Japan Duolingo app users spend longest time on language study: report

 a 1,700 percent increase

Hmmm. Not the most understandable choice of wording, but probably somewhere in one of the silly sentences they have.

The report said Japanese was the fourth most studied language in Japan.

Shocking revelations here.

Last week my sentence of interest was:

The plumber was caught trying to steal a red mushroom.

before that:

A philosopher attacked me with an umbrella.

Mostly the sentences are pretty good, though.

Yep they are all sitting alone in Starbucks masked up, staring at their screens rote learning useless phrases that are not relavant and will never be of use to them. All by design to keep them glued to the app and for one to learn as little as possible.

All these apps and all this rote learning and Japanese English skills remain are still some of the worst on the planet. Like eikaiwa, pretty much useless for learning the language efficiently and keeps them coming back for more. ¥¥¥

What about removing the mask and learning the language endogenously and interacting with others by actually communicating verbally and showing facial expressions?

I've observed many grammatical and technical problems in Duolingo's Japanese language (for English speaking learners). Most oddly, several Japanese I know can never reach the goal despite several attempts with their native proficiency.

@noriahojanen - yes a friend also said they found some mistakes - not only in the Japanese site.

And re native Japanese speakers unable to reach the goal - I suspect many many native English speakers would achieve less than respectable results on this program as well as any other Ability test such as toefl or ielt esp written.

A work colleague of mine - British - says she has improved in leaps and bounds with her chosen European language over the past year.

Keeps telling me I should try it - only minutes a day. Perhaps I will....???

Even with the obvious limitations and bias from the source it is interesting to see what languages are the most common being studied in the locations mentioned.

It would have been much better to find out how much people improve by (while?) using the app and how does this compare with more structured lessons, but it would probably not leave a very good impression about the usefulness of the app, so it is natural not to find this information from the developers.

"Longest time" doesnt mean fluency though.

Wherever you go (cafes, cheap restaurants etc) 10 out of 10 times japanese students are studying english.

Quite odd the contrast with their very low proficiency levels.

Wherever you go (cafes, cheap restaurants etc) 10 out of 10 times japanese students are studying english.

Quite odd the contrast with their very low proficiency levels.

Then again you are extrapolating from a very limited sample results for the whole population. What proportion of the Japanese students are those that are making an effort of English in the cafes and restaurants? 1, 5, 10%?

It could be the case that those have a much better proficiency than the average.

I like Duolingo.

virusrexToday  11:30 am JST

It would have been much better to find out how much people improve by (while?) using the app and how does this compare with more structured lessons, but it would probably not leave a very good impression about the usefulness of the app, so it is natural not to find this information from the developers.

It would have been much better for who, and why? It would not have been bette for me, for example,

And if it would have been much better then why do you note it would not leave a very good impression?

It's like saying, "It's a nice day today, but unfortunately it's too cold and windy out".

I've used DuoLingo to learn more about a few different languages, Spanish and German. Haven't used it in a few years, but it was good for 101-type classes. Of course, it isn't as effective as intensive, dedicated, tiny-class study in the country speaking the language you want to learn. I've attended those classes with just 2 students. 4 hrs a day for a month. My head hurt after every class day.

For increasing vocabulary, I find Anki decks to be more helpful, but jumping into those is just too hard without some basis.

I've also used Pimsleur language tapes. Those are probably the best if your local library has them for the language you have interest in, just to get started. The guy on their tapes seemed to have a terrible accent, making it hard to get pronunciation correct, especially for Japanese. But it did make it so I could follow conversations in business meetings without a translator all the time.

DuoLingo is a "gamification" method, so we learn something and it feels like a game.

It would have been much better for who, and why? It would not have been bette for me, for example,

For anybody interested in that information, which is obviously useful. You seem to think every comment here should apply to your personal standards or else it will be wrong, that is not true.

And if it would have been much better then why do you note it would not leave a very good impression?

Because for the people who this would be useful and interesting it would also be better to not have this good impression, it would let them understand the multiple limitations duolingo have if their purpose is to actually learn a language, which makes it understandable why the company that profits from people using the app would not want to present that information.

So no, your obviously flawed interpretation (that it would be better for people to have a false good impresion on the service) is not logical.

Duolingo's great for getting your feet wet and building up a foundation of basics. After that, if you want to get real serious you've got to expand out into structured classes, sessions with people who speak the language you're learning etc. The game style of Duolingo is nice to maintain a leevel of motivation and consistency though.

The Japanese course for Duolingo is for far more than just getting your feet wet. It covers all of the main alphabets, and kanji in depth over its lengthy 114 units. By the end of it, you will know every common verb, the tenses, thousands of objects, locations, etc.

I'm only on unit 28 and already at 1,500 words. So expect around 6,000 to 8,000 words from the entire course.

After that, you would be considered at an intermediate level, possible even advanced if you managed to memorise the Kanji as you go.

Well worth it imo.

Joe, agreed!

Those that have the money can get more from other apps, but on a daily basis it is hard to beat.

Of course, we use Japanese in our daily lives, too!