Memrise vs. Duolingo – A Head-To-Head Comparison
Verdict
- Memrise came out the clear winner in our Memrise vs. Duolingo matrix below. But really my advice is – use them both! If you want to invest in paying for pro versions, I prefer Memrise over Duolingo for sheer depth and breadth of content in the ecosystem, and for their video learn-with-locals content.
Overall Thoughts
- Duolingo and Memrise are similar products, with some major differences. They both aim to teach you language through small chuncks of information, such as words , sentences and phrases, in a gamified environment. But Memrise is more of an “ecosystem”, that houses large amounts of user generated content. Duolingo is more of a standardised, curated course. You could say that Memrise is closer to a an android phone, or a Windows PC, that is open to various software makers, and Duolingo is closer to an iPhone or Apple computer, which is a closed software environment that aims to provide a streamlined and seamless experience.


- Another way to look at is as Memrise being a “swiss army knife” and Duolingo being a “screwdriver”. You can use Memrise to learn just about anything that requires memorising a large amount of information. You will find user generated courses on learning everything from Morse Code, to sign language, all the way through to Harry Potter Spells!


- To do a solid comparison of Memrise vs. Duolingo, we’ve put the features of each side-by-side in matrix below. We assigned either a check, neutral, or cross rating for each criteria. We then assigned 2 points for a check, one for neutral and 0 for a cross.
- In this comparison Memrise came out with 25 out of a possible 34 points (which is 73.5 out of 100).
- Duolingo came out with 16 out of a possible 34 points (which is 47 out of 100)
- Neither of the platforms work as an all inclusive, silver-bullet for learning language. These are best used in conjunction with some of the tools listed below:
Too really learn a language, combine with these tools:
- Pimsleur Method – Most highly recommended for a systematic, listening and speaking focused program backed by a scientific approach
- Rocketlanguages – For a systematic, wholistic course for begginner to intermediate students.
Too really learn a language, combine with these tools
- Japanese Pod 101 – for a continually updating, dynamic podcast approach to learning with masses of content.

Memrise Vs. Duolingo Matrix
Feature
Price
Memrise
Free or $5.83 per month
On an annual subscription
Duolingo
Free or 6.99 per month
On an annual subscription
Does paying for premium get you much?
More lessons
Access to all the Memrise native produced “learn with locals” video content, learn “difficult words” function, Grammar and Chat bots, statistics.

No ads
Remove ads, unlimited hearts (don’t have to keep restarting lessons), do lessons offline, monthly repair streak, progress quizzes.

Does it teach you much?
Teaches basic vocab and phrases
Access to all the Memrise native produced “learn with locals” video content, learn “difficult words” function, Grammar and Chat bots, statistics.
Teaches you longer sentences that build on words you already know.
You can click/touch any word at anytime to find the meaning
Audio Lessons
No audio only lesson
A resources such as Pimsleur is better for learning on the go.
No audio only lesson
A resources such as Pimsleur is better for learning on the go.
Video Lessons
Yes
Body language is present, which actually makes a big difference and is a lot more realistic. Gives language in context.

No
Native Speaker Audio
“Learn with locals” video lessons
Body language is present, which actually makes a big difference and is a lot more realistic. Gives language in context.

Computer generated sentences
Duolingo has lots of individual words that it has recorded which are then strung together by the computer to make sentences. The way real people pronounce words when they string them together is actually quite different. This means Duolingo example sentences sound mechanical and less realistic.

Gamification
Uses Gamification including levels, points and leaderboards.

Uses Better Gamification including levels, points and leaderboards.
This is really well done in Duolingo and really does help keep you motivated. You can compete against friends, or against the whole world. There are series of leagues, such as gold, silver, bronze etc. It’s all well laid out, seamless, and one of the major up sides of using Duolingo.

