ive been doing the japanese duolingo - it's convenient because it forces me to practice reading and listening every day. good video. your voice is beautiful and soothing to listen to
Yeah it's excellent at building that daily habit, I probably still practice daily because of the routine set by Duolingo. And thank you for the voice compliment!
This video has such a high production quality! The animation, narration, pacing and your way of telling a story seem like your channel should be in the thousands of subs. Glad the youtube gods provided me with this gem. Keep it going man!
Thank you so much! I try to put in as much effort as I can into my videos (before I go crazy for working on them for too long hahaha) so I'm glad you think it's high quality!
Yeah it can be a good resource with some tweaking and other study! You just have to put in some more dedicated specialised study elsewhere for it to be very effective
@@CameronHanashi I think Duolingo is really good to learn Hiragana and Katakana, teaches you the proper stroke order, always use pencil and paper, helps to memorize. But yeah, its a lot of brute forcing, just like with any other language, ultimately you have to enjoy the process, i hated studying spanish at school therefore = bad learning, but Japanese is way more fun.
As someone who "started" learning the language several times and only picked up pieces for quite some time, Duolingo was helpful in getting me to consistently dedicated time in a routine manner. I kinda knew Hiragana, but I would frequently forget and confuse them. In about a week of Duolingo I had it down. The number one thing people should do is set realistic explanations. Duolingo is bad a teaching you languages, but it can be helpful for practicing them.
I’ve been learning Japanese from Duolingo for about a couple months now. It really does help a lot as I now know hiragana, katakana, and wayyyy more Japanese (as I only knew ありがとう and かわいい before like any English speaker) I’ve tried many other things but none of them can keep me motivated with the same free benefits so I usually watch videos to help explain! Also I use the newly added duolingo feature to at helps you learn kanji. This is a great video too
Yeah the web version is leagues better than the app in my opinion. Duolingo is really good at getting you addicted, there's a reason I did it for over 1500 days hahaha. But I didn't know about their new kanji feature, that's interesting!
DUDE this is honestly super well made!!! I love the quality of EVERYTHING on here!! You have the quality of story telling and animation that these artsy story telling channels with thousands of subs have, dont give up! I also reccommend posting shorts as it can get u popular aswell :3
Thank you! I really appreciate it, hopefully someday I could grow to be closer to those larger channels. As for shorts, if I get a good enough idea for one I might make some. But as of right now I enjoy making full videos a lot more!
Okay, when I looked at how many subscribers you have I was sooo shocked. The quality of this video is HIGH! Like I would've expected you to have like 100,000 subscribers, not close to how many I have with my crappy little channel lol. Please keep doing what you're doing and don't give up! You just earned another subscriber!
Oh that's very kind of you hahah I really appreciate your comment! Really warms my heart to hear stuff like that! But please don't call your channel crappy, if you're enjoying what you make and learning that's all that really matters! And thank you for the sub!
When I visited Japan for the second time I came prepared and studied Duolingo a few months before the trip, and in one temple we had a tourist guide who explained everything about that temple and when she pointed at the kanji "一" she asked us if we know what it means I said itchi, then in shock she asked if I speak Japanese and I said Ano, nihongo o sukoshi hanashimasu. There were other times a spoke a bit Japanese there like "otearai wa doko?" But that was the best experience.
I remember doing the exact 'where is the toilet' question back at Narita airport in 2018!! Yeah, people over there are always really happy that people tried to learn any Japanese, it's often really appreciated, really warms me up inside! I would often respond to the "Do you understand Japanese" question with "はい、少し日本語がわかる。でも、まだペラペラじゃない" (Yes I understand a bit of Japanese, but I'm still not fluent."
@@CameronHanashi I'm proud I fully understood that comment response in Japanese, except for that ペラペラ part I didn't know of. Yeah, it feels great talking to people abroad in their own language even though you clearly look like a foreign, it's a fun way of connecting with different people you can't always engage with and showing them how interested you are with the culture and traditions.
Last time I went to Japan I told people "nihongo o sukoshi hanashimasu" a lot but I think my pronunciation was actually too good because then they'd always launch into a conversation expecting me to understand then when I could only recognize like 5% of the words lmao I'm a little better though but what a huge hill to climb
I've been doing duolingo a little over a year now! (Feb) and honestly I love it, it really helps me memorize vocab - I DO agree that it sucks at 'teaching' and explaining why things are they way they are. Thankfully! I use Hello Talk and I've met SOOO many wonderful Japanese people who explain certain terms and vocab and why and how they are conjugated! Also I had NO IDEA Duolingo used to have fourms! Such a shame they took that away!! Anywho, great video! And I'm going to Japan at the end of this month for the first time! I don't know much Japanese but I'm hoping while I'm there my understanding gets better! (Understanding is my weakest part) I enjoy speaking it...even if I speak SUPER slow and stumble a lot haha.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Hello Talk is a good resource that I need to take advantage of more hahaha and I hope you enjoy your trip! Should be really fun and you'll be able to learn some stuff there as well! For what it's worth, my understanding was probably my weaker part as well especially in regards to listening but going there for a month recently really improved it for me!
Great video! Another 2 things I like about duolingo is the kanji practice section has actually helped force me learn both stroke order and just memorizing Kanji. It's just made me read subs and translate sentences so much easier by constantly practicing. The 2nd thing is the competitive aspect. The leagues and being in the top against your peers helps my spirit and I just want to see my name in the top of the leader boards. It also helps getting XP boosts from your friends and doing quests together. That being said, I also studied way beforehand going to in-person classes in my area as well as reading the Human Japanese Beginner and Intermediate textbooks.
In my experience, the Spanish course does have the guidebooks for grammar that explain the rules pretty well in my experience. Currently I’m using Duolingo Spanish while taking a Spanish course in my university, and I’ve actually been slightly ahead of my university course with it, though I have been wanting to pick up Japanese at some point and likely will supplement a lot more resources with my Japanese learning than Duolingo since I am aware it’s much less fleshed out than their Spanish course. This is a very insightful video, though, and I’m glad to know that the course is a good way to start learning and implementing Japanese!
I've only tried Duolingo for Japanese, never did any other languages so I'm glad the Spanish course seems to be better! I think it is the most popular language on there so it makes sense. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I visited Norway last year. I took Duolingo lessons for a few months prior. I had no intent of becoming fluent, just getting some sense of the language and basic reading knowledge. I was able to read the gist of anything I needed to, and of course had no reason to speak it. A lot of Duolingo’s emphases were not helpful at all. I never had occasion to discuss anyone’s in-laws, etc. The main phrase I remember is “bjørnen spiser elgen.” Even though I took a train across the mountains, I never saw a bear or a moose, much less the former eating the latter. A few weeks ago I was in France for ten days. I had studied French in high school sixty years ago, and still remembered enough of it to serve me well in Paris in 1993. Earlier this year I started the Duolingo French lessons. It worked well as a refresher. While I didn’t need to speak or read much French, I did fine with it as occasions arose. I found it interesting to see some developments in common speech since I had first studied it. I’m thinking about taking some lessons in Arabic. Since I had studied ancient Hebrew, I think the cognates and similarities of grammar might help me with it. I have to reason to study it, having no plans to travel in that part of the world, but I think it would be cool to be comfortable in reading it.
Great video! I love the animation and the sound quality were top notch. Thanks for sharing your Duolingo experience. I agree it's a great suplement but not the only thing you should do. I was very sad when the PC version was no longer heart free and don't use it as much anymore.
3:29 - Wow- the fact that you learned Hiragana in one afternoon makes me feel WAY better. Because, I have begun to learn and I'm on a 25 day streak. I am enjoying Duo and having fun, but when it comes to Hiragana, I feel like "I learned it too fast". Im waiting to see what I "missed" or "hadn't considered". But Hiragana really ISN'T difficult to learn at all. As long as text is all Hiragana, I can read it. Just can't understand it in save for the 100+ words or so that I know. learning Katakana now, and also kanji as I go along. I dream of going to Japan.
Yeah only an afternoon for the basic stuff, compound and different sounds with chon chon and maru came a little later though. Granted I was only about 13 so I was still super young and was able to absorb languages really easily. As long as you're learning it the right way (in order not randomly out of context) hiragana is honestly quite easy to pick up! Also yeah, that struggle of being able to read and not understand what it means hahaha I had that for years but my vocabulary library has grown a lot more and I know more about kanji so I can often figure out the meaning of words I don't know. Best of luck with learning katakana!
