Japanese | |
---|---|
10.9M learners (updated since Sep 3, 2021) | |
Courses teaching Japanese | |
Status | Available ✓ |
Amount | 6 |
Skills in each Checkpoint | from 20-26 (checkpoints 1 to 6), 10 (first checkpoint) |
Amount | 131 |
Skills | See Skills |
[Source] | |
Japanese is a Japonic language spoken mainly in Japan by roughly 125 million total speakers.
This course was created by the Duolingo staff and released on the website version on October 11th, 2017.[1]
Notes[]
As of January 2016, Duolingo staff noted that for Japanese:
"The biggest challenge for us is teaching the writing system. Duolingo currently does not have a good way of teaching new character sets, but we’ll be working on that soon", Luis von Ahn (2016) [2].
As of the summer 2017, Japanese is available to English speakers on Android and Apple devices, which first teach a few characters then teach simple words employing them. The first words taught are the counting words for one to four i.e. ichi, ni, san, yon.
Duolingo Course Binder PDF[]
The entire Duolingo Japanese Course as documented by the Fandom Community will be made available soon on PDF. Allow us to complete it first!
External resources[]
Input methods[]

The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine Gate/Torī (鳥居)
Main article: Guide to keyboard layouts and input methods
Pronunciation[]
- Forvo Japanese
- Human Japanese
- Wiktionary has pronunciation for many Japanese words, in addition to romaji and kana for pronunciation of kanji.
Dictionaries[]
- Midori for iPad (paid) (Dictionary,Flashcards,Search and Translate,Lists and Bookmarks,No internet required.)
- Tangorin online dictionary
- Wiktionary
- Jisho
- Nihongo Master Online Japanese Dictionary (Words and Kanji and Example Sentences)
- Kanji Study for Android (free and paid versions)
Reading texts[]
- KakuYomu.jp - Write Japanese stories and read others'!
- The Ten Tenants has 2 episodes, contains Furigana and has an English version so you can compare.
- The clerk of the bookstore [...] is a longer read and Episode 1 starts here.
- SyoSetu - Just like above, with plenty of stories to read, and even download in PDF (from their story menu at the top).
- An example story is The Dragon's Hermitage, Episode 1.
- NHK Easy - NHK, but watered down! Everyday 4 short articles are released with Furigana. You can also scroll through past daily releases (bottom right).
Writing practice[]
- Hiragana and Katakana
- Japanese-lesson.com YouTube channel (Containing two extensive video courses for Hiragana and Katakana)
- Practice sheets
- WaniKani (Learn and practice kanji and vocabulary)
- Kanji Study for Android (free and paid versions) - writing practice for both Kana and Kanji
Listening comprehension[]
- Japanese podcast for beginners (Nihongo con Teppei)
Animelon Example (Click Image to Enlarge)
Grammar references[]
- Duome.eu (All Duolingo Tips and Notes | Download PDF)
- Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese (Android app, e-book: Android reader (Aldiko), PC reader (Calibre))
- IMABI! (Articles from Beginner to Veteran)
- Like tae kim but more detailed and less beginner friendly
Language learning platforms[]
- Bunpo for Android and iPhone (subscription-based with a small amount of free content)
- Busuu.com (To learn and practice grammar and vocabulary, practice writing and have it graded by native speakers, and to live chat with Japanese speakers)
- Elon.io (For learning and practicing grammar & vocabulary, kanji & kana, and for (video) chat with peers)
- Lingoci Japanese tutoring via Skype (1-on-1 tutoring with experienced, native Japanese tutors. Cost is $20-$25 per hour. They offer a free trial session. Great for improving your speaking and pronunciation.)
- LingoDeer for Android, iPhone, and web (subscription based, incredibly well thought out Japanese course w/ specific grammar & Kanji help)
- Nihongo Master (Learn Japanese online with lessons, tools and a big community)
- Minato (self-study courses, tutor-supported courses, and community created by The Japan Foundation)
Miscellaneous[]
- Tofugu Sensei (Has a little bit of everything that is Japanese related. High quality.)
- Sublearning - Movie subtitle flash card quiz in Japanese and many other languages
- Free Japanese Flashcards
- Kanshudo - Japanese teaching system with emphasis in learning kanji
- TTSmp3 - Japanese bot that reads Japanese text!
Duolingo vs. the JLPT[]
The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験, Nihongo Nōryoku Shiken) is Japan's official measure of a person's Japanese competency. The levels vary from N5 (lowest) to N1 (highest).
Taking the test has advantages. But up to what level can Duolingo take you, that is the question:
The graph[3] shown (which is cropped; click on image to see in full) indicates Duolingo covers only about 15% the lexis for JLPT N1. Which means an additional resource such as this Memrise Course will be required to cover for the 85% defect, which is about 2000 more words.
This reddit user points out that the N1 is "at best a high-school level understanding", and is nowhere near native-level. However, despite the N1 is not comprehensive, achieving at least that level will definitely make progress towards Japanese mastery.
This Wikipedia page gives more formal vocabulary lists for all the N-level tests, but in a less-learnable and gamified format.