User Generated Content
Memrise has a huge amount of user made content
This is one of the big strengths of Memrise. Users have contributed lessons on a HUGE range of topics, including frivolous things like learning Harry Potter Spells or fictious languages, but also really great niche things like learning all the jargon to do with buddhist thought and philosophy in Japanese. It also has many of the curriculums of your favourite textbooks. You could use it to learn Morse Code.

No
Curated Structured course
Memrise has native courses made in-house.

Duonlingo has highly streamlined content.
Duolingo does a great job of introducting new words and sentence structures in a logical, systematic way where each new step builds on the last.

Spaced repetition
Yes
Platform dynamically repeats content for optimal recall.
Yes
Platform dynamically repeats content for optimal recall.
Speaking Practice
Includes pronunciation recording lessons.
Includes pronunciation recording lessons.
Amount of content
The amount of user content makes the Memrise a clear winner over Duolingo
Duolingo has enough content to get you to a basic conversational level of knowledge
Grammer
Memrise native content does include some limited grammer notes.
This is certainly not a strong point of the Memrise platform.

Duolingo does include grammer notes with many lessons, and comes out slightly on top of Memrise.

Mnemonics
Customizable mnemonics on content

No
Quizes and Review
Gives you regular reviews and quizes
but doesn’t do a great job of quizes of material across everything you’ve learnt
Tests current material as you go
But only lets you quiz yourself across everything you’ve learnt in the paid version. This becomes an issue as you progress and you want to see how far you have actually come.
Lesson Length
Memrise lessons are shorter than Duolingo
Duolingo lessons are longer than Memrise
meaning you may not always have time to finish them in one sitting. This can be annoying because, in Duolingo's gamified environment, you can lose your progress when you try to come back to completing a lesson you had to pause half way through.
Summary Duolingo Versus Memrise
Even though Memrise came out as a clear winner in our head to head Memrise vs. Duolingo matrix, we think they are both useful tools that should be in your language arsenal. Neither of these tools is really enough to take you all the way with your language study though, so you will need to combine them with some of the programs below.
- Pimsleur – for a focus on listening and speaking backed by a scientific approach (Japanoscope review here)
- Rocketlanguages – For a systematic, wholistic course
- Japanese Pod 101– a fully fledged, podcast based audio program with loads of content (Japanoscope review here)
- Duolingo – For well designed, gamified, entry-level practice (Japanoscope Review here)
Japanoscope is a member of affiliate programs for some of the products it recommends. Japanoscope receives a commission when these products are purchased from a referral from this site.
Language Learning Program Reviews

Rocket Japanese Review 2021
I take an in depth look at the Rocket Japanese platform, 2021 edition, in depth and outline what I like, what I don’t like and what some of the alternatives are.

Memrise vs. Duolingo – A Head-To-Head Comparison
We do an in-depth comparison of Duolingo and Memrise including an overall score, screenshots, feature comparison, a matrix of the two platforms. Other platforms you might want to check out are also listed.

Pimsleur Japanese Review 2021 and Real World Experience
My personal experience of using Pimsleur Japanese. Screen shots, things I noticed and liked or didn’t like. Where to buy Pimsleur cheap, if it’s your thing, and alternate language programs if it’s not.

Japanese Pod 101 Review 2021 – Hands on and In Depth
My personal experiences of using Japanese Pod 101 as a long time Japanese learner. Includes discount codes and free resource pack link.