I have started learning Japanese on Duolingo and had a 60-day streak. However, I also realised that it was stressful not knowing hiragana and katakana fully so learning grammar, kranji, and other rules were hard. 😢 I am going to learn them as your advice and will jump in back to Duolingo to learn more sentence structures and Kanji, etc as well.
I had an 800 day streak (with a whole bunch of freezes, oops). I stopped this January. The reworks of the paths, the forums getting dropped, etc. were just really discouraging, especially when the re-pathing ended up teaching me about the same grey ties as several weeks prior. I'd put in anything from 10 to like 40 minutes a day, depending, dreadfully slowly inching forward once the Great Garden Path rework was done. But more often than not I'd do flawless lessons, and very rarely would I end up without hearts (which can be filled up without using money btw - actually a good incentive: just practice more to get hearts back). And then a recent trip proved that being near the end of the third unit doesn't do anything. I could certainly read a lot more and I have some odd vocabulary, certainly compared to the previous trips, but I'm absolutely garbage at forming a sentence and - probably due to the complete lack of explanations - some of the grammar is just way off. Sure I can say what little I can in the konbini, and I had some very broken conversation with the amazing pharmacists in Nara, but I guess I expected a bit more than this. I too had the bonus of already knowing how to read kana (and a whole bunch of kanji) when I started, but other than the interest in learning the language coming and going since I was little, I never really had any formal training so far, and only knew whatever stuck on me from books and online. When the news/rumour/whatever came out that Duolingo had let go a bunch of people to just make the remaining crew fix/proofread the text some "AI" creates for the courses, I went for the nearest round number and put it down.
Yeah the changes they made last year was really the final nail in the coffin. I was really close to finishing though so I just put up with it until I finished. Haven't gone back for any revision since though it's a real shame. I think I heard about that AI stuff but forgot to mention it in the video, that aspect in particular really grosses me out! Also sounds like we had really similar experiences haha! I also had to make a visit to a pharmacy in Nara recently and it put my Japanese to the test (I'll touch on that in a future video though). Best of luck with the rest of your study!
@@CameronHanashiFunny that a youtuber I watch had a Babbel sponsorship on today's video, and the script was like "and all of the lessons are created not by AI but by actual language teachers" - what a well deserved jab :D And thanks, I've been thinking about looking into some more formal courses (worked with other languages after all), but placement will be a pain because I just don't know what I know and what I don't. But I'd probably die of boredom starting from watashi wa gakusei desu XD
Yeah I started learning in 2019 katana and hiragana on duolingo , forgot it all. In 2021 I did the same as you and just wrote it over and over and even tho I didn’t consistently study since, I can still read all of them
This is such a good video that I just realized that you only had about 100 subs when I checked the comments. This is comparable to channels with over 1,000,000 subs.
Thanks for the compliment! Granted this video did a lot better than I anticipated hahaha. Perhaps someday I'll be closer to that bigger number, gotta keep at it though!
Underrated man. I just started a few days ago (I’ve been learning Japanese at school since late September and my teacher recommended it to our class as a way to earn extra house points). This was really interesting. Take the new sub
Personally, if I could change anything about my journey with duolingo, I'd have probably used Anki with it right from the beginning. The lack of vocabulary training in Duolingo is almost criminal. BUT, I do not regret using it at all. It put some structure into the chaos that is getting started in Japanese. But yeah, Anki is the way. It feels like a cheatcode to learning.
Similar views here. I have had 8 years of Spanish class through middle and high school. Additionally, i am half brazilian, but apart from about 6 months total in which i was in brazil i never learned Portuguese from my mom. Recently i started Duolingo on those two, because they are very similar. With the foundation in place, Duolingo works really well in the inbetween between immersion (stage 3) with the language and the first stage with is becoming familiar with the language. Duolingo reflects how serious you take learning, and if you expect a cheap and easy way of learning a new language either you are gifted or two you are just delusional and have too much expectation. Language learning is hard and i can’t imagine how hard Japanese is. It is about hours and hours of practice, multilaterally
Exactly! You get out of Duolingo (and all language study for that matter) what you put into it. So many of us have busy lives and it can be hard to maintain study so that’s where Duolingo shines, keeping a language familiar. But of course multilateral study is essential!
Immersion should come first and foremost in the language learning. For example I have been studying Swedish by translating song lyrics Song lyrics are usually very easy to understand and translate and also easy to find on the internet. I listen to the song while reading the lyrics. I learn pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, all at the same time. It is fun, easy, addictive and extremely efficient. I use Google Translate and online dictionaries. I haven't bought any books and don't attend schools. I only study one hour every day. I never study more than an hour because I have other things to do and Swedish for me is just a hobby. But I never get bored, one hour of study flies by in an instant, I always want to study more. I have been studying every single day for 3 years now.
Immersion really is the best way to learn yeah, but if you don’t have at least some time learning the foundations of a language it won’t do you any good. Also interesting that you mention music! While it is really accessible, in my experience it’s one of the more difficult ways to do immersion for Japanese! A lot of Japanese songs will tweak pronunciations of words to better flow with the song and will often drop grammar points completely. They’re good for picking up new vocabulary but that’s about it (I also have some hearing difficulties, so that’s another issue at least on my end)
Great video. Japanese can be such an intimidating language that an easing-in period with Duolingo makes sense. But I started learning a lot more when I switched to real grammar and kanji learning resources. WaniKani has worked really well for me, paired with putting it into practice with anime and manga.
I am Japanese. I also study with this app. Foreign languages are difficult, but let's do our best！ I use google translate. Sorry if the translation is incorrect. ー わたしは日本人です。 私もこのアプリを使って勉強しています。 外国語は難しいですが、お互い頑張りましょうね！ わたしはGoogle翻訳を使っています。 間違って翻訳されていたらすみません。
It's perfectly readable. I'm thinking I might try learning Japanese for my fourth language. I've never tried another writing system before so if I do end up studying Japanese it'll probably be pretty hard.
I’ve used Duolingo on and off since probably 2016. I only recently started using it again to learn Japanese, but rather than using it as a solo method to learn, it’s being used as a time-filler when I’m not doing Pimsleur or Anki. Pimsleur gives me the speaking and listening while Anki gives me the vocab. Duolingo is great for filling in with full sentence practice.
Hey Cameron, I did learn the Japanese alphabet via Duolingo because when I started, I didn’t want to learn Kana because I just wanted to understand when someone was speaking Japanese I had no desire to read Japanese I wanted my lessons in romaji but when Duolingo made me learn kana like a video game it was so engaging that in the end now I know Hiragana and katakana And I am actually invested in learning Japanese both in writing and reading as well as listening
Glad I watched your video! I was considering only using Duolingo to learn Japanese but now I’m thinking of finding a better way to study the language and culture. You seem like a good up and coming content creator and I hope to see any future videos!
I know you’ve probably already started learning by now, considering it’s been two months since you commented, but if you haven’t started then definitely watch Livakivi’s videos on learning Japanese. They are great! Those videos are how I got into learning the language.
I am surprised by how little subscribers you have to I feel like your video quality is very good. I’ve been studying Japanese for a while off and on I took a break recently for like two years because I started grad school which I’m still in but my course load is a little bit more manageable and I feel like it helps my mental health to study languages and have hobbies so I’m studying Japanese again But I feel like a lot of RUclips videos are really discouraging and make it out to be impossible so I really liked your video. I actually don’t watch any RUclips videos about Japanese usually because they just frustrate me. I am using Duolingo but I also use a lot of other resources like Genki textbooks and Pimsleur. so it sounds like my study methods similar to yours.
That's great that you're getting back into studying again! Yeah, RUclips tends to promote the negative things more so it's natural there's a lot of videos about how 'you're studying Japanese wrong' and what not. Doesn't often encourage the best mindset. And yes, the Genki textbooks are great! I haven't heard of Pimsleur though so I'll have to look into that one
Duolingo is always getting a bad rap in comments on YT language channels. I find Duolingo pretty useful as a supplemental tool in learning a language or refreshing your knowledge of a learned language. I used when I learned Korean. I took formal classes and use it as a supplement and I continue to use it to refresh my Korean knowledge or sometimes to encounter new grammar points. Now I’m starting to learn Japanese, I’m using it to supplement my formal lessons. With Japanese especially, I try to shadow when the tool “speaks” so I can get the pitch accents. It has a lot of deficiencies when used as the sole language learning tool but great as a supplementary tool.
Yes! Repeating what is said afterwards is really useful! Duolingo really does lack a lot, so it's good that you supplement it with your formal studies! Best of luck on your language learning!
