In fact, the course includes all of the vocabulary and grammar needed to pass the JLPT N5, a proficiency test that I personally took two years of Japanese classes in order to pass.īut the real appeal of the course comes as you advance toward the end. “We tried to include sentences that you can use immediately when you travel.”Īfter just a few Duolingo for Japanese lessons, you’ll be able to parrot phrases like “Can you say that in English please?” which are helpful for travel. “Compared with other courses it’s very practical,” Shima said. He wanted people who take the Duolingo course to be able to begin speaking right away, a sentiment Shima echoed. But most of all, he was influenced by his three-year-old daughter, who is learning English and Japanese at the same time. Hagiwara, who is also on Duolingo’s research team for the course, examined dozens of research papers on how to teach Japanese. “Instead starting with A, B, and C, we teach i ( い ), chi ( ち ), and ni ( に ).” “Japanese hiragana characters aren’t in ‘alphabetical order,’ or anything they’re by sound,” said Hagiwara.
Apart from a grammar structure that lists nouns and verbs “backwards,” Japanese also includes three syllabaries-hiragana, katakana, and kanji-which learners must memorize in lieu of an alphabet. The problem: Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. While both have worked on Duolingo courses in other languages, they’d always anticipated bringing their first language to English speakers through Duolingo. Shima was joined by Hagiwara, another native Japanese speaker. “Right after that, I got a note from a product manager to keep going.” “I spent the hackathon developing a prototype course,” he said. When Duolingo’s yearly hackathon came around, Shima realized he had nothing to lose. A Japanese native speaker, Shima had already helped develop Duolingo’s English for Japanese speakers course. However, its origin story begins with just one engineer, Hideki Shima.
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