About the reviewer
I’m Peter Head. I have succesfully completed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N1). I lived in Japan for four years as a student and on working holiday. I have toured the country six times playing music and singing songs in Japanese and English.
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Pimsleur Japanese Review 2021 and Real World Experience
Learning Efficiency
Price
Ease of Use
Amount of content
How Good Is Pimsleur Japanese?
The Pimsleur Japanese course is one of the most useful Japanese language learning methods I have come across, but it’s not cheap. You’ll need to weigh up how serious you are about your language learning and whether you think it is worth your money to learn Japanese efficiently.
Overall Thoughts
I’ve always learnt more, and more quickly, from listening and speaking than any other language learning method. In reviewing Pimsleur Japanese, it’s good to note that the program is based almost exclusively around listening and speaking. It is the first, and in many ways best, Japanese language learning approach to fully comprehend that this is the quickest way to learn a language and to fully systematise the approach in a rigorous and evidence-based way. Paul Pimsleur, who made the course, was a serious academic with real credentials to back up his approach.
I’ll get into more detail below, but here’s a quick summary of things I do and don’t like about Pimsleur Japanese.
Pimsleur Japanese Pros and Cons
Things I like about Pimsleur for Japanese
- Speaking and listening focus is fastest way to learn.
- It’s an audio based approach, you can do it while doing other things, especially while in transit.
- Based on a scientific approach and developed by a genuinely qualified academic
- Encourages active learning – which makes things stick more.
- Uses principle of “Anticipation”
- Uses “Graduated Interval Recall” which interviews materials at exact intervals when memory fades.
- Strong for teaching pronunciation in minute detail – it is not uncommon for people to speak a language quite proficiently and still have bad pronunciation
- Good amount of content. Across the five levels they have 80 hours worth of lessons. That being said, if you did one lesson per day as they recommend, you would get through everything in about half a year (and would have spent more than half a grand doing so).
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- Uses backchaining method of learning pronunciation – teaches you words from the last syllable to the first. This works well for Japanese, which tends to have fairly long words with a lot of syllables.
Things I don’t like about Pimsleur for Japanese
- Price, relatively expensive compared to other platforms such as Japanese Pod 101 or Rocket Languages
- Because it is based on active learning, it demands that you speak out loud “at a normal conversational volume”. This can be hard to do if you are, say, on a crowded train.
- Barely teaches reading & writing at all. The app is pretty basic, quizzes and exercises feel like something tacked on to the audio-lessons
- Hasn’t really moved with the times in terms of incorporating technology and AI to adapt to individual learners
- Sometimes the Japanese translations can be a bit unnatural. You can tell that they have transported their learning materials across from one central source with not that much localisation for each language for example they teach the phrase “Can you buy beer” as ビールは買えますか which is very much a literal translation of the English which isn’t particularly useful for any real context in Japanese. The Japanese version translated back to English is more like “Is beer something you are able to buy”, which may be something you may need to ask in a context that comes up every 10 years or so…
Pimsleur Japanese Commonly Asked Questions
Does the Pimsleur method really work?
Yes, the Pimsleur method works for getting you to a basic level of functional level where you are able to speak and understand some sentences for asking directions, having basic conversation with friends. It can take you to a basic to intermediate level. In particular, it will really help you speak with correct pronunciation from the start.
As with any language resource, to get to a higher level, you need a range of different approaches, inputs and outputs. In particular, there really is no substitute for actually talking with real people and having real-time dialogues that are unscripted. For this, you would want to use a resource such as iTalki.com
Does Pimsleur make you fluent?