For those who are wondering how much you'll get out of duolingo in the same time without any other resources: I just saw a post the other day bout a 4 year japanese duolingo user who failed the N4... the second lowest level of the JLPT tests after 4 years of study
Yes, it's so slow on purpose to make people watch more ads or pay more monthly payments. I passed the N2 after only 2 years of just studying on my own and watching Japanese anime and RUclipsrs. Good self study is always faster than apps.
I ve been using duo lingo for a month and decided to see a private native Japanese instructor to help accelerate my learning. The one major flaw we both noticed from the app is that the phrases used in Duo Lingo are considered rude or too comfortable to be used around people you barely know or someone in a professional setting.
I recommend kana (for hiragana and katakana learning), benkyo (for learning kanji). Duolingo is a good start but theres alot of blanks you have to fill knowledge wise.
This video is great, I love the art and the Pokémon music in the background, perfect! I’ve been studying Japanese for a while now, I learn new words every day and it’s a pretty fun experience overall. However I really struggle when it comes to speaking due to my lack of practice… I wish I was able to make Japanese friends without scaring them off or without sounding rude. Any ideas or experiences?
Glad you were able to recognise the Pokemon music hahaha. Speaking and listening have also been the hardest parts for me since it's harder to practice those by yourself. I had a few friends in university that knew a bit of Japanese as well so I was able to talk a little bit. However, the most growth I got in those areas was when I did my recent solo trip to Japan. However, that's not accessible for most people so I'd recommend trying to find some local groups to practice speaking or joining online groups that practice!
For me, Duolingo is more like a reminder. Its like, even if I dont study on that particular day, Duolingo keeps me from "forgetting" about learning japanese
I'm currently almost at N5 level and I use Anki, Obenkyo and Duolingo together. I also had an app which taught me hiragana and katakana in the beginning. Though I don't take learning seriously, I just do it for fun, sometimes I switch to other languages on Duolingo and stop using other sources for a few weeks or months. I also watch animes sometimes and I've picked up so much vocabulary and phrases only by listening to the original dub. And most importantly I love Japanese metal and listen to it all the time so my ears are fully trained for the Japanese pronunciation and it's so cool when I actually recognise a word I already know the meaning of.
The 5 heart filling system is the worst thing they have done.i have 500day+ streak after limited heart i just use it only for streaks like 1minute kanji lession/day
I realized after a year in duolingo alone wasn't going to teach me Japanese as soon as i tried to watch anime. I needed to change my approach with Anki, anime immersion, Cure Dolly, and more.
Anime can be a good way to get easy immersion but of course keep in mind that some of the language used there isn't super common or natural for everyday speak hahaha. Never heard of Cure Dolly though, will have to look into that one!
Yea, you can't really expect to become fluent in any language solely by using a tool like Duolingo. All you gotta do is (if possible) check the course for your own mother's tongue, and you'll realize quick how basic it actually is.
I started doing Duolingo a bit later than you (which was around September 2020) And I was learning French for almost 4 years! Although I would say I know the basics and some words from memory (and I know how to read/understand most conversations) , but I made a bit of a mistake; since I only used Duolingo to learn… but now I’ve started also learning Portuguese (Brazilian) - around march-April this year- while still using Duolingo; but also with kinda learning with music and watching a RUclipsr who teaches a bit of Portuguese(along with typing sentences down to break it down). And what’s a bit embarrassing is that I know a bit more Portuguese. But anyways tchau!
Duolingo is really effective in giving a rough idea of the language, which is a very helpful supplement to other learning materials. Blindly learning with the app alone is a really bad idea.
@@CameronHanashi I'll be doing much video on it soon. Technically I'm at 1600(ish days) but I ended up missing around 100 during 2023 to 2024. We both actually started around the same time. I'm October 2019
Don't we all, hahaha. But honestly, if you're not enjoying it and feel it's not the best for you, don't be afraid to quit and maybe try find other resources if you still want to learn!
Over 3 years in with a perfect streak and i know grammar pretty well but when they redid their tree, i lost a lot of progress and using only the free version, i had no way to practice old content that was now moved to later parts of the tree. Also killing the forum, killed the ability to learn grammar. I have sinced moved to other stuff but still keep the streak.
@@wiggyCS I can hold a conversation in Japanese with people pretty well just for general topics! I was able to talk to some people for an hour or two fully in Japanese on my last trip
Definitely never learning Japanese. I remember seeing Japanese for the first time as a kid and being floored. “Where are the letters!?” Good on everyone who knows it and also bilingual/multilingual people in general.
Duo Japanese was alright for a while but I've had to restart like 3 times because of updates. 1 update in particular kept my progress on individual lessons but shuffled the order around so I had to go back to chapter 2 but I had progress in chapter 5 and 7. I got so frustrated that that was the last time I tried
I started doing Duolingo a bit later than you (which was around September 2020) And Ive been learning French for almost 4 years now! Although I would say I know the basics and some words from memory(and i can read most conversations) but I had kinda messed up, since I only
@@CameronHanashi Btw I know you got other people to talk to, but does learning Japanese make understand songs? like, make you feel weird because you know what it means?
@@BeanOBonk In my experience, not so much unfortunately. I’ll typically be able to pick out words in a song but not enough to translate it on the fly. But I’ve heard that’s quite common. Sometimes they’ll change pronunciation of words or drop grammar points so it works better with the song. I also tend to listen to faster songs such as Ado. But, I'm also the same for English, I will rarely of ever be able to pick up what the lyrics of any song are.
I don't think you need anything special to start using Duolingo. In my case, I've disabled the speaking exercises and only use the listening ones. I've also disabled romanization. So, what I do is focus on what I hear and how the word looks, then do my best until I make more errors than I'm comfortable with. I believe Duolingo is a good tool that's perfect for reaching an A2 level.
Yeah I'm really glad Duo offers the choice to turn of Romaji and customize your learning a bit! Also I haven't heard of A2 level, I'm only familiar with the N levels from the JLPT, I'll have to look into that more
nice video, i recommend to get rid off the animated character, that moves his mouth, and stick with the static character like in the slides with the white background, the animated character makes the video kinda hard to watch, because it moves too fast and takes a lot of attention. also id get rid off the music, it takes a lot of attention, and because the music kinda the same, and not dynamic, it makes the video very monotonic.
Thank you for the feedback I really appreciate it! I've only been using the animated character for two videos, but I'd really like to refine it more with extra expressions and better lip sync so it is a bit higher quality in future videos. But I also see where you're coming from with just using the static images so I might give that a go in a future video and see which I prefer! Also, thank you for the feedback on the background music! I'll try to get better at my diction skills so I can be a bit more confident and rely on bg music less!
For Katakana, I've decided to learn them with mnemonic system. So, Hiragana with daily practice by seeing the stroke order and etc. For Katakana, With a mnemonic book that I've printed from online (I'm currently on a break from Katakana, I'll use the book when i return to it) And for Kanji, Rn i just learn from Duolingo and the Kanji i learn,before learning it... I search on yt about it's mnemonic because Kanjis can really be like emojis which are awesome... One may say i should use something else but it's better to use Duolingo than doin nothin, right? I haven't learned that many Kanji yet tho. Just the ichi,ni,san,yama,kuchi,watashi Cuz i learn kanjis really slowly. I believe the practical approach is the best approach while learning any language. What i mean by that approach is to dive into media of that language. Back in childhood, I've learned a language just by watching daily cartoons. Ofc it has similarities with my mother tongue, but at first i must've not understand anything... So, yeah... Days of viewing medias of an unknown language can someday make you understand it. For example, your mother tongue. You didn't born with knowledge of it. By hearing words and phrases, a baby picks up some and they may not be able pronounce some but they understand the meaning. Same with what i said. I believe it's because we start understanding where it's used and realize the meaning after it's used multiple times. I could do the same with Japanese, But I didn't wanna spend my time for months of not understanding most things and later understanding most(This ain't childhood anymore yk) So, I'm trynna build a decent understanding and then I'll move to media so that i understand some of it from the get go.
the removal of the discussion might be the one thing bringing me to quit duolingo. Now you are jsut on your own, left alone with open question wich where alrdy answered. the archived discussion still where a great help. they deleted them too without substituing them really
The discussion board was such a good system! I'm honestly surprised they didn't just lock it behind Super, that would honestly be a good (but stingy) incentive to sign up. The fact that they also didn't archive them really hurt.
If you HAVE TO do something else on top of Duolingo then it doesn't work. I did it for 2 years and realized I wasn't getting anywhere. I started reading and listening and saw my levels advancing in a few weeks. 2 years wasted on Duo.
