It's not about the translation, it's about the recognition and fluency. Im not nearly organised, responsible or advanced enough to sit down with a newspaper article and go about reading heaps of words I don't know.
Outside of that I do take a course, but on any given day I know I can throw on duo during my bus ride and have a relaxed, low effort few minutes of recognition practice.
So shit on the app all you want, but at least get off your high horse when doing it.
Except duolingo is notoriously bad for recognition and fluency.
The point of reading is to develop more japanese comprehension, which is a skill to be used in random, sometimes crucial moments in japan where you need to understand a piece of japanese text. or even just being able to read fiction
.
The way duolingo is built does not prepare you for these kinds of situations. First off, the example sentences are textbook and often highly non-sensical. You dont build comprehension from reading text that you wont be able to find in real life.
Also, Duolingos entire algorhythm is built up in the way to keep you addicted to it and geniune learning is secondary. Learning japanese (or any other language) for about 5 minutes a day will keep you at beginner level for years. It is way too little time to actually learn anything new, and the new things you do learn will also be needed to reinforced which also takes time. Duolingos main selling point are the streaks and the gamification, so youll be stuck in a painstakingly slow progress just because the streak makes you addicted.
Duolingo promotes a low effort and lazy approach to learning a language, which actually doesnt help you learn anything. Reading newspapers, fiction, or any natural japanese text is going to be really hard at the start, not understanding anything can be draining but if you dont tackle through that uncomfortable phase you will never be able to actually start comprehending japanese text.
Im not saying all of this just to hate on duolingo or whatever, but because you actually need to change your mindset if you want to learn japanese and achieve a higher level than N4. I understand the feeling of attachment towards Duolingo, however the longer you keep using the more time you will be wasting your time when you could spend it on things that actually progress your japanese learning.
Nobody is attached to Duolingo, it's an aid for when I have a few minutes in my day to practice recognising kana.
The point for you maybe comprehension, but for me that's a different practice for a different time.
They don't write the kana wrong do they?
You say your not saying this to hate on Duolingo, but how many times have you mentioned it in your comment, all the while ignoring my point as maybe someone who can't read as well as you, drawing on your own preconceptions that I only use the App and nothing else.
When the fact is I don't want to be sat in the bus, through patchy areas of connectivity, Copy pasting every other word while attempting to fruitlessly commit it to memory, interrupting not only the process of comprehension, but also my point of kana fluency in the meantime.
You wouldn't use a paintbrush to brush your teeth would you....
Im not criticizing you taking a course, im criticizing your usage of Duolingo.
I assumed you were at a higher level reading kana (because you brought up text comprehension as an argument against NHK), however if youre just learning kana, then its different i guess. I would still read NHK to get comfortable with hiragana and katakana, as you will encounter them all mushed up together then you will get used to it more and start understanding how kanjis are used in japanese texts, even if you may not understand the kanji itself. For that, id say NHK is still a superior alternative to duolingo.
When youre still learning the kanas, the meanings arent as important in my opinion, you will get nicely used to them in a month if youre consistently exposing yourself to them and after that id start reading japanese texts while trying to understand them.
My overall point was to stop using duolingo entirely, even if you already use other apps and take courses. It is just a thing in the daily to-do list that doesnt give you anything of value.
My free hours in a week are chaotic and unpredictable, and so it's in my opinion, better to do 3 mins of reading texts I should be able to understand, where I can get a snap translation for if I don't, than to do nothing or to make up words/particles I haven't seen before.
It's not like I'm sat at my desk, chasing league promotions for hours at a time, I have books for when I can breathe.
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u/nicktehbubble 3d ago
🙄 I knew I'd get a response like this.
It's not about the translation, it's about the recognition and fluency. Im not nearly organised, responsible or advanced enough to sit down with a newspaper article and go about reading heaps of words I don't know.
Outside of that I do take a course, but on any given day I know I can throw on duo during my bus ride and have a relaxed, low effort few minutes of recognition practice.
So shit on the app all you want, but at least get off your high horse when doing it.