In short, no Pimsleur alone won’t make you fluent. Fluency is a major, and never-ending project. “Fluency” is a highly subjective term, but to achieve anything that resembles what most people consider fluent, you need hours and hours of speaking with real people, listening, reading, writing and getting to know a culture in a deep way. To look at this from the opposite perspective, if you were learning English and you leart the words for “hot dog” or “hamburger”, but you had never actually eaten or seen a hot dog or hamburger, would you be able to talk about food with an American friend in a fully “fluent” way? Probably not.
Does the Pimsleur method fit into everyday life?
One of the things I really like about the Pimsleur Japanese is that, because it is an audio based approach, you can do it while doing other things. This is a major plus for adult learners with busy lives. You can learn while walking, riding, driving, riding public transport, washing dishes, doing monotonous tasks. The Pimsleur instructions do discourage this though and suggest you practice without interruption and with full concentration. Well, in an ideal world, that is a no-brainer. In reality though, it is really easy to give up on a language method, and indeed on learning a language altogether, if you’ve always got to do it through 100% concentration. The Pimsleur Japanese really is great for fitting in learning around the cracks of a busy lifestyle.
Why does the Pimsleur method focus on listening?
One of the reasons you learn more from listening and speaking is that this is an active process. When you hear a word you don’t know, your brain naturally tries to attach some kind of meaning to it. This means you are trying to make connections to the new information. This makes learning “stick”. is aware of this and proactively incorporates “Anticipation” as one of its key principles of learning.Anticipation in Pimsleur Japanese, means that you are constantly being prompted for information in a conversational style. From time to time, Pimsleur Japanese will call on you to attach new meaning to words and phrases that you may only know from a different context. It makes you work a little, guess a little, associate a little. Just as you did when you learnt your first language.
Is Pimsleur better than Duolingo?
So Duolingo has been becoming very popular in recent years. How does good old Pimsleur compare?
Pimsleur is much better if you want to focus on learning by listening and speaking, which, in my experience, is the most efficient way to learn a language. Duolingo does a great job of gamifying short language drills and managable chunks. Given that, the two systems are so different, I like using them in tandem to compliment each other. This especially makes sense with Pimsleur being more listening/speaking focused, and Duolingo being more reading/sentence construciton focused.
How many lessons does pimsleur japanese have?
Pimsleur Japanese includes five courses, including a total of 150 lessons. Each lesson runs for 30 minutes, meaning you get a total of 75 hours of content.
How to Get Pimsleur Cheap
If you just want to know how to shave off a few dollars from Pimsleur there are a few “hacks” you can do:
- Sign up for an Amazon Audible free month – which also gets you access to Pimsleur courses free for a month. This could potentially save hundreds of dollars.
2. Buy Pimsleur Japanese on CD. This is pretty old school, but the advantage here is you buy once, keep for ever.
What Principles are Pimsleur Japanese based on?
One key principle Pimsleur incorporates is “Graduated Interval Recall”. This is just a fancy way of saying, “we make you review new material at logical intervals”. This principle, if anything, seems fairly obvious. But it’s amazing how many language learning approaches don’t actually make use of this fact. Perhaps because not all courses are put together with the rigour that you may hope for. This is a major strong point for Pimsleur.
Pimsleur Japanese is based on solid foundations and principles, but one criticism is that Pimsleur probably hasn’t moved with the times as much as they should have. Given their firm base, they seem to have rested on their laurels a bit. Where other platforms, notably Duolingo and Memrise, use adaptive learning principles based on algorithms to tailor content to each learner, Pimsleur is basically the same old Pimsleur it was 50 years ago. True, they have done quite a lot to repackage content for the digital age, there is not a lot of true innovation. They have the Pimsleur app, which gives you the audio lessons, and they have added in some review functionality and the ability to give yourself some basic quizzes, but really it all feels like a bit of an arbitrary add on. For that reason, Pimsleur is best done in conjunction with other tools – even their documentation actively discourages you from doing this.

