Duolingo has SRS?

Yes, I reckon it’s great to get an early grasp for the language. Keeps beginners learning the language rather than just giving up. I found my frustrations started at around level 4. So probs just do the first three levels and look elsewhere lol. Once you feel motivated to learn japanese regardless of the app then duolingo has done its job and you can throw it to the sidelines in search of more efficient methods.

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Oh dear, I’m just over halfway through checkpoint 3-4 right now :sweat_smile: Thank you for the warning!

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If you get past 6 then you’ll have endured more pain than I have.

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Haha, I guess I’ll see what happens then. I finally saved up for a Japanese textbook so I may be able to abandon Duo sooner rather than later if I can get into the habit of using it regularly :slight_smile:

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Since everyone’s bagging on Duolingo, I’ll throw in some positive vibes. As always, YMMV.

DL can be useful for listening practice. I use it this way—purposefully not looking at the written Japanese and then typing my answer based upon what I’ve heard, not what I’ve read. I haven’t found other tools (and definitely not free) that can fill this niche for me at the moment.

While some folks complain about the inflexibility on word choices, I’m actually using that. I’ve found that I’ve let myself get imprecise. It’s led to me to misinterpreting some things I’ve read. This is something I’m trying to work on.

I will point out, though, that I completed the Japanese DL track over two years ago, before they introduced the crown system (and before I started WK). I was using DL for Spanish review recently, but then stopped when COVID-19 cancelled the trip I was preparing for. After that, I switched over to Japanese to try it out again. Because of the prior achievements, it means there’s a bunch of higher level material open to me which is acting as a good mix of review and new vocabulary I’m not getting anywhere else.

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Those are great positives, thanks for chiming in!! I really do appreciate duolingo and their mission–it’s fantastic what they manage and what their goals are.

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I use it for learning Spanish. My main focus is to improve my Japanese though, so it is just trying to play with it a couple of minutes a day. For a free app (if you choose so), it is great. But it doesn´t really pull me in too much. Maybe because it is a bit too repetitive. Also, I would prefer a pure vocab test inbetween, again and again.
So, it is quite fine, but I don´t feel challenged / the gamification aspect doesn´t work for me too well.

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I’m four lesson sections away from checkpoint 3. I’ll have to keep an eye out for the issues mentioned. I should add that it’s not my only source of learning. Reading from Genki might be helping me avoid some of the osmosis issues.

Duo has been my recent source of motivation, so I’ll stick with it for now. I am going to check out Flo Flo. The texts for reading practice sounds useful.

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