My thoughts on Finishing Duolingo.
Preface: First and foremost, there is no one True Way™ to learn a language. The methods, tools and resource allocation used in the process is dictated by the learner’s intentions and circumstances.
As a corollary, there is no one language learning resource that does everything for every learner. Developers of online programs have their own intentions (including making a profit) and resources to manage. Nothing exists in a vacuum.
To that end, the comments that follow are based on objective information from the resources’ marketing material and my subjective experiences as an older, employed, American/ English as first language woman studying on her own as a hobby. P.S. I also like a good bargain so my resources lean toward the free-ish side unless I see good value for the money.
NOTE: I started Duolingo for free when linguots were currency. That’s before they added kanji, deleted the community chat function and added the energy system. Both the mobile (version 6.42.6) and web programs sync with some hiccups. Neither can be used offline. The web version (no major updates since 2019ish) still uses hearts at this time.
What can I say that hasn’t already been stated about the owl? Hot take: Duolingo for Japanese is not as bad as the zeitgeist would have us believe. I am actually not ashamed to say I was invested in finishing the program AND did in fact learn some Japanese.
Here’s how: by being an intentional rather than passive learner and managing my expectations. I turned off most of the gamification and understood that this free service has features behind a pay wall that I was not willing to scale.
Tips adapted from a linguist that I mostly followed:
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Think about what they’re trying to teach: supplement with a grammar resource rather than memorize a sentence pattern. I was using grammar videos, websites and Marugoto at the same time. There were moments when the various courses aligned like the stars and reinforced each other in a magical way. Other times, I just searched for the topic and studied it as needed.
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Translate: don’t pick words from the word bank; create the whole sentence using the keyboard or at least speak the sentence out loud; understand or note the mistakes for review later.
For Japanese specifically, I turned off romaji and furigana. When using the web version at work, I also could not use audio which meant I actually had to read the kanji. I could not add an IME at work though which made the word bank convenient.
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Take Notes: revisit skills outside of Duolingo’s schedule; my notebook is also very messy which is why I transcribe to digital later. This has become impossible to do with the energy system so at the end I only used the web version.
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Review Mistakes: just do it.
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A Meal not a Snack: complete a skill before quitting; 30-45 minutes per day rather than 15 minutes. I used the quest system to set my goals for the day. 15 minutes is usually the easiest to achieve.
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Memorization is not evil: make flashcard decks using Quizlet (using digital notes from above) or on index cards; add images or mnemonics
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Get it over with: continue on to real content and real people.. reading, videos, eavesdropping etc. I didn’t wait until some arbitrary end point or comfort level. I jumped in and sank then swam with floaties on trying to read material that I found engaging.
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Self test: generate new sentences using the current grammar and vocabulary; integrate them into the other systems being used to learn the language. I used to post my “essays” on this log but stopped due to lack of self-confidence.
Prior to the recent updates, I would have recommended Duolingo as a viable free option to supplement Japanese language learning up to B1 level for input/output. Now, it is unfriendly to the free user and I cannot think of a good reason to pay for this service in its current state.