How Does Pimsleur Japanese Work?
- Pimsleur Japanese is almost wholly audio based. It gives you 30 minute lessons where it gradually introduces words and phrases for you to listen to and repeat back using its “graduated interval recall” and “anticipation” principles. It sells these lessons either as a price for a pack of lessons, or as a subscription model. There are literally hundreds of lessons to work through, so there is plenty of material to take you to a fairly good level of skill. It’s not cheap though.

Who was Paul Pimsleur?
Dr. Paul Pimsleur (b. 1926, d. 1976) devoted his life to language teaching and testing and was one of the world’s leading experts in applied linguistics. He was fluent in French, good in German, and had a working knowledge of Italian, Russian, Modern Greek, and Mandarin Chinese. After obtaining his Ph.D. in French and a Masters in Psychology from Columbia University, he taught French Phonetics and Linguistics at UCLA. He later became Professor of Romance Languages and Language Education, and Director of The Listening Center (a state-wide language lab) at Ohio State University; Professor of Education and Romance Languages at the State University of New York at Albany; and a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. He did research on the psychology of language learning and in 1969 was Section Head of Psychology of Second Language Learning at the International Congress of Applied Linguistics.
Summary
Pimsleur Japanese is probably my top recommended tool for getting going with the language quickly and methodically. You can use it anywhere, because its audio based. The main draw back is that isn’t cheap. I would also suggest combining with some other more “high tech” drilling tools, such as Memrise and Duolingo.
Pimsleur is included in the Japanoscope Japanese Language Learning Resource List here.
- Japanese Pod 101 – for greater amount of content, listening and speaking practice
- Rocket Japanese – For a systematic, wholistic course
- Pimsleur – for a focus on listening and speaking backed by a scientific approach
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers
Japanoscope uses affiliate links. Which means we may receive commisions when you click on some product links. We only link to products we believe in, use ourselves or think are genuinely good. This helps us keep all of the content on the site free of charge. As Monty Python once said, “We’re selling records in the foyer. Some of us have gotta eat too you know”.
Other platforms you should consider:
- Duolingo – For well designed, gamified, entry-level practice (Japanoscope Review here)
- Rocketlanguages – For a systematic, wholistic course for begginner to intermediate students. Japanoscope Rocket Japanese Review here.
Other platforms you should consider:
- Japanese Pod 101 – for a continually updating, dynamic podcast approach to learning with masses of content.
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers
Any of the above can work well either instead of used together with Pimsleur Japanese.
Language Learning Program Reviews

Rocket Japanese Review 2021
I take an in depth look at the Rocket Japanese platform, 2021 edition, in depth and outline what I like, what I don’t like and what some of the alternatives are.

Memrise vs. Duolingo – A Head-To-Head Comparison
We do an in-depth comparison of Duolingo and Memrise including an overall score, screenshots, feature comparison, a matrix of the two platforms. Other platforms you might want to check out are also listed.

Pimsleur Japanese Review 2021 and Real World Experience
My personal experience of using Pimsleur Japanese. Screen shots, things I noticed and liked or didn’t like. Where to buy Pimsleur cheap, if it’s your thing, and alternate language programs if it’s not.

Japanese Pod 101 Review 2021 – Hands on and In Depth
My personal experiences of using Japanese Pod 101 as a long time Japanese learner. Includes discount codes and free resource pack link.

