1 - Section 2.
A1-Section 2 of Duolingo is supposed to be equivalent to CEFR A1 language proficiency. I was able to apply what I learned in my recent trip to Japan. For example in the restaurant where they usually have chopsticks: "Do you have a spoon? Two spoons please" [spoon wa arimasuka? spoon o futatsu kudasai]. However I still find it difficult to understand Nihongo in daily conversations. I can understand some [tsugi no eki wa...] "Next station is..." but in the supermarket or convenience stores I have to sheepishly use google translator to communicate with the cashier 😅
Why I Stopped Using Duolingo
After learning from Duolingo in several months, I felt that my progress was slowing down even as I increased the time I spent on the app. I'm a bit frustrated that I still can't understand Nihongo when watching anime or Japanese shows on Netflix though I can catch some words. This is because after reaching A1-Section 2, I'm still stuck in the "masu" form of verbs! There are a lot of conjugations in Japanese verbs and learning only one form severely limits a language learner. It's like learning how to say in English "I eat bread" [watashi wa pan o tabemasu] while not "I'm eating bread" [watashi wa pan o tabete imasu] or "I like to eat bread" [watashi wa pan o tabetai desu]. When I started Section 3, other verb forms are still nowhere in sight so I decided to look for other learning materials.
Conclusion
If you are starting your language learning journey then Duolingo maybe good for you. Indeed, I would not say that Duolingo is useless. I learned the basics (Hiragana and Katakana) from it including a lot of vocabulary and grammar while having fun. My start in Duolingo prepared me to handle more difficult learning materials.
Thank you for reading! Arigatou gozaimasu. Mata ne!
Image credits
The cover photo is from Duolingo blog while the succeeding photos were from the Duolingo mobile app.