Saw these guys on my walk yesterday.
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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.
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I’m bobbleheading big time
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How was your Duolingo experience?
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With a little strategic planning, I can officially go:
May you all have a peacefully and responsibly festive holiday season as well as a graceful slide into the New Year.
See you in 2026.
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Same to you!
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I love reading through your posts 
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Everything you said with Duolingo…
I hate the hearts. I hate the urge to perfection. Now that I already know everything, it’s easier to get perfect scores on lessons… But for those who are getting this for the first time… Getting it wrong and seeing the differences is important.
Plus… I’m still annoyed that you can’t listen to the entire correct sentence afterwards for every type of question.
…And I dislike not being able to select which subject matter to review
Etc etc ad nauseum
…I took a lot of notes and have done Duolingo Japanese most days since April 2019… I was pleased to be able to hear and see at the same time
I learned a lot on Duo…
After the first year? 2 years? With failed N5 N3 etc, I have been trying to read and write and do lookups and textbooks all along, as well. Trying to speak is important (even silently, to yourself)
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01/09/26
… and we are back… from a three week trip to Malaysia.
As far as I know, everyone survived the flights
. On the flight to Malaysia, the attendants sprayed the whole cabin with disinfectant as we prepared for landing. We agreed to that in the fine print on the ticket purchase. I just never saw it done for real before… why just for Malaysia? Why inbound but not outbound? Another first for me was on the flight home: “agents” of some sort wearing baseball caps and coverings over the bottom third of their faces, detained a passenger on the ramp as we were exiting the plane. Not sure what the problem was but they were definitely waiting for this particular passenger to arrive in the States.
As for Malaysia: Christmas in a predominately Muslim nation at an indoor theme park/casino was surreal.
Ringing in the New Year in a metropolis as large as Kuala Lumpur was tame by comparison. I regret drinking a caffeinated beverage in order to stay up for it.
Overall, the country was a 7/10 for me. On par with Thailand, lower than Singapore or Japan. On my second day, it was hotter than the devil’s undescended testicle. I almost shuffled off this mortal coil and had to re-evaluate my itinerary for the rest of the trip. Even though it was monsoon season, the rains were scarce and only at night.
The little bit of Malay that I learned was unnecessary as English is widely spoken and written on most signage. If not, then, the Malay and Chinese kanji were easy to decipher. Loanwords in particular were much easier to figure out than Japanese katakana words e.g. bas = bus, klinik = clinic, teksi = taxi, butik = shop etc.
Japanese history in Malaysia is checkered so there isn’t much of a heritage community in the places I visited. I did see several Japanese retail stores such as Daiso, Nitori, an electronic accessory store called ガジェット and Isetan for groceries. The Japanese section at Kinokuniya was relatively small but I managed to find three books to buy. A fourth one found its way home with me courtesy of a Narita airport shop.
Although this was a vacation, I did not put WK on vacation mode. I did exactly one lesson on days when there were no reviews and I cleared all the reviews daily. The gaps in my heat map are from when I was traveling without internet access.
I left home after reaching level 38 with 64 level 37 vocabulary left to do. Today I will start those before touching the 5/5R, 28/35 K, 37/115V on level 38. The only other Japanese, I encountered was through the minimum Duolingo refreshers which I did daily. I’m worried that I have lost my will to do real language learning after being away from it for so long. Part of me just wants to catch up on the forum posts for a few days before getting back into studying.
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This comment made me laugh SOOO MUCH!
Happy New Year, Tip.
Amazing job on keeping your reviews zeroed on vacation! Astonishing! 
L.O.L.
Glad you survived the heat!!
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Happy New Year to you too. I hope Japan is not too cold for you. My hour at Narita airport was a bit frosty considering where I had just come from.
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I should be asleep instead of composing this. Reverse jet lag is a booger.
Anyway, might as well talk about the outlook for 2026. The trend seems to be moving away from making big goals which is cool because according to CEFR I’m at the independent learner stage of language acquisition. To that end, I am going to focus less on learning Japanese and more on using it. Also, I want to recapture the balance and participatory spirit that I have lost.