About the reviewer
I’m Peter Head. I have succesfully completed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N1). I lived in Japan for four years as a student and on working holiday. I have toured the country six times playing music and singing songs in Japanese and English.
- Post comments:0 Comments
Japanese Pod 101 Review 2021 – Hands on and In Depth
Verdict
- Japanese Pod 101 is a solid platform, with lots of content and good value for money, especially with the lower end tiers – which give you the meat of the content without fluff.
Overall Thoughts
Japanese Pod 101 has been going since 2005 as a Podcast, and this history can be seen in the product as it exists today. There is a bunch of content, 2950 audio and video lessons according to their website, that have been wrangled into some kind of order after the fact. To navigate, they have learning paths, subject areas and difficulty levels. These do an adequate, but not outstanding, job of guiding you through your learning journey. The content tends to read more like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure than a sequential novel in chapters.
This weakness is also a strength. Japanese Pod 101 is a living, evolving organism, where new lessons are being added on an ongoing basis. The podcast is still the platform’s beating heart.
For beginner to somewhat advanced students, Japanese Pod 101 is a really solid option for learning the language using an audio-focused approach.
- Japanese Pod 101 is inlcuded in our list of Japanese Language Resources here.
Learning Efficiency
Price
Ease of Use
Amount of content
Other platforms you should consider:
- Pimsleur Method – Most highly recommended for a systematic, listening and speaking focused program backed by a scientific approach
- Rocket Japanese – For a systematic, wholistic course for begginner to intermediate students.
Other platforms you should consider:
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers
- Duolingo – For well designed, gamified, entry-level practice (Japanoscope Review here)
How Does Japanese Pod 101 Japanese Work?
-
-
- Japanese Pod 101 takes you through a series of Podcast-style audio and video lessons that usually run for around 20 minutes.
- Content is arranged by level and by topic.
- Extra features to go with this content includes flashcard modules, a word bank for saving vocabulary and chunked up lesson notes
-
Listen to an interview with the founder Peter Galante
Things we like about Japanese Pod 101 for Japanese
Lots of Content
2950 Audio and Video Lessons.
Genuinely Likeable Presenters
Who tend to be bubbly, humorous and personable characters who also have advanced bilingual skills
Learning Topics Are Interesting
I find that I'm much more likely to actually learn if I'm interested in what is being talked about. Topics range from politics to music, from comedy to fashion and everywhere in between
Allows you to gain a deep understanding of culture
While you learn the language.
Up-to-the-minute content
The fact that the platform exists as a podcast means that there are always up-to-date topics being discussed
In-Built Flashcards
And wordbank features, means that your learning can be integrated and you don't have to switch back and forth between platforms as much. This being said, these features are not as robust as using a resource like Anki or Memrise.
Reasonably Priced
The basic level pricing tier is very reasonable at around $5 a month.
Flexible Pricing
4 pricing tiers lets you flexibly choose your level of commitment
Advanced Content
Some genuinely challenging content for advanced learners, means that you can go a long way with the one platform. Japanese Pod 101 grows with you.
Content in a variety of formats, including a large selection of video and audio content. Video is king when you want to be fully engaged with conversational learning, but audio remains more convenient for learning on the go
Things we don’t like about Japanese Pod 101 for Japanese
Sprawling Content Structure
Due to the nature of the product having evolved over a long period of time without a "masterplan".
Too Many PDFs!
Much of the accompanying materials for the audio is only in PDF format when viewed on mobile. This makes it hard to select any of the words listed in the documents to , say, look them up in a dictionary for extra information, or look up a kanji, or add them to a word list for review. It all feels a little "this would have been very new and innovative in 2009".
Doesn't always give best meanings
Doesn't always give you meanings and explanations for the most needed words in a lesson. For example, I did one of their most challenging lessons that discussed the imperial abdication and contains a lot of rarely used and jargon words. When I went to the lesson notes, many of the words, including these ones: 世襲 heriditary 皇室 Royal Family, 典範 emperial law, 子孫 descendants, 王朝 dynasty, 統治権 soveirenty, were not listed. To add insult to injury, because the lesson transcripts and notes are all in PDF format when viewed on mobile, I was unable to copy and paste the words I didn't know into a dictionary. Its frustrating when the digital world, which should offer so many more possibilities than the physical world, functions with the same old limitations.
Some features are just "fillers"
Some of the extra features are a little bit "feature filler", which is to say, not that useful. The PDF materials are a case in point where the same content has cut up and repacked every which way, without providing any real extra value. The "record your voice to compare it to a sound wave image of a native speaker" feature is also pretty underwhelming.
Teacher access a little underwhelming
The Premium Plus tier has as it's main drawcard access to native speaking language teachers who you can send questions to at anytime. This doesn't really seem that helpful. When I first read about the feature, I had thought that it would be access to real-time language lessons with native speakers via video chat. Which I thought would be a really great inclusion that would be worth the cash. Real time talking with native speakers is THE number one way that you improve your language, and really, the point of the whole exercise of learning a language. Unfortunately, the Premium Plus tier stops short of offering this service, and opts instead for the ability to send audio snippets to language teachers who send you back notes on how you could improve what you have said.
Sometimes Content is too quick for beginners
Sometimes there are not enough opportunities to repeat back words and phrases. At times, it feels like the presenters are more focused on coming across as fun, witty hosts at the expense of really giving the student the opportunity to learn.
Summary
Overall, Japanese Pod 101 is a great, deeply content rich platform that will take you a long way at a reasonable price.
Combine with these other platforms to create your own learning suite:
- Rocket Japanese – For a systematic, wholistic course
- Pimsleur – for a focus on listening and speaking backed by a scientific approach (Japanoscope Review here)
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers (Memrise vs. Duolingo Review here)
- Duolingo – For well designed, gamified, entry-level practice (Japanoscope Review here)
Japanoscope is a member of affiliate programs for some of the products it recommends. Japanoscope receives a commission when these products are purchased from a referral from this site.
Language Learning Program Reviews