It’s true that you have to do something else on Duolingo but I wouldn’t write it off completely because of that. Regardless of your study method you will always have to do something else on top of it. No one method will cover everything and language learning is all about variety so you can expand your knowledge pool as much as possible.
I’ve assisted in immersion language classrooms while using Duolingo, and not only can understand more but I can also speak about common topics with less effort. That two-pronged approach helps me fill out the different skills of language usage.
concerning duolingo the main thing is not the streak but more the number of hours u spent practicing...someone with 1000 days streak who practiced 5min/day didnt do sh.. tbh... on the contrary someone who spent 100 days streak with 1h/day did practice more efficiently. fact
+ главное использовать дуолинго не 5 минут в день для галочки, а именно учить и записывать пройденный материал хотя бы по 25 минут 3 раза на день и тогда уровень А1 будет у вас примерно через 2-3 месяца в почти любом языке.
I just liked this video, but it’s on 99 likes 😤 I can’t get it to 100 because I can’t like twice 😔 Also I love this video, I love your art style too, I tried learning Japanese with Duolingo too, it was honestly kinda boring, the only thing I really learned was how to ask for water and sushi, language learning should be a fun and pleasant experience, so I studied hiragana and currently am studying katakana, slowly but surely, I will be able to speak the language, I'm currently learning with RUclips, and all, *I also pray every single day that Duolingo won’t get me* XD
Ah thank you really appreciate the like regardless! I'm glad you like the video and my art style hahaha And yeah of course Duolingo isn't for everybody so good on you for going out and learning some hiragana and katakana! Make sure to do it in a pace and way you enjoy! Learning Japanese is a long (and I mean long) process after all so you'd want it to be as pleasant as possible! But hey, I mean knowing how to ask for water and sushi isn't too bad, that's all you need to know to survive in Japan right?😆
@@CameronHanashi yeah I may as well live off water and sushi when I go to Japan 🤣 but seriously, I love learning Japanese, it’s honestly what I do all day! Yet I've been learning for 3-4 years and I still haven’t learned quite enough to have a simple conversation! I am still quite young-ish I guess, I still have alot of time, my goal is to live in Japan, *(also learning Japanese has turned me into a weeb ʕ•人•ʔ)*
I started learning german on duolingo very recently and yeah the thing that annoys me is that nothing is explained and the vocabulary comes really slow (like hiragana and katakana in ur case), for me i prefer just memorizing a small list of words, it's easier for me.
That was my way of doing it, I love binge studying hahaha. I'll make a big deck of flash cards with vocab and just gradually add to eat and work my way through it day by day
Hey, a quick question. What else should I do to learn japanese? I started learning it on duolingo like a week ago, and I feel like I am doing big progress, but I know that just duolingo wont make me "fluent" in it. Then what else should I do to learn it, without spending much money?
If you can try to get some classes, there are some good free ones you can do online or you can even join local language speaking groups to get some practice. I that isn't an option however, the Genki textbooks are THE Japanese textbook, and they work pretty well for solo study! For kanji learning there is a few options but most end up having a paywall or limit how many revisions you can do a day. In my experience Kanji Garden, Wani Kani and Lingo Deer are the best and Wani Kani has Tofugu which writes really good articles about Japanese grammar and culture! Of course though for kanji, a custom made anki deck would be the most economic way to learn, but it's a bit of a you get out of it what you put in situation. Hope this helped, and good luck!
@@CameronHanashi thanks. I thought you wouldn't reply. Today I learned the whole hiragana alphabet and how to write it, so I should start learning the more advanced stuff now. Thank you for your advice! It will definitly help.
@@andrewmoore4909 Just the free version it should be the first result when you google it. Although you have to pay for the mobile version I think. As for Anki decks, I just make my own
What was the Kanji learning program you used. I didn't get the name. I used Wanikani three times to the end of the free version and at the 4th try I also get the a paid version. Got half a year through it, got ill and had over 600 test items waiting. Yeah ... hell no. I tried to erase 1 level then 2 but with more than 200 remaining review entries, I quit. And I want to learn the kanjis with the tool not the whole other vocabulary. It's the same with the chinese course on duolingo. It is bearable if you can "understand" the hanzi. If you learn the components like in wanikani then you "see" the character, but only with duolingo you get 6 to 8 new hanzi for a section and try to remember what weird shape means what word. The pinyin course in the duolingo course what be so good if the sound quality was better. For the grammar part of the chinese course ... yeah ... the notes material is bad, compared to the french course I would say it's terrible. And the will teach you not all cases, so the learner will think there is only the duolingo grammar way. The hardest part of the japanese and chinese course in duolingo is the english part. Holy crap, I lost so many hearts for translating to english. Why does english need a lot of filling words and phrases instead of direct translation?
The site I use for kanji is called Kanji Garden! With the free version, you’re limited to only 10 revision a day though. I think people tend to weigh it and Wani Kani about equally so take from that what you will. Also yeah, Duolingo can be really limiting with what answers it accepts, very little room for flexibility which is frustrating.
Not really unfortunately, there's lots of different ones so I'd recommend you just try whichever you think works best for you. I ended up using a combination of Duolingo, Kanji Garden and Anki
ive been doing the japanese duolingo - it's convenient because it forces me to practice reading and listening every day. good video. your voice is beautiful and soothing to listen to
Yeah it's excellent at building that daily habit, I probably still practice daily because of the routine set by Duolingo. And thank you for the voice compliment!
This video has such a high production quality! The animation, narration, pacing and your way of telling a story seem like your channel should be in the thousands of subs. Glad the youtube gods provided me with this gem. Keep it going man!
Thank you so much! I try to put in as much effort as I can into my videos (before I go crazy for working on them for too long hahaha) so I'm glad you think it's high quality!
really entertaining video and i totally agree on duolingo being used as something to add to your learning rather than it being the only thing you do
Yeah it can be a good resource with some tweaking and other study! You just have to put in some more dedicated specialised study elsewhere for it to be very effective
@@CameronHanashi I think Duolingo is really good to learn Hiragana and Katakana, teaches you the proper stroke order, always use pencil and paper, helps to memorize.
But yeah, its a lot of brute forcing, just like with any other language, ultimately you have to enjoy the process, i hated studying spanish at school therefore = bad learning, but Japanese is way more fun.
finall SOMEONE SAID IT
@@CameronHanashi降ってるちゃん
As someone who "started" learning the language several times and only picked up pieces for quite some time, Duolingo was helpful in getting me to consistently dedicated time in a routine manner. I kinda knew Hiragana, but I would frequently forget and confuse them. In about a week of Duolingo I had it down.
The number one thing people should do is set realistic explanations. Duolingo is bad a teaching you languages, but it can be helpful for practicing them.
Days don't count, hours do, quality hours.
This reminds me, I've gotta do my Duolingo today 😆
Do it! You've gotta learn those hiragana!
@@CameronHanashi あああああ
わあああああああああ
same lol
あいうえお@@CameronHanashi
I’ve been learning Japanese from Duolingo for about a couple months now. It really does help a lot as I now know hiragana, katakana, and wayyyy more Japanese (as I only knew ありがとう and かわいい before like any English speaker) I’ve tried many other things but none of them can keep me motivated with the same free benefits so I usually watch videos to help explain! Also I use the newly added duolingo feature to at helps you learn kanji. This is a great video too
Also web version is better for learning as it is more rigorous
Yeah the web version is leagues better than the app in my opinion. Duolingo is really good at getting you addicted, there's a reason I did it for over 1500 days hahaha. But I didn't know about their new kanji feature, that's interesting!
DUDE this is honestly super well made!!! I love the quality of EVERYTHING on here!! You have the quality of story telling and animation that these artsy story telling channels with thousands of subs have, dont give up! I also reccommend posting shorts as it can get u popular aswell :3
Thank you! I really appreciate it, hopefully someday I could grow to be closer to those larger channels. As for shorts, if I get a good enough idea for one I might make some. But as of right now I enjoy making full videos a lot more!
00:16 think it still would be difficult to read manga without subtitles
Okay, when I looked at how many subscribers you have I was sooo shocked. The quality of this video is HIGH! Like I would've expected you to have like 100,000 subscribers, not close to how many I have with my crappy little channel lol. Please keep doing what you're doing and don't give up! You just earned another subscriber!
Oh that's very kind of you hahah I really appreciate your comment! Really warms my heart to hear stuff like that! But please don't call your channel crappy, if you're enjoying what you make and learning that's all that really matters! And thank you for the sub!
