I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by Duolingo.
Look, no judgment. Most of us have, at some point, tried using The Gangrene Owl of Doom to learn a language. But Duolingo isn’t a standalone tool for language learning. At most, it can help you nail pronunciation, plus a few hundred words and basic phrases.
If you want to go further, you need to use Duolingo plus something else. Or, hey, just ditch Duolingo altogether. There are so many resources for learning Japanese thanks to its perennial popularity. You can learn Japanese and give less of your hard-earned money to a company that fires its workers and replaces them with AI slop. Everyone wins!
When people tell me they’re using Duolingo for Japanese and ask for alternatives, here’s what I recommend. This approach mirrors the way that I learn languages. It’s how I learned Japanese, and it’s how I’m learning Korean.
I’ll recommend some other websites and services you may use, but you don’t have to use these if you don’t like them or don’t want to incur a monthly subscription. You can leverage this method while spending very little money by using some free online resources and a couple of books.
A good grammar book/online guide
The best use of a grammar book, in my opinion, isn’t to memorize a bunch of rules that you apply robotically. It’s to give you an overview of the most common patterns in the language for expressing states, actions, and desires.
Think of learning grammar as providing you a road map of the language. The more you understand how the language works, the less unfamiliar it looks. It gives you the ability to discern inflections and conjugations from roots, which makes it easier to learn more about the language – e.g., enabling you to look up verbs in their dictionary form.
In my previous post on the best books for learning Japanese, I recommended Genki from the Japan Times (affiliate link to OMGJapan). You can also use the excellent Tae Kim online grammar guide, which is free.
You can use any grammar guide you find useful, honestly. My only recommendations would be that you avoid books that use romaji and you find one that also includes audio. That’s usually why I like buying a good grammar book, as most come with professionally recorded audio featuring native speakers.
A good flashcard deck of sentences
There’s another benefit to using grammar books: they’re usually chock full of simple, useful sentences. I’ve said before that I consider sentence-based learning to be more effective than trying to learn vocabulary words and grammar points in isolation.
When it comes to flashcard systems for language learning, I haven’t found anything better than Anki. It’s a bit clunky to use – but it’s also free. The iPhone app costs a pretty penny but supports the app’s continued development. It’s an open-source project with ongoing and active development.
When it comes to Japanese, there are a ton of great pre-made decks you can use. For example, there’s a popular deck based on Tae Kim’s grammar guide. There are also some great sentence-based decks, such as the 4,217 Japanese Sentences deck based on the old NihongoShark program.
You can also make your own decks with Anki. That means that, once you get past the basics, you can roll your own sentence decks like I discuss here.
A good set of graded readers
I love reading as a way to master a new language. Reading exposes you to so much vocabulary and grammar repeatedly, giving you continual reinforcement of what you’re learning. As your learning progresses and you can read more native-language materials, reading accelerates your language acquisition better than anything else.
The problem is how to get started. Most native-language materials are inaccessible to beginners. Even children’s books assume more knowledge of the language than most beginners have.
Graded readers are a good first step. These simple texts are made for language learners and start you off with the basics, adding complexity as you master more of the language.
For Japanese, the Graded Readers from Ask are a good starting point. OMGJapan also has a number of other graded readers from other companies, including the Genki Japanese Readers Box 1 and many others.
Again, if you can find a graded reader that also has audio files or YouTube videos, all the better. The listening-reading method is a great way to improve your overall language comprehension.
Once you progress beyond those, I’d recommend Manabi Reader as the next step for iOS users. Manabi features real native content with support for performing vocabulary lookups in the app and even creating Anki flashcards. You can also import your own material.
If you can’t use Manabi, LingQ is another option that works on Web, iOS, and Android. It’s clunkier than Manabi but gets the job done.
What about kanji?!
I’m not a big proponent of learning kanji separately. Rather, I think you can – and should – study it as you learn additional words.
You can use online dictionaries like Jisho to get more details on the kanji. I’m also partial to Henshall’s Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji (affiliate link) as a way to develop mnemonics that help you memorize the characters.
If you want to learn kanji via an app or web service, I recommend WaniKani and Skritter. Neither of these are affiliate links, by the way – I’ve just used and liked both services.
Alternatively, you can learn kanji like Japanese kids do by grade level using the Unko Sensei Kanji Drill books. I have no idea how good or effective these are – but they’re amusing, at least.
A daily routine
These three components can form the backbone of a daily study routine:
- Run through your Anki cards for the day
- Study or review a grammar book chapter
- Do a little reading from a graded reader
It helps to get a grammar book with audio files that repeat sentences containing the grammar points you’re trying to learn. The Korean grammar book I’m currently using comes with audio files that I download to my iPhone using OPlayer (iOS and Android) and listen to on repeat.
Reading and listening are great. However, at some point, you also need to practice speaking. The only way to learn how to use a language is to use it.
As you study, try to talk to yourself a little in the language, expressing your daily actions and thoughts. Once you feel you have enough of the language down to have simple conversations, add in a speaking practice component. Find an online tutor and practice speaking for an hour at least a few times every month.
For language tutors, I recommend using Preply (affiliate link). You can find a tutor who suits you for a great price and practice speaking your target language even if you don’t have any native speakers around you. Many UJ readers (including myself) have used Preply to improve their Japanese – you can, too!
Another Duolingo alternative
If you still feel like what you want is an alternative online course, we personally recommend Rocket Languages (affiliate link). It’s a comprehensive introduction to the Japanese language with more flexible options for studying than you find in the Duolingo app.
While I’ve never tried it, I’m also hearing good things about Renshuu, which is specifically designed to teach Japanese. Renshuu uses a graded approach so that everyone from beginners to advanced learners can gain something from it.
Have thoughts on this article? Share them with us on our Bluesky account or the Unseen Japan Discord server.
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