Rocket Japanese Review 2021
I take an in depth look at the Rocket Japanese platform, 2021 edition, in depth and outline what I like, what I don’t like and what some of the alternatives are.

Memrise vs. Duolingo – A Head-To-Head Comparison
We do an in-depth comparison of Duolingo and Memrise including an overall score, screenshots, feature comparison, a matrix of the two platforms. Other platforms you might want to check out are also listed.

Pimsleur Japanese Review 2021 and Real World Experience
My personal experience of using Pimsleur Japanese. Screen shots, things I noticed and liked or didn’t like. Where to buy Pimsleur cheap, if it’s your thing, and alternate language programs if it’s not.

Japanese Pod 101 Review 2021 – Hands on and In Depth
My personal experiences of using Japanese Pod 101 as a long time Japanese learner. Includes discount codes and free resource pack link.

Duolingo Japanese – Personal Review
Complete review of Duolingo Japanese learning app.

About the reviewer
I’m Peter Head. I have succesfully completed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N1). I lived in Japan for four years as a student and on working holiday. I have toured the country six times playing music and singing songs in Japanese and English.
- Post comments:0 Comments
Duolingo Japanese – Personal Review
Verdict
- Duolingo Japanese is good as a fun, and motivating, toy for giving you the basics. But its not the most efficient way to learn a Japanese. And it’s not an all-in-one solution. You will also need other tools to get proficient at Japanese.
Overall Thoughts
- Language learning takes a long time. The quickest way to learn Japanese is by listening and speaking. You can listen and speak while doing other things, eg. while walking, driving or taking transport. Duolingo can only be done when you are concentrating on it alone, meaning the time you can devote to it is instantly limited. For this reason, using duolingo as your main way of learning a language is not the most efficient way to do it.
- On the positive side, Duolingo still provides a lot of learning value at the unbeatable price of zero dollars. That’s a big plus. And unlike most platforms, the entire core feature set is free. The paid version just gives you a couple of time saving features by removing ads and allowing you to take tests to jump ahead in the content. Paid also let’s you download lessons, but that doesn’t seem like such an issue considering the availability of mobile networks and data these days.
Learning Efficiency
Price
Ease of Use
Amount of content
Other platforms you should consider:
- Pimsleur Method – Most highly recommended for a systematic, listening and speaking focused program backed by a scientific approach
- Rocketlanguages – For a systematic, wholistic course for begginner to intermediate students.
Other platforms you should consider:
- Japanese Pod 101 – for a continually updating, dynamic podcast approach to learning with masses of content (Japanoscope Review Here).
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers
Any of the above can work well either instead of used together with Duolingo for Japanese.
Other platforms we think you should consider:
- Japanese Pod 101 – for greater amount of content, listening and speaking practice
- Rocketlanguages – For a systematic, wholistic course
- Pimsleur – for a focus on listening and speaking backed by a scientific approach
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers
Any of the above can work well either instead of used together with Duolingo for Japanese.
How Does Duolingo Japanese Work?
- Duolingo works by getting you translate to short fragments of language, mostly by arraning tiles on screen. It is designed as a tactile, mobile app experience. Even if you use it on a PC, it looks and feels like a big mobile screen.
- The app gives you lesson based around different themes such as “Hobbies” or “Food” or “Restaurant”.
- For Japanese it starts you about with learning the two basic non-Chinese Character scripts – Katakana and Hiragana
- Duolingo works by getting you to translate short fragments of language, mostly by arraning tiles on a screen. It is designed as a tactile, mobile app experience. Even if you use it on a PC, it looks and feels like a big mobile screen.
- The app gives you lesson based around different themes such as “Hobbies” or “Food” or “Restaurant”.
- For Japanese it starts you about with learning the two basic non-Chinese Character scripts – Katakana and Hiragana
Things we like about Duolingo for Japanese
