食事と時間 – Fluent Japanese Speaker reviews Duolingo Japanese Course #5 – Food 1, Time, Routines
This is blog post number five about my review of the Duolingo Japanese course as an advanced Japanese learner.
You can check out my last post here of this series. If you want to read about my entire experience then check out my first post.
INDEX
Duolingo Mixes Topics Together well
I studied the lessons on Food, Time, and Routines. Here, Duolingo introduced new words related to these three topics. At the same time, Duolingo also taught a little grammar. The lessons covered example sentences using the Japanese participles を and へ. Duolingo also provided a little information about them in the Lesson Tips section.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/
I like how Duolingo takes bits and pieces of grammar and embeds it in with new words. Duolingo does not try to force you to learn too much at once. If I was just learning words for food or some specific topic by itself I would be bored quickly. I like that we can have a little variety.
Lessons are not Linear
Anyone who has gone to school knows how classes are set up. The teacher introduces a topic and tries to beat that information into you before they let you move on. I like how Duolingo starts out teaching one subject, such as Katakana but will give you something different to learn in the next lesson. Such as Japanese Greetings.
I think it would get pretty dull pretty quickly if Duolingo made you learn all the Hiragana in the beginning before teaching you any words.
Pros and Cons of Kanji in Duolingo
Duolingo introduces you to new Kanji at the same time they teach you a new word. That is a great way to do it. They teach you some common words that are built from commonly used Kanji. Nothing is better than learning something that is actually useful.
The only issue is that I can already tell though that at the pace Duolingo is introducing Kanji, the whole course will not be enough to allow someone to read fluently. This means you will want to learn Kanji elsewhere.
I have actually just finished a whole series teaching the same Kanji learned in Grade one in Elementary School in Japan. This would be something good to review as you study Duolingo on your own. Also, if you are interested, you can see the Official Website for Japan’s Ministry of Education which publishes all the Kanji they teach in School.
Learning Kanji outside of Duolingo
Just one last thing I wanted to add about studying Kanji. Reading Kanji through Duolingo I believe will help you to be able to read the characters. In my experience though when I learn new Kanji it helps if I take a moment to actually write the character out. This is actually how I learned Kanji.
In today’s world of the Internet, I am sure few people do this but I personally find that it helps me to remember better. If you only have your phone and no paper in your house, then even using your finger to write in some painting app can help more than only reading the character.
Often when you don’t remember a Kanji character in Japanese it is not that you don’t remember the entire Kanji but can’t quite remember a part of the Kanji. I find that closing my eyes and trying to write the character in my mind can help to remember a lot of the time.
My journey through Duolingo as someone who already knows Japanese will continue. In the meantime, I have written a whole other post on using Duolingo for Japanese.
