Duolingo Launches Most-Requested Course – Japanese

By: Robert Prentice
Duolingo Japanese

Duolingo introduces a new way to learn Japanese
Say ใ“ใ‚“ใซใกใฏ (konnichiwa) to the companyโ€™s most requested course of all time

Pittsburgh, PA โ€“ ๅ–‰ใ‹ใ‚‰ๆ‰‹ใŒๅ‡บใ‚‹ ( nodo kara te gaderu ). Thatโ€™s a common Japanese expression that translates to โ€œwanting something so badly, your handย comes out of your throat.โ€ Itโ€™s just about how direly millions of Duolingo users have clamored for aย Japanese course, which is finally launching today on iOS . Like all other Duolingo courses, the newย Japanese course is available for free.

โ€œThis is by far the most requested and highly-anticipated course launch in Duolingoโ€™s five-year history,โ€ย said Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO. โ€œNo matter what weโ€™d share on social media, tons of peopleย would respond with, โ€˜thatโ€™s nice, but when are you launching Japanese?โ€™โ€ย The Duolingo team spent months creating a completely new way to teach Japanese, which is one of theย hardest languages for English speakers to learn. Hereโ€™s what makes the course unique:

No skimping on characters. While some courses get away with using only Romaji (the representation ofย Japanese sounds using the western alphabet) , learning all three Japanese writing systems helps peopleย communicate more effectively. Duolingoโ€™s course teaches the shapes, pronunciations and meanings of allย Hiragana characters (there are about 50), all 50 Katakana characters, and nearly 100 basic Kanjiย (Chinese characters). Also, unlike traditional courses that structure character lessons alphabetically,ย Duolingoโ€™s course introduces characters thematically.

Thematic lessons for real-life situations. Whether youโ€™re trying to navigate Tokyo, order sushi or watchย anime without subtitles, this course can help. All lessons are based on themes like travel, food andย hobbies, and are made up of a practical mix of vocabulary and grammar. And there are even bonusย lessons at the end to teach learners phrases relevant to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and popular Japaneseย subculture like anime and manga.

Backed by research. Duolingo designed the course from scratch based on research-driven teachingย guidelines. This includes JF Standard , a Japanese-language education framework for describingย language ability . The course teaches all of the vocabulary and grammar needed to pass JLPT N5 , theย most popular Japanese language proficiency test in the world.ย โ€œAs a native Japanese speaker, it was an honor to help build this course so that millions of people canย learn the language,โ€ said Hideki Shima, a senior software engineer at Duolingo. โ€œIโ€™m also proud that weย created new formats and content to ensure the courseโ€™s effectiveness.โ€

About Duolingo
Duolingo is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in theย world, with more than 170 million users. The companyโ€™s mission is to make education free, fun andย accessible to all. Duolingo is designed to feel like a game and scientifically proven to be effective. Inย addition to its core platform, the company created the Duolingo English Test (DET), an affordable andย convenient language certification option that is accepted by over 60 universities. In 2016, Duelingย expanded beyond language learning with Tinycards , a reinvention of flashcards designed to makeย studying fun. The company has raised more than $83.3 million in venture capital from investors includingย Google Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates,ย Ashton Kutcher and Tim Ferriss.