| Japanese | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 8.97M Learners learners (updated since Jan 5, 2020) | |
| Courses teaching Japanese |  • 
|
| Status | Available ✓ |
| Amount | TBA |
| Skills in each Checkpoint | TBA |
| 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]
Contents
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.
Input methods[]
Main article: Guide to keyboard layouts and input methods
External resources[]
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)
Grammar references[]
- Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese (website, Android app, e-book)
- http://wargle.blogspot.com/2010/03/tae-kims-guide-to-japanese-grammar-as.html
Pronunciation[]
- Forvo Japanese
- Human Japanese
- Wiktionary has pronunciation for many Japanese words, in addition to romaji and kana for pronunciation of kanji.
Listening comprehension[]
Sazae san videos[Terminated]
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
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.)
- 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)
http://en-us.wespeke.com/index.html (Live chat with native speakers of nearly any language)[discontinued[3]]
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
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[4] 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.