When I visited Japan for the second time I came prepared and studied Duolingo a few months before the trip, and in one temple we had a tourist guide who explained everything about that temple and when she pointed at the kanji "一" she asked us if we know what it means I said itchi, then in shock she asked if I speak Japanese and I said
Ano, nihongo o sukoshi hanashimasu.
There were other times a spoke a bit Japanese there like "otearai wa doko?" But that was the best experience.
I remember doing the exact 'where is the toilet' question back at Narita airport in 2018!! Yeah, people over there are always really happy that people tried to learn any Japanese, it's often really appreciated, really warms me up inside!
I would often respond to the "Do you understand Japanese" question with "はい、少し日本語がわかる。でも、まだペラペラじゃない" (Yes I understand a bit of Japanese, but I'm still not fluent."
@@CameronHanashi I'm proud I fully understood that comment response in Japanese, except for that ペラペラ part I didn't know of.
Yeah, it feels great talking to people abroad in their own language even though you clearly look like a foreign, it's a fun way of connecting with different people you can't always engage with and showing them how interested you are with the culture and traditions.
Last time I went to Japan I told people "nihongo o sukoshi hanashimasu" a lot but I think my pronunciation was actually too good because then they'd always launch into a conversation expecting me to understand then when I could only recognize like 5% of the words lmao
I'm a little better though but what a huge hill to climb
In our place kanji means rice soup 😂
@@nadiyashirin462 lol which language is it?
Super high quality video! Great thoughts
Thank you so much!
I've been doing duolingo a little over a year now! (Feb) and honestly I love it, it really helps me memorize vocab - I DO agree that it sucks at 'teaching' and explaining why things are they way they are. Thankfully! I use Hello Talk and I've met SOOO many wonderful Japanese people who explain certain terms and vocab and why and how they are conjugated!
Also I had NO IDEA Duolingo used to have fourms! Such a shame they took that away!!
Anywho, great video! And I'm going to Japan at the end of this month for the first time! I don't know much Japanese but I'm hoping while I'm there my understanding gets better! (Understanding is my weakest part) I enjoy speaking it...even if I speak SUPER slow and stumble a lot haha.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Hello Talk is a good resource that I need to take advantage of more hahaha and I hope you enjoy your trip! Should be really fun and you'll be able to learn some stuff there as well!
For what it's worth, my understanding was probably my weaker part as well especially in regards to listening but going there for a month recently really improved it for me!
i’m really surprised your channel doesn’t have more subscribers, your videos seem really well made.
Thank you! I'm going to keep working on it so maybe I will end up with more subscribers eventually
Great video!
Another 2 things I like about duolingo is the kanji practice section has actually helped force me learn both stroke order and just memorizing Kanji. It's just made me read subs and translate sentences so much easier by constantly practicing.
The 2nd thing is the competitive aspect. The leagues and being in the top against your peers helps my spirit and I just want to see my name in the top of the leader boards. It also helps getting XP boosts from your friends and doing quests together.
That being said, I also studied way beforehand going to in-person classes in my area as well as reading the Human Japanese Beginner and Intermediate textbooks.
your video quality is incredible
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much this is very insightful.
I'm glad it was useful for you!
In my experience, the Spanish course does have the guidebooks for grammar that explain the rules pretty well in my experience. Currently I’m using Duolingo Spanish while taking a Spanish course in my university, and I’ve actually been slightly ahead of my university course with it, though I have been wanting to pick up Japanese at some point and likely will supplement a lot more resources with my Japanese learning than Duolingo since I am aware it’s much less fleshed out than their Spanish course. This is a very insightful video, though, and I’m glad to know that the course is a good way to start learning and implementing Japanese!
I've only tried Duolingo for Japanese, never did any other languages so I'm glad the Spanish course seems to be better! I think it is the most popular language on there so it makes sense. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I visited Norway last year. I took Duolingo lessons for a few months prior. I had no intent of becoming fluent, just getting some sense of the language and basic reading knowledge. I was able to read the gist of anything I needed to, and of course had no reason to speak it. A lot of Duolingo’s emphases were not helpful at all. I never had occasion to discuss anyone’s in-laws, etc. The main phrase I remember is “bjørnen spiser elgen.” Even though I took a train across the mountains, I never saw a bear or a moose, much less the former eating the latter.
A few weeks ago I was in France for ten days. I had studied French in high school sixty years ago, and still remembered enough of it to serve me well in Paris in 1993. Earlier this year I started the Duolingo French lessons. It worked well as a refresher. While I didn’t need to speak or read much French, I did fine with it as occasions arose. I found it interesting to see some developments in common speech since I had first studied it.
I’m thinking about taking some lessons in Arabic. Since I had studied ancient Hebrew, I think the cognates and similarities of grammar might help me with it. I have to reason to study it, having no plans to travel in that part of the world, but I think it would be cool to be comfortable in reading it.
Great video! I love the animation and the sound quality were top notch. Thanks for sharing your Duolingo experience. I agree it's a great suplement but not the only thing you should do. I was very sad when the PC version was no longer heart free and don't use it as much anymore.
Wait it's no longer heart free on the PC???
No and it breaks my heart! It shows hearts up at the top now.@@chicha400
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Yeah the PC version losing hearts made me really want to quit hahaha. Luckily I was already close to finishing it
This video was so good that i basically had to sub. I wish you the best of luck in your youtube journey ♥️
Aw thank you! I really appreciate it!
3:29 - Wow- the fact that you learned Hiragana in one afternoon makes me feel WAY better. Because, I have begun to learn and I'm on a 25 day streak. I am enjoying Duo and having fun, but when it comes to Hiragana, I feel like "I learned it too fast". Im waiting to see what I "missed" or "hadn't considered". But Hiragana really ISN'T difficult to learn at all. As long as text is all Hiragana, I can read it. Just can't understand it in save for the 100+ words or so that I know.
learning Katakana now, and also kanji as I go along. I dream of going to Japan.
Yeah only an afternoon for the basic stuff, compound and different sounds with chon chon and maru came a little later though. Granted I was only about 13 so I was still super young and was able to absorb languages really easily. As long as you're learning it the right way (in order not randomly out of context) hiragana is honestly quite easy to pick up!
Also yeah, that struggle of being able to read and not understand what it means hahaha I had that for years but my vocabulary library has grown a lot more and I know more about kanji so I can often figure out the meaning of words I don't know.
Best of luck with learning katakana!
I have started learning Japanese on Duolingo and had a 60-day streak. However, I also realised that it was stressful not knowing hiragana and katakana fully so learning grammar, kranji, and other rules were hard. 😢 I am going to learn them as your advice and will jump in back to Duolingo to learn more sentence structures and Kanji, etc as well.
I had an 800 day streak (with a whole bunch of freezes, oops). I stopped this January. The reworks of the paths, the forums getting dropped, etc. were just really discouraging, especially when the re-pathing ended up teaching me about the same grey ties as several weeks prior. I'd put in anything from 10 to like 40 minutes a day, depending, dreadfully slowly inching forward once the Great Garden Path rework was done. But more often than not I'd do flawless lessons, and very rarely would I end up without hearts (which can be filled up without using money btw - actually a good incentive: just practice more to get hearts back).
And then a recent trip proved that being near the end of the third unit doesn't do anything. I could certainly read a lot more and I have some odd vocabulary, certainly compared to the previous trips, but I'm absolutely garbage at forming a sentence and - probably due to the complete lack of explanations - some of the grammar is just way off. Sure I can say what little I can in the konbini, and I had some very broken conversation with the amazing pharmacists in Nara, but I guess I expected a bit more than this. I too had the bonus of already knowing how to read kana (and a whole bunch of kanji) when I started, but other than the interest in learning the language coming and going since I was little, I never really had any formal training so far, and only knew whatever stuck on me from books and online.
When the news/rumour/whatever came out that Duolingo had let go a bunch of people to just make the remaining crew fix/proofread the text some "AI" creates for the courses, I went for the nearest round number and put it down.
Yeah the changes they made last year was really the final nail in the coffin. I was really close to finishing though so I just put up with it until I finished. Haven't gone back for any revision since though it's a real shame. I think I heard about that AI stuff but forgot to mention it in the video, that aspect in particular really grosses me out!
Also sounds like we had really similar experiences haha! I also had to make a visit to a pharmacy in Nara recently and it put my Japanese to the test (I'll touch on that in a future video though). Best of luck with the rest of your study!
