Hello Hive Community! I spend a lot of time travelling to work. Around one and a half hours going to work and another one and a half hour going back home. To kill time I usually play games or browse facebook but I later thought that there are more productive ways for me to pass the time. So I turned to learning apps specifically, language learning apps.
Which One I Most Use?
As you can see I have plenty of apps installed in my phone. I often use Duolingo among these while the others I use for supplementary learning. I picked Duolingo because it's like playing a game while learning. KawaiiNihongo and HeyJapan have similar gamified learning features but I find Duolingo better. Also Duolingo offers a lot of languages to choose from including High Valyrian (GoT) and Klingon (Startrek). 😅
What Can You Learn?
I'm currently learning Nihongo (Japanese) so I will be sharing my experience on that course. From the three apps (Duolingo, KawaiiNihongo and HeyJapan) you can learn alphabet (Hiragana and Katakana) including basic Kanji, vocabulary and basic grammar.
Courses are divided into small sections. You can choose to learn for a few minutes a day or longer if you want to by going through several sections in a day.
There are guide books that you can read prior to starting a section.
Each section is like a game where you can earn points.
You can get promoted to higher leagues, earn badges and in game gems used to purchase in game items. This is not play to earn though 😀
The game is fun as you learn to build your vocabulary, grammar and read in your chosen language. In addition, there are listening excercises. Listening is the hardest when learning a new language. To have this feature in app is a big help for language learners.
Here are what you get from Duolingo Japanese course:
- Free app
- You can learn Hiragana, Katakana and basic Kanji (1300+)
- You can learn around 3,200 words
- You can learn basic grammar
Does it Work?
Now the question is, does it work? While it teaches the above mentioned I don't think it's enough to make you a fluent speaker. When watching anime or Japanese TV series, I can catch some words but can hardly understand the dialogue. On the other hand, it is useful for basic conversation. When we went to Japan recently, I used some phrases I learned when shopping (ikura desu ka/ How much is it?), in a restaurant (spoon o kudasai / Spoon please) or asking for directions. You have to listen well though or ask to repeat (mou ichido onegaishimasu/ Say again, please.), then say "thank you" (arigatou gozaimasu). I was also able to read signs around Tokyo and menus in the restaurant. It's kinda fun and satisfying.
The red sign says: Karaoke written in Katakana (カラオケ).
Conclusion
Duolingo is a fun language learning app that you can use on idle time. It's good for learning vocabulary, basic grammar and alphabet but you will be disappointed if you want to be fluent. For that, you will have to enroll in school.
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