Hello everyone! I’ve been testing all the different SRS apps – duolingo, memrise, etc – and a few days ago I discovered an app called LingoDeer. It’s similar in format to the others, but it’s more focused on grammar, and each lesson set contains a section on what the grammar actually is, and how it’s used, rather than just dumping you in the deep end and hoping for the best. So far I’ve found it to be much more effective so far (and nicer to use) than duolingo or memrise. I guess we’ll see how it goes in the long run.
I searched the forums here to find a review on it, but it doesn’t appear anyone has ever mentioned it. Lingodeer only supports Japanese, Korean and Chinese, so that gives me some faith that they may have a vested interested in getting it right.
Oh my gosh, the deer on the website is so cute (because that’s obviously the thing that really matters xD). I hope the iOS version comes out soon, I’d like to try it. Thanks for sharing!
‘Cute’ always makes the difference with me, ask anybody! @jpbjp thanks for posting this! Though i dunno why I am looking at new apps, I can’t keep up with WaniKani right now
I just tried the first lessons and really enjoyed it. The app is easy to understand, looks very cute and right now I would prefer this over duolingo as they explain grammar rules.
I actually hope the day where you simply have to upload info to your brain doesn’t ever come. It won’t be fun anymore. Make us 5x more learning efficient, with a 10x larger memory capacity. They can even give us immortality… but don’t they ever take effort out of the equation.
it looks so cute!! so bummed its only an app. I know i’m not the only one who would rather sit at their computer and work over using their phone, will try it out none the less!
Well… After about five minutes of trying it out, I’m already kind of annoyed with it. Here are my complaints, if anyone is interested before trying it out themselves.
You have to hit a button to submit your answer, and then again to progress to the next question. Ugh. I don’t want to press a button at all. If I’m right, just move on. (I know not everyone wants that feature, but I think a lot of us here do like it as it’s often talked about in regards to Memrise, etc)
I don’t like how some of the questions are set up.
For example, there’s a “dragging” one where you have to drag an item into the correct place in the sentence. It’s a bit clunky (at least, on my phone it is. not sure what others will think) and it seems like a bit too much effort is needed to answer the question (obviously I mean physically, here. of course you should be challenged mentally). Since it’s an app, I want the ease of use to be fairly high in order to enjoy using the application.
Another example is a listening portion. You can’t skip any of them. It will make you listen to the entire sentence before you can move on, and they don’t exactly speak very quickly. For new material, this is fine, but if you come across something you know pretty well, it’d be nice to be able to pass it up and move on to more unfamiliar things.
It appears you HAVE to go through all the lessons. So I can’t skip to material that’s unfamiliar to me, I have to go through all the basics again.
I’m sure I could find more things I don’t like, to be honest, since I seriously only used it for about 5 minutes, but I think I’ll go ahead and pass on continuing.
Basically, it’s pretty obvious that this app is meant for absolute beginners. I can’t see anyone that’s not brand new to the language liking this better than other apps that are out there. (If you do, please don’t take offense. I’m just not a fan and I’ve tried lots of tools since I started learning Japanese.)
I suppose there are plenty of people that will like it and get something out of it, but it doesn’t seem like it’s for me.
Judging by the layout of the lessons, I would guess the app is designed to get people (like myself) from zero to something like a basic N5 level. Neither Memrise or Duolingo ever explained what a の or a に was for, so for me I definitely find it far more useful. Memrise and Duolingo felt a lot more like “here’s a sentence” → “Now repeat that sentence when you want to order a drink. Good luck!”
I agree with you on the double submit button thing, that’s a bit annoying although I got used to it… But maybe I just haven’t invested as much time in other ecosystems to get behaviourally “patterned”? Who knows eh
I’m not a fan of Duolingo at all either. I do like Memrise for the most part, but I use it only for review. I don’t use it to learn more/new material. It also has other flaws that I’m not fond of, but I won’t go into that here.
So I completely understand where you’re coming from. It’s just… for me, where I’m at in my studies right now, it’s more of a pain than it is helping me learn.
I’m glad you enjoy it though! I hope it helps you and plenty of others a lot!
I actually think this is a good thing. If the question auto submits once it detects you’ve put in the right answer, then you could get something right without being sure it was right in the first place. It’s basically a way to allow you to guess consequence free, since you know that if the answer isn’t being marked as correct, it’s not the right answer. Also it seems like quite a minor thing anyway because of how long it takes to click the next question button.
I completely agree. The drag ones are really annoying and just don’t work properly at all.
This is the biggest problem I have with it, and I’m not even using it to learn / study Japanese (I’m using it for Korean).
I think the app is cute and it certainly looks nice, although it’s definitely rough. I’d happily use it for beginner learning though (I’m still using it for Korean), since it does a great job of breaking down and annotating grammatical details, but I wouldn’t touch it for Japanese.
On WK, I do not use the “auto pass” feature or whatever the heck we call it here. Even when I answer correctly, I want to see synonyms and other item info sometimes. But on Memrise, or in this case, LingoDeer, it’s multiple choice (and on LingoDeer, the other weird, time consuming inputs as well still requires the two clicks).
When I’m doing reviews on Memrise, I don’t even look at the available options. I think about it in my head, then once I have my answer, I find it in the list of choices. I never guess. If I don’t know it, I purposely get it wrong so I have to review it more.
As far as it being minor because it doesn’t take long, I still disagree. When you have to do it for every. single. question. it’s just silly. And assuming you use the app regularly, you’ll eventually accumulate hundreds, even thousands of reviews. That many clicks over time is unnecessary. If it was just the one click, I’d still be annoyed, but I’d get over it. Two clicks is just stupid in my opinion. In LingoDeer, the first click is just to submit your answer. If you ask me, choosing the answer in the first place should be your submission.
(because that’s obviously the thing that really matters xD). I hope the iOS version comes out soon, I’d like to try it. Thanks for sharing!
