4 YEARS of Japanese Duolingo - What I learned 

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!

This reminds me, I've gotta do my Duolingo today 😆

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

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

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.

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.

Days don't count, hours do, quality hours.

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!

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

Wanna quit duolingo.

Duo lingo is bad for speaking AND grammar, i speak 4 languages　日本語はなしじゃない would be understandable but not accepted... Also 9:21 that was mean don't call me バカ

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

I wish you spoke a little Japanese in the video, that would’ve been cool to hear your progress.

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。

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

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.

Duolingo is just a less efficient version of Anki

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

00:16 think it still would be difficult to read manga without subtitles

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 RU-vid, and all, *I also pray every single day that Duolingo won’t get me* XD

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.

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

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.

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.

This video was so good that i basically had to sub. I wish you the best of luck in your youtube journey ♥️

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.

what background music in this video? especially in the beginning

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

That’s such a hardcore streak.. 4 years straight 😂 also really liked this video

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?

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

Using dulingo at all to learn Japanese is like kneecapping yourself.

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.

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.

Spanish or vanish

your video quality is incredible

New sub

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.

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?

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.

Thank you so much this is very insightful.

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.

Four years? Why didn't you use a better app or alternative? Duolingo is the worst.

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’m really surprised your channel doesn’t have more subscribers, your videos seem really well made.

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.

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.

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 RU-vid videos are really discouraging and make it out to be impossible so I really liked your video. I actually don’t watch any RU-vid 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.

I am subscriber 792☺️

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.

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

Which Anki did you use? All the ones I have found cost $.

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?

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.

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.

Why do people want to learn Japanese? Isn't it too hard? Especially with those millions of pictograms???

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

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😆

Super high quality video! Great thoughts

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.

I'm learning English alone with Duolingo, and I really like to use then, now, I want to study Japanese :)

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.

2d drawing version of character goat asf

これを翻訳しないでください

I am learning Japanese from Dulingo

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

I already know 3 languages, I want to make Japanese my 4th

Duolingeur!

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

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

Implicit learning and immersion learning, used in tandem, can be great; but can also be very confusing

I just gave ya a sub

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.

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.

Do you not use Duolingo alone, and definitely not principally. It does not teach you grammar, so you will never truly learn anything except for vocab. (at least on more difficult languages. English or spanish you could probably get away with or a language that's prominent in your country. )

明治

Did they bring the kanji back?

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.

Very entertaining video😊 I’m learning a language it’s fun and I have used Duolingo before😊

Amazing video! The character is so cute. ❤❤❤

Definitely, underrated, needs more views and likes 笑顔

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 RU-vidr 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!

If you youtube Michel Thomas Japanese, you'll get a very strong foundation in speaking and listening

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

I have found Duolingo great for learning the kanji. I am using other methods as well though - RU-vid and video call lessons with a teacher.

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

It sounds like the main benefit is it helps you build a study habit.

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.

I'm living in Japan, duolingo is good for aprimorate your vocabulary and practice in daily life

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'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.

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

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.

People like to say duo is a great introduction to languages, but intros should not take up to 1000 days.

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.

the green owl will hear about this

Amazing video

Wow I’m also learning Japanese for ~2 weeks on duo lingo and Anki

About to hit this milestone in 5 days lol

anime without subtitles dream🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