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I disagree. I'm using it to learn another language that is far from English, albeit one with much simpler grammar. I find it more effective than a grammar heavy
by arijun 8y ago
I disagree. I'm using it to learn another language that is far from English, albeit one with much simpler grammar. I find it more effective than a grammar heavy course. You can know every rule of a language and still not be able to speak it at all. What you need is internalization of those rules via practice, which Duolingo provides.
- Tor3 8y agoIt depends heavily on the language course. Duolingo's Italian course actually manages to teach grammar and usage through their standard translation setup, while their Japanese course does nothing of the sort. It does not work very well for the latter, I've been through most of it by now and it's just translation-translation-translation, which doesn't teach you much at all, because the translation to English really doesn't work with Japanese. For example, they keep translating 'itadakimasu' (いただきます in Hiragana) to "Let's eat!", but that's not what it means. Otherwise the taxi driver wouldn't ask you '1980 yen itadakimasu'.. :) (and that's just one, there are so many.)
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoAre you sure you don't mean "gozaimasu" in the taxi driver example? I learned what little Japanese I do know from Duolingo and it was somewhat useful on a recent trip to Japan. Our tour guides were mostly impressed and certainly didn't point out any glaring issues with it (although that could be Japanese politeness).
- Tor3 8y agoI'm absolutely sure - I've lived in Japan, and my wife is Japanese. 'gozaimasu' is a word you add to a sentence to make it (even) more polite. E.g. 'Arigatou' - thanks. 'Arigatou gozaimasu' 'Thank you very much' (or whatever way you want to think about it). Same with phrases for 'good morning' etc. As for the taxi driver phrase, it goes like this: Normally when you ask for something in Japanese you would use for example 'kudasai' (=> 'give me', to the extent that it can be translated). But the taxi driver is serving the customer, and then that word is out of the question. Instead he is thanking for being given, which is basically what 'itadakimasu' means. And that's why that word works as something you say just before eating, but also why it does not translate to "Let's eat!". And working through phrase after phrase in Duolingo with only that kind of translations just doesn't work very well. And then months of comments and questions from users where they take the translation literally and figure they can use the same word as a metaphor in Japanese, the way the English translation can be used as a metaphor in English.. sigh. You don't learn how the language works that way. It can work as a (small) supplement when learning the language with other better tools, but I will state that you can't learn Japanese through only Duolingo. While you can actually learn Italian that way.
- Riverheart 8y agoAny free alternatives to DuoLingo's Japanese offering or general advice?
- Tor3 8y agoAn easy one is to start with Human Japanese (Windows, Android, or iOS). The 'light' version is free on Android and gives you the first chapters (seven, IIRC) to give you a taste of it. After that there are lots of resources.
- Riverheart 8y agoThanks :)
- jki275 8y agohttps://www.tofugu.com/japanese/itadakimasu-meaning/ https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/itadakimasu-meaning/ And yes, in Japanese culture it would be extremely rude to point out errors in a guest's attempts to speak the language.