@@CameronHanashiFunny that a youtuber I watch had a Babbel sponsorship on today's video, and the script was like "and all of the lessons are created not by AI but by actual language teachers" - what a well deserved jab :D
And thanks, I've been thinking about looking into some more formal courses (worked with other languages after all), but placement will be a pain because I just don't know what I know and what I don't. But I'd probably die of boredom starting from watashi wa gakusei desu XD
Yeah I started learning in 2019 katana and hiragana on duolingo , forgot it all. In 2021 I did the same as you and just wrote it over and over and even tho I didn’t consistently study since, I can still read all of them
Yeah it's crazy how it sticks with you! My sisters and some friends learned them years back but can still remember some of them!
The video is so good I was genuinely shocked when I saw you had so little subs! You deserve more, love the doodles and very useful
Aw thank you! Glad it was useful and that you enjoyed the drawings, thanks for watching!
That’s such a hardcore streak.. 4 years straight 😂 also really liked this video
This is such a good video that I just realized that you only had about 100 subs when I checked the comments. This is comparable to channels with over 1,000,000 subs.
Thanks for the compliment! Granted this video did a lot better than I anticipated hahaha. Perhaps someday I'll be closer to that bigger number, gotta keep at it though!
@@CameronHanashigood luck!
Thank you!
Underrated man. I just started a few days ago (I’ve been learning Japanese at school since late September and my teacher recommended it to our class as a way to earn extra house points). This was really interesting. Take the new sub
Oh nice! Very similar way to how I started Duolingo hahaha. Also, Thank you!
Amazing video
Thank you!
Personally, if I could change anything about my journey with duolingo, I'd have probably used Anki with it right from the beginning. The lack of vocabulary training in Duolingo is almost criminal. BUT, I do not regret using it at all. It put some structure into the chaos that is getting started in Japanese. But yeah, Anki is the way. It feels like a cheatcode to learning.
Similar views here. I have had 8 years of Spanish class through middle and high school. Additionally, i am half brazilian, but apart from about 6 months total in which i was in brazil i never learned Portuguese from my mom. Recently i started Duolingo on those two, because they are very similar. With the foundation in place, Duolingo works really well in the inbetween between immersion (stage 3) with the language and the first stage with is becoming familiar with the language. Duolingo reflects how serious you take learning, and if you expect a cheap and easy way of learning a new language either you are gifted or two you are just delusional and have too much expectation. Language learning is hard and i can’t imagine how hard Japanese is. It is about hours and hours of practice, multilaterally
Exactly! You get out of Duolingo (and all language study for that matter) what you put into it. So many of us have busy lives and it can be hard to maintain study so that’s where Duolingo shines, keeping a language familiar. But of course multilateral study is essential!
Immersion should come first and foremost in the language learning.
For example I have been studying Swedish by translating song lyrics
Song lyrics are usually very easy to understand and translate and also easy to find on the internet. I listen to the song while reading the lyrics. I learn pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, all at the same time. It is fun, easy, addictive and extremely efficient. I use Google Translate and online dictionaries. I haven't bought any books and don't attend schools.
I only study one hour every day. I never study more than an hour because I have other things to do and Swedish for me is just a hobby.
But I never get bored, one hour of study flies by in an instant, I always want to study more.
I have been studying every single day for 3 years now.
Immersion really is the best way to learn yeah, but if you don’t have at least some time learning the foundations of a language it won’t do you any good.
Also interesting that you mention music! While it is really accessible, in my experience it’s one of the more difficult ways to do immersion for Japanese! A lot of Japanese songs will tweak pronunciations of words to better flow with the song and will often drop grammar points completely. They’re good for picking up new vocabulary but that’s about it (I also have some hearing difficulties, so that’s another issue at least on my end)
Great video. Japanese can be such an intimidating language that an easing-in period with Duolingo makes sense. But I started learning a lot more when I switched to real grammar and kanji learning resources. WaniKani has worked really well for me, paired with putting it into practice with anime and manga.
I am Japanese.
I also study with this app.
Foreign languages are difficult, but let's do our best！
I use google translate.
Sorry if the translation is incorrect.
ー
わたしは日本人です。
私もこのアプリを使って勉強しています。
外国語は難しいですが、お互い頑張りましょうね！
わたしはGoogle翻訳を使っています。
間違って翻訳されていたらすみません。
It's perfectly readable.
I'm thinking I might try learning Japanese for my fourth language.
I've never tried another writing system before so if I do end up studying Japanese it'll probably be pretty hard.
I’ve used Duolingo on and off since probably 2016. I only recently started using it again to learn Japanese, but rather than using it as a solo method to learn, it’s being used as a time-filler when I’m not doing Pimsleur or Anki. Pimsleur gives me the speaking and listening while Anki gives me the vocab. Duolingo is great for filling in with full sentence practice.
Hey Cameron, I did learn the Japanese alphabet via Duolingo because when I started, I didn’t want to learn Kana because I just wanted to understand when someone was speaking Japanese I had no desire to read Japanese I wanted my lessons in romaji but when Duolingo made me learn kana like a video game it was so engaging that in the end now I know Hiragana and katakana And I am actually invested in learning Japanese both in writing and reading as well as listening
Glad I watched your video! I was considering only using Duolingo to learn Japanese but now I’m thinking of finding a better way to study the language and culture. You seem like a good up and coming content creator and I hope to see any future videos!
Best of luck finding the best study options for you! Also thank you! I’m looking forward to making even more videos!
I know you’ve probably already started learning by now, considering it’s been two months since you commented, but if you haven’t started then definitely watch Livakivi’s videos on learning Japanese. They are great! Those videos are how I got into learning the language.
I am surprised by how little subscribers you have to I feel like your video quality is very good. I’ve been studying Japanese for a while off and on I took a break recently for like two years because I started grad school which I’m still in but my course load is a little bit more manageable and I feel like it helps my mental health to study languages and have hobbies so I’m studying Japanese again But I feel like a lot of RUclips videos are really discouraging and make it out to be impossible so I really liked your video. I actually don’t watch any RUclips videos about Japanese usually because they just frustrate me. I am using Duolingo but I also use a lot of other resources like Genki textbooks and Pimsleur. so it sounds like my study methods similar to yours.
That's great that you're getting back into studying again! Yeah, RUclips tends to promote the negative things more so it's natural there's a lot of videos about how 'you're studying Japanese wrong' and what not. Doesn't often encourage the best mindset. And yes, the Genki textbooks are great! I haven't heard of Pimsleur though so I'll have to look into that one
Duolingo is always getting a bad rap in comments on YT language channels. I find Duolingo pretty useful as a supplemental tool in learning a language or refreshing your knowledge of a learned language. I used when I learned Korean. I took formal classes and use it as a supplement and I continue to use it to refresh my Korean knowledge or sometimes to encounter new grammar points. Now I’m starting to learn Japanese, I’m using it to supplement my formal lessons. With Japanese especially, I try to shadow when the tool “speaks” so I can get the pitch accents. It has a lot of deficiencies when used as the sole language learning tool but great as a supplementary tool.
Yes! Repeating what is said afterwards is really useful! Duolingo really does lack a lot, so it's good that you supplement it with your formal studies! Best of luck on your language learning!
For those who are wondering how much you'll get out of duolingo in the same time without any other resources:
I just saw a post the other day bout a 4 year japanese duolingo user who failed the N4... the second lowest level of the JLPT tests after 4 years of study
Yes, it's so slow on purpose to make people watch more ads or pay more monthly payments. I passed the N2 after only 2 years of just studying on my own and watching Japanese anime and RUclipsrs. Good self study is always faster than apps.
I ve been using duo lingo for a month and decided to see a private native Japanese instructor to help accelerate my learning. The one major flaw we both noticed from the app is that the phrases used in Duo Lingo are considered rude or too comfortable to be used around people you barely know or someone in a professional setting.
I recommend kana (for hiragana and katakana learning), benkyo (for learning kanji). Duolingo is a good start but theres alot of blanks you have to fill knowledge wise.
Nice video!
Thank you!
This video is great, I love the art and the Pokémon music in the background, perfect! I’ve been studying Japanese for a while now, I learn new words every day and it’s a pretty fun experience overall. However I really struggle when it comes to speaking due to my lack of practice… I wish I was able to make Japanese friends without scaring them off or without sounding rude. Any ideas or experiences?
Glad you were able to recognise the Pokemon music hahaha. Speaking and listening have also been the hardest parts for me since it's harder to practice those by yourself. I had a few friends in university that knew a bit of Japanese as well so I was able to talk a little bit. However, the most growth I got in those areas was when I did my recent solo trip to Japan. However, that's not accessible for most people so I'd recommend trying to find some local groups to practice speaking or joining online groups that practice!
