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Duolingo Wiki
Japanese
日本語
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12.9M learners
(updated since Aug 18, 2022)
Information
Courses teaching Japanese English
Status Available ✓
Checkpoint
Amount 6
Skills in each Checkpoint from 20-26 (checkpoints 1 to 6), 10 (first checkpoint)
Skills
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[]

ItsukushimaTorii7396

The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine Gate/Torī ((とり)())

Main article: Guide to keyboard layouts and input methods

Pronunciation[]

Dictionaries[]

Vocabulary Builder[]

  • Toucan Chrome Extension - When you visit text-based websites like Wikipedia or read articles online, Toucan changes a few words into Japanese and you can hover over them to read their meanings and Hiragana. The amount of text to change and what level of words are configurable.

Reading texts[]

  • KakuYomu.jp - Write Japanese stories and read others'!
  • SyoSetu - Just like above, with plenty of stories to read, and even download in PDF (from their story menu at the top).
  • NHK Easy - NHK, but watered down! Everyday 4 short articles are released with Furigana. You can also scroll through past daily releases (bottom right).
  • Human Rights Watch - The Human Rights Watch publishes Japanese articles about worldwide issues in a dedicated Japanese section. All Japanese articles have an equivalent translation in another language including English so you can compare your understanding—simply look at the top right for each article.

Writing practice[]

Listening comprehension[]

Grammar references[]

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[]

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:


Graph of how Duolingo compares to the JLPT


The graph[3] (which is cropped; click on image to see in full) shows that Duolingo coverage is only about 15% the lexis for JLPT N1. Filling the remaining 85% gap (amounting to about 2000 words) will require additional resources, such as this Memrise Course.

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.

See Also[]

References[]

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