Well, by virtue of two votes, we have a name. Join code is: 92KE6G
If your handle there is different than here, please say so here so I know who is who.
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Sounds interesting, I tried learning Spanish in highschool and uh didn’t do well. May as well try and learn something comepletely different and maybe give learning Spanish another shot.
Jokes about Japanese on the internet aside, if using Duolingo to learn it doesn’t take, there’s always Busuu. It’s available for iOS and Android. Some info from Japanese Tactics:
Busuu is another app that you can download for free on your phone. This one is more geared towards teaching you Japanese through their own course, but it does have a “practice what you’ve learned” section where you answer questions in written Japanese and it gets reviewed and correct by a native Japanese speaker.
Busuu has a rather limited free version, so if you want the full effect you will have to go premium and pay a monthly subscription, but it’s worth checking out at least to see if you like it.
You should put this code in the OP!
I should! Whoops!
Thanks VB.
Barf.
I double-desu’d when learning introductions. Whoooooops.
The fact that the katakana are listed under introductions is weird.
Also this program is screwing up onyomi and kunyomi pronunciations sometimes! It’ll show 中 “middle” (which I don’t think they’ve explained its meaning yet?) and it’ll say なか “naka”, but you can only select ちゅっ “chuu”.
I’m glad I already kinda learned about onyomi/kunyomi a bit with Wanikani or else I’d be frustrated! 
I’m still not disappointed in the program though, still wanna use it for a while, but if this sorta stuff continues, I could see it being a bit of a wall.
VB: I’ve been checking the comments on the problems that I whiff for one reason or another and I’ve seen many people presenting similar questions. Most of those have someone who are strongly familiar with correct grammar and language exceptions, clarifying for some issues and pointing out what the program is doing wonky in others.
King: They’re starting kata under introductions since kata is generally used for foreign names/words. Since most people using such a program would qualify as foreigners, it makes sense to begin it at around the same point, after hira.
I’ve also had some issues maybe? I’m a total beginner, but sometimes it asks me translate words that it hasn’t taught me? And I’m not sure how I’m supposed to know them beforehand. It’s weird. Maybe I’m missing something…
I’ve had that too, I dunno if its a bug or if its testing your ability to infer the answer from other stuff you learned (though it feels more like a bug or oversight than that). I did manage to guess a couple of them correctly, but one of those was ‘emoji’ which doesn’t really count.
Yeah, I think it’s doing that to force you to learn from context, or testing what Japanese words you may already know? It’s definitely thrown quite a few words/phrases at me I didn’t know, and I had to learn it from getting it super wrong, lol.
I’m finding myself wishing it would explain the context in which different characters were used. The lack of letter spacing is making a lot of the sentences blur together.
Finding some comfort in knowing that having trouble with Duolingo is a global experience at least:
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Have you tried checking the comments on the ones you don’t understand? There’s some experienced speakers who can provide contextual information in some of the trickier ones.
How do you check the comments? I’m using the iPhone version and I can’t figure out where they are.
When you answer a question, a little panel that has a talk-bubble appears, click the talk-bubble.
Aren’t you also able to tap on each individual character to see it’s possible meanings?
You can indeed! That makes it a bit easier.
I joined the Duolingo club! Ignore my absurd daily streak, it’s not for Japanese. The app doesn’t keep separate language streaks for some reason.
Welcome to the fold.