In order to use the language more, I will be pushing myself to read something everyday. On “’busy-ness” days that will be limited to context sentences from Duolingo, the particles book or the word of the day website. On “casual Fridays” I will read extensively from graded readers online or a subtitled video. On weekends, I will read intensively from the library of physical books on my shelf. Not sure how to log these activities… time vs. pages vs. yes/no vs. year in pixels.
https://community.wanikani.com/t/read-japanese-every-day-challenge-winter-2026/73033?u=tip
The secondary focus on balance is both physical and mental. I need to learn the proper way to fall and how to avoid falling in the first place. I also need to get out of my head and live more in the physical world. Getting back into Tai Chi is a good start on the first part. I have an at home plan already mapped out for 4 weeks. If I can find an active local group I will join them in person.
I have also made a challenging BINGO card that will keep me on track for the year.
https://community.wanikani.com/t/resolution-bingo/72803?u=tip
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Catching up on the study logs has a way to rekindle motivation for studying, just do a bit and the habits will kick in again.
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Welcome back!
I was going to comment on how insanely challenging a million steps sounded until I mathed a little math (as opposed to the typical North Florida tradition of mething a little meth). 
Looking forward to seeing the squares getting marked off!
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I was thinking the same thing, but just concluded “that sounds like an awfully lot” without mathing the math.
I’m still smarting that 5000 steps each day is officially considered “sedentary”!
According to my calculations, that million step goal could be achieved by 5000 steps a day.
…I heard that a good “heart healthy” goal is 10,000 steps a day… And when my dog was alive, I could do that most of the time…But now that she’s gone, I won’t even look at my step totals, because I know I’m back to “sedentary”!
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Even at 3000 a day (which I actually quite comfortably accomplished this morning thanks to Mystery Science Liam’s soccer), that would clear a million. I generally am maybe in the 2-3 thousand range most days, if that - though I suppose the beagles get me up and out and about trying to get them to … I’m not sure if there’s a word that quite sums up “not quite behave but at least stop being quite so obnoxiously misbehaving, and please stop chewing up the floor” but it’s definitely that.
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@hrudey and @Shannon-8 You caught me. I thought a million sounded more impressive than 3-4 k per day. The real challenge I am making for myself is that I am only counting intentional steps. Walking from the car to my front door doesn’t count unless I purposely parked around the block. Walking to the grocery store counts but walking through the store during shopping does not. I am using an app with a pause function. The idea is to make me look for ways to get more step into my life.
BTW Shannon your life hardly sounds sedentary.
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You are correct. Most people seem to be recovering from the holidays or still enjoying them. My jet lag (or the reverse) has me up at all hours. Why not do a lesson or two or 50? That will come back to haunt me.. .no doubt.
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Week of 1-12-26
Reading
Monday: Duolingo grammar
• I wish I could fly like a bird in the sky. 鳥のように空を飛べたらいいのになあ。
• I wish I were a wolf. 私はオオカミであればいいのに。
• I wish I were rich. 金持ちであればいいのに。
Tuesday: Duolingo mistakes x 20
Wednesday: Particle だけ context sentences
Thursday: Particle だけに context sentences
Friday: 10分で読める物語 This was a WK book club from 2019 which never finished. I’m starting over.
Saturday: 生きてるだけで、愛 This is a novel recently purchased. It is written by an author whose works I have liked in English translation, Yukiko Motoya.
Sunday: 生きてるだけで、愛 The going was slow until I went to the hobby store and got a magnifying glass. I actually know many of the words… just could not see them clearly.
Listening
BINGO
I could hear my joints popping and cracking during those last two moves.
As much as the sun cooperates, I have been outdoors for at least 30 minutes (up to an hour) for my intentional steps. It was only 46F this AM so I skipped it.
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A year ago, I wrote an “essay” about Martin Luther King, Jr. here with the promise that I would try again on its anniversary.
Here it is: MLK holiday one year later essay.
アメリカ南北戦争約100年後、Martin Luther King, Jr. は差別と人分離に抗議したために暗殺されました。
彼はキリスト教の価値とガンジーの作戦を用いて公民権運動の指導者となった。
抗議デモ禁止法に違反した投獄されていたながら、彼は Birmingham 刑務所からの手紙」を書いた。この手紙は、他の聖職者たちからの辛抱を求めるに応えて書かれだった。
彼の有名な言葉「どこで起こる不正も、どこで起こる正義への脅威となる」.
非暴力似て市民的不服従が、Washingtonの歴史的な抗議デモを可能にした。そこで彼は、アイコニック「私には夢がある」演説をして。
彼の遺産をまだ祝うアメリカ人が、今日では彼のメッセージは世代を忘られているようだ.
(This is not meant to be a political post. Comments on grammar and vocab are welcome. Please post your opinions on the subject matter elsewhere. Thanks for respecting my boundaries.)
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