For me, Duolingo is more like a reminder. Its like, even if I dont study on that particular day, Duolingo keeps me from "forgetting" about learning japanese
If you're forgetting to study, maybe that means its neither a habit nor something that is a priority for you.
Implicit learning and immersion learning, used in tandem, can be great; but can also be very confusing
Oh yeah when you learn stuff out of context or out of order hahaha. Sometimes you'll learn a really complex concept before something super basic
Calm and old pokemon music made me remember the good old times
I'm currently almost at N5 level and I use Anki, Obenkyo and Duolingo together. I also had an app which taught me hiragana and katakana in the beginning. Though I don't take learning seriously, I just do it for fun, sometimes I switch to other languages on Duolingo and stop using other sources for a few weeks or months. I also watch animes sometimes and I've picked up so much vocabulary and phrases only by listening to the original dub. And most importantly I love Japanese metal and listen to it all the time so my ears are fully trained for the Japanese pronunciation and it's so cool when I actually recognise a word I already know the meaning of.
The 5 heart filling system is the worst thing they have done.i have 500day+ streak after limited heart i just use it only for streaks like 1minute kanji lession/day
It made it really frustrating yeah, just slowed down the whole process and made me afraid to make mistakes when that's what learning is all about!
Amazing video! The character is so cute. ❤❤❤
Thank you! Glad you liked it!
It sounds like the main benefit is it helps you build a study habit.
Yeah pretty much, but forming a good study habit can be difficult!
I'm learning English alone with Duolingo, and I really like to use then, now, I want to study Japanese :)
It’s worth giving it a go I’d say! Best of luck with it!
what background music in this video? especially in the beginning
I realized after a year in duolingo alone wasn't going to teach me Japanese as soon as i tried to watch anime. I needed to change my approach with Anki, anime immersion, Cure Dolly, and more.
CureDolly based
Anime can be a good way to get easy immersion but of course keep in mind that some of the language used there isn't super common or natural for everyday speak hahaha. Never heard of Cure Dolly though, will have to look into that one!
Yea, you can't really expect to become fluent in any language solely by using a tool like Duolingo.
All you gotta do is (if possible) check the course for your own mother's tongue, and you'll realize quick how basic it actually is.
I started doing Duolingo a bit later than you (which was around September 2020)
And I was learning French for almost 4 years! Although I would say I know the basics and some words from memory (and I know how to read/understand most conversations) , but I made a bit of a mistake; since I only used Duolingo to learn… but now I’ve started also learning Portuguese (Brazilian) - around march-April this year- while still using Duolingo; but also with kinda learning with music and watching a RUclipsr who teaches a bit of Portuguese(along with typing sentences down to break it down). And what’s a bit embarrassing is that I know a bit more Portuguese. But anyways tchau!
As a someone who learnt Spanish and Japanese quite a bit on Duolingo I can tell you that the course they have for Spanish is much better.
Duolingo is really effective in giving a rough idea of the language, which is a very helpful supplement to other learning materials.
Blindly learning with the app alone is a really bad idea.
About to hit this milestone in 5 days lol
I pass this burden onto you
@@CameronHanashi I'll be doing much video on it soon. Technically I'm at 1600(ish days) but I ended up missing around 100 during 2023 to 2024. We both actually started around the same time. I'm October 2019
Wanna quit duolingo.
Don't we all, hahaha. But honestly, if you're not enjoying it and feel it's not the best for you, don't be afraid to quit and maybe try find other resources if you still want to learn!
If you don't feel motivated and don't Wanna do it, just quit, but be careful the green bird is always watching
But dont be surprised when your family is kidnaped
But you can't even If you tried
K
I'm living in Japan, duolingo is good for aprimorate your vocabulary and practice in daily life
Over 3 years in with a perfect streak and i know grammar pretty well but when they redid their tree, i lost a lot of progress and using only the free version, i had no way to practice old content that was now moved to later parts of the tree.
Also killing the forum, killed the ability to learn grammar. I have sinced moved to other stuff but still keep the streak.
Yeah pretty much similar experience for me, it makes me sad that they stripped so much from it
how comfortable would you say you are conversationally from the 3 years of Duolingo?
@@wiggyCS I can hold a conversation in Japanese with people pretty well just for general topics! I was able to talk to some people for an hour or two fully in Japanese on my last trip
Duolingo has only be useful to me as a backup it's pretty awful at teaching Japanese so you definitely brought up some great points in this video
Definitely never learning Japanese. I remember seeing Japanese for the first time as a kid and being floored. “Where are the letters!?” Good on everyone who knows it and also bilingual/multilingual people in general.
Japanese is a tough language that is definitely true hahaha
Definitely, underrated, needs more views and likes 笑顔
Thank you! Hopefully if I keep at it I might get some more views and likes 笑顔wwww
@@CameronHanashi You got that right 大きい笑顔
Duo Japanese was alright for a while but I've had to restart like 3 times because of updates. 1 update in particular kept my progress on individual lessons but shuffled the order around so I had to go back to chapter 2 but I had progress in chapter 5 and 7. I got so frustrated that that was the last time I tried
I started doing Duolingo a bit later than you (which was around September 2020)
And Ive been learning French for almost 4 years now! Although I would say I know the basics and some words from memory(and i can read most conversations) but I had kinda messed up, since I only
Very entertaining video😊 I’m learning a language it’s fun and I have used Duolingo before😊
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying the language learning process!
I felt crippled seeing your thousands of gems.
Yeah I never got around to using them that much hahaha
@@CameronHanashi Btw I know you got other people to talk to, but does learning Japanese make understand songs? like, make you feel weird because you know what it means?
@@BeanOBonk In my experience, not so much unfortunately. I’ll typically be able to pick out words in a song but not enough to translate it on the fly. But I’ve heard that’s quite common. Sometimes they’ll change pronunciation of words or drop grammar points so it works better with the song. I also tend to listen to faster songs such as Ado.
But, I'm also the same for English, I will rarely of ever be able to pick up what the lyrics of any song are.
I don't think you need anything special to start using Duolingo. In my case, I've disabled the speaking exercises and only use the listening ones. I've also disabled romanization. So, what I do is focus on what I hear and how the word looks, then do my best until I make more errors than I'm comfortable with. I believe Duolingo is a good tool that's perfect for reaching an A2 level.
Yeah I'm really glad Duo offers the choice to turn of Romaji and customize your learning a bit! Also I haven't heard of A2 level, I'm only familiar with the N levels from the JLPT, I'll have to look into that more
@@CameronHanashi A2 is one of the levels in the CEFR framework. Since I’m familiar with these levels, I used them as a vague reference.
nice video, i recommend to get rid off the animated character, that moves his mouth, and stick with the static character like in the slides with the white background, the animated character makes the video kinda hard to watch, because it moves too fast and takes a lot of attention.
also id get rid off the music, it takes a lot of attention, and because the music kinda the same, and not dynamic, it makes the video very monotonic.
Thank you for the feedback I really appreciate it! I've only been using the animated character for two videos, but I'd really like to refine it more with extra expressions and better lip sync so it is a bit higher quality in future videos. But I also see where you're coming from with just using the static images so I might give that a go in a future video and see which I prefer!
Also, thank you for the feedback on the background music! I'll try to get better at my diction skills so I can be a bit more confident and rely on bg music less!
@@CameronHanashi good luck
Music is good. It's Super Mario Odyssey
@@kekswaffel207 yes, but its monotonic.
@@bahurhavivso he shouldn’t get rid of it but rather just replace it, you should pick your words better.
New sub
Thanks for joining!
Duolingo is just a less efficient version of Anki
Pretty much yeah, I mainly use Anki nowdays, it's my primary form of consistent study and revision!
For Katakana,
I've decided to learn them with mnemonic system.
So, Hiragana with daily practice by seeing the stroke order and etc.
For Katakana, With a mnemonic book that I've printed from online (I'm currently on a break from Katakana, I'll use the book when i return to it)
And for Kanji,
Rn i just learn from Duolingo and the Kanji i learn,before learning it... I search on yt about it's mnemonic because Kanjis can really be like emojis which are awesome...
One may say i should use something else but it's better to use Duolingo than doin nothin, right?
I haven't learned that many Kanji yet tho.
Just the ichi,ni,san,yama,kuchi,watashi
Cuz i learn kanjis really slowly.
I believe the practical approach is the best approach while learning any language.
What i mean by that approach is to dive into media of that language.
Back in childhood, I've learned a language just by watching daily cartoons. Ofc it has similarities with my mother tongue, but at first i must've not understand anything... So, yeah... Days of viewing medias of an unknown language can someday make you understand it.
For example, your mother tongue.
You didn't born with knowledge of it.
By hearing words and phrases, a baby picks up some and they may not be able pronounce some but they understand the meaning.
Same with what i said.
I believe it's because we start understanding where it's used and realize the meaning after it's used multiple times.
I could do the same with Japanese,
But I didn't wanna spend my time for months of not understanding most things and later understanding most(This ain't childhood anymore yk)
So, I'm trynna build a decent understanding and then I'll move to media so that i understand some of it from the get go.
the removal of the discussion might be the one thing bringing me to quit duolingo. Now you are jsut on your own, left alone with open question wich where alrdy answered. the archived discussion still where a great help. they deleted them too without substituing them really
The discussion board was such a good system! I'm honestly surprised they didn't just lock it behind Super, that would honestly be a good (but stingy) incentive to sign up. The fact that they also didn't archive them really hurt.
1500日はすごい！日本人は中学校と高校で合計6年間英語を学んでますが、話せない人が多いです😂
私もデュオリンゴで勉強しています💪互い頑張りましょう🎉🎉
あと絵がかわいいです😆
コメントでありがとう！はい一緒に頑張りましょう！
If you HAVE TO do something else on top of Duolingo then it doesn't work. I did it for 2 years and realized I wasn't getting anywhere. I started reading and listening and saw my levels advancing in a few weeks. 2 years wasted on Duo.
It’s true that you have to do something else on Duolingo but I wouldn’t write it off completely because of that. Regardless of your study method you will always have to do something else on top of it. No one method will cover everything and language learning is all about variety so you can expand your knowledge pool as much as possible.
I disagree. No single resource alone will get you fluent in a language.
I’ve assisted in immersion language classrooms while using Duolingo, and not only can understand more but I can also speak about common topics with less effort. That two-pronged approach helps me fill out the different skills of language usage.
the green owl will hear about this
The green owl has nothing on me, I have completed it's trials!
I wish you spoke a little Japanese in the video, that would’ve been cool to hear your progress.
I'll definitely have to in a future video! Maybe when I talk more about the trip I did!
concerning duolingo the main thing is not the streak but more the number of hours u spent practicing...someone with 1000 days streak who practiced 5min/day didnt do sh.. tbh... on the contrary someone who spent 100 days streak with 1h/day did practice more efficiently. fact
+ главное использовать дуолинго не 5 минут в день для галочки, а именно учить и записывать пройденный материал хотя бы по 25 минут 3 раза на день и тогда уровень А1 будет у вас примерно через 2-3 месяца в почти любом языке.
I just liked this video, but it’s on 99 likes 😤 I can’t get it to 100 because I can’t like twice 😔
Also I love this video, I love your art style too, I tried learning Japanese with Duolingo too, it was honestly kinda boring, the only thing I really learned was how to ask for water and sushi, language learning should be a fun and pleasant experience, so I studied hiragana and currently am studying katakana, slowly but surely, I will be able to speak the language, I'm currently learning with RUclips, and all, *I also pray every single day that Duolingo won’t get me* XD
Ah thank you really appreciate the like regardless!
I'm glad you like the video and my art style hahaha
And yeah of course Duolingo isn't for everybody so good on you for going out and learning some hiragana and katakana! Make sure to do it in a pace and way you enjoy! Learning Japanese is a long (and I mean long) process after all so you'd want it to be as pleasant as possible!
But hey, I mean knowing how to ask for water and sushi isn't too bad, that's all you need to know to survive in Japan right?😆
@@CameronHanashi yeah I may as well live off water and sushi when I go to Japan 🤣 but seriously, I love learning Japanese, it’s honestly what I do all day! Yet I've been learning for 3-4 years and I still haven’t learned quite enough to have a simple conversation! I am still quite young-ish I guess, I still have alot of time, my goal is to live in Japan, *(also learning Japanese has turned me into a weeb ʕ•人•ʔ)*
Wow I’m also learning Japanese for ~2 weeks on duo lingo and Anki
I started learning german on duolingo very recently and yeah the thing that annoys me is that nothing is explained and the vocabulary comes really slow (like hiragana and katakana in ur case), for me i prefer just memorizing a small list of words, it's easier for me.
That was my way of doing it, I love binge studying hahaha. I'll make a big deck of flash cards with vocab and just gradually add to eat and work my way through it day by day
If you youtube Michel Thomas Japanese, you'll get a very strong foundation in speaking and listening
my Duolingo bird is drinking it self in depression.
I understand it isn’t good for becoming fluent but is it good just to have casual recognition of the language.
What's the point of that? If you want to learn Japanese do it properly. Duolingo is a waste of time.
Hey, a quick question. What else should I do to learn japanese? I started learning it on duolingo like a week ago, and I feel like I am doing big progress, but I know that just duolingo wont make me "fluent" in it. Then what else should I do to learn it, without spending much money?
If you can try to get some classes, there are some good free ones you can do online or you can even join local language speaking groups to get some practice. I that isn't an option however, the Genki textbooks are THE Japanese textbook, and they work pretty well for solo study! For kanji learning there is a few options but most end up having a paywall or limit how many revisions you can do a day. In my experience Kanji Garden, Wani Kani and Lingo Deer are the best and Wani Kani has Tofugu which writes really good articles about Japanese grammar and culture!
Of course though for kanji, a custom made anki deck would be the most economic way to learn, but it's a bit of a you get out of it what you put in situation.
Hope this helped, and good luck!
@@CameronHanashi thanks. I thought you wouldn't reply. Today I learned the whole hiragana alphabet and how to write it, so I should start learning the more advanced stuff now.
Thank you for your advice! It will definitly help.
2d drawing version of character goat asf
i was shocked when i saw your subs, i thought i was watching a 100k youtube channel with such a quality video. Good job man u convinced me to subb :p
Thank you! Glad you decided to stick around, maybe someday I'll be closer to that 100k range!
Are there any sites for Hanzi? I recently started mandarin
Which Anki did you use? All the ones I have found cost $.
@@andrewmoore4909 Just the free version it should be the first result when you google it. Although you have to pay for the mobile version I think. As for Anki decks, I just make my own
It's free on PC and Android and paid on iOS. it's how they help fund development.
What was the Kanji learning program you used. I didn't get the name. I used Wanikani three times to the end of the free version and at the 4th try I also get the a paid version. Got half a year through it, got ill and had over 600 test items waiting. Yeah ... hell no. I tried to erase 1 level then 2 but with more than 200 remaining review entries, I quit. And I want to learn the kanjis with the tool not the whole other vocabulary. It's the same with the chinese course on duolingo. It is bearable if you can "understand" the hanzi. If you learn the components like in wanikani then you "see" the character, but only with duolingo you get 6 to 8 new hanzi for a section and try to remember what weird shape means what word. The pinyin course in the duolingo course what be so good if the sound quality was better. For the grammar part of the chinese course ... yeah ... the notes material is bad, compared to the french course I would say it's terrible. And the will teach you not all cases, so the learner will think there is only the duolingo grammar way.
The hardest part of the japanese and chinese course in duolingo is the english part. Holy crap, I lost so many hearts for translating to english. Why does english need a lot of filling words and phrases instead of direct translation?
The site I use for kanji is called Kanji Garden! With the free version, you’re limited to only 10 revision a day though. I think people tend to weigh it and Wani Kani about equally so take from that what you will.
Also yeah, Duolingo can be really limiting with what answers it accepts, very little room for flexibility which is frustrating.
Idk if u said this in the video cuz if u did I forgot but is there an app I could use that could be my main use of learning the language
Not really unfortunately, there's lots of different ones so I'd recommend you just try whichever you think works best for you. I ended up using a combination of Duolingo, Kanji Garden and Anki
@@CameronHanashi I found a really good one called Busuu I think that’s how it’s spelt, anyways it’s super good it’s very good
I just gave ya a sub
Thank you, really appreciate it!
I have found Duolingo great for learning the kanji. I am using other methods as well though - RUclips and video call lessons with a teacher.
I already know 3 languages, I want to make Japanese my 4th
Hello what's the name of the pokemon music on 7:10 ?
It’s the Hau’oli city nighttime theme from Pokémon Sun and Moon!
@@CameronHanashi thnaksss
Ah yes, I too wish to read manga without the subtitles
Slight oversight on my part there but I hope the idea came across still hahaha
@@CameronHanashi yep. I knew what you meant. Still had a chuckle though
Did they bring the kanji back?