- Gamification. Duolingo does a great job of rewarding you with badges, putting you into leaderboards and rewarding you with cute little animations along the way. I found connecting up with friends and family through the app was great for motivation – everyone can see how many experience points everyone else has gotten up to.
- Huge community of users, means that you can easily benchmark yourself against other people on leaderboards, read other people’s comments and get help.
- Lots of content with sound recordings. Mostly these sound pretty good, but sometimes they can sound a bit “computer-generated”, like the words have been cut up and put back together artificially.
- Introduces Katakana and Hiragana early, so you are learning in Japanese script from the start
- Helpful for practicing Japanese particles.
- Slick design. Duolingo is clean and cute. It’s a fun “space” to learn in.
- Offers plenty of repition, which adepts itself to how you are going with your learning.
- We found Duolingo helpful for working on particles such as は and をbecause it gives you instant feedback.
- Gamification. Duolingo does a great job of rewarding you with badges, putting you into leaderboards and rewarding you with cute little animations along the way. I found connecting up with friends and family through the app was great for motivation – everyone can see how many experience points everyone else has gotten up to.
Things we don’t like about Duolingo for Japanese
- Duolingo tends to be fairly “passive” in that you are usually choosing words from a predetermined list, rearranging existing tiles. You tend to learn in a fairly superficial way. This means words you think you “know” tend not to come to you in real life situations when you actually need them.
- Not much focus on speaking or getting you to repeat back what you have learned. Language tends to stick a lot more when you actually produce it yourself. Your brain is forced to create language. This is what happens in real life. Duolingo doesn’t really help much with this.
- You can’t use Duolingo while you are doing other things, which limits the time you can devote to using it.
- Duolingo doesn’t give you much in the way of Mnemonics to help you remember anything. When I learnt Hiragana and Katakana back in the day, my teacher created pictures out of the letters to help us remember them easily. Duolingo just throws the letters at you over and over to get you to learn by rote repetition.
- Doesn’t give you a structured review of everything you have learned. Everything is structured around themes, which is fine, but there is no easy way to do just general revision of everything across themes. There are no quizes in the free version to test yourself either.
- Recordings don’t always sound natural, and can sound “cut up”. Often, it’s as if the words and phrases have been put together, surprise surpirse, by a computer. Vocabulary in spoken speech in any language changes slightly in relation to other words around it, so duolingo doesn’t always sound like a real person.
- Doesn’t do a great job of placing you according to your current language level – I found the content it Duolingo tried to feed me was far below where I was at, and the app didn’t offer me a way to jump ahead, even in the paid version.
- Lessons are slightly too long. I often use duolingo on the train. I often find that I reach the end of a lesson with, say, a couple of stops to until my destination. I start a new lesson and get about half way through before having to put my phone away. Invariably, when I come back to the app, it has forgotten my progress and I need to start again. I find I have less problems with similar apps, such as Memrise, which have shorter lessons that you can complete in very bite-sized chunks.
Summary
Duolingo is a great tool to have in your suite of language learning kit. But it can really only get you so far.
If you really want to get serious about your Japanese learning you will want to take a look at some of these options:
- Japanese Pod 101 – for greater amount of content, listening and speaking practice
- Rocketlanguages – For a systematic, wholistic course
- Pimsleur – for a focus on listening and speaking backed by a scientific approach
- Memrise – for a duolingo style app built around videos of real native speakers
Language Learning Program Reviews

Rocket Japanese Review 2021
I take an in depth look at the Rocket Japanese platform, 2021 edition, in depth and outline what I like, what I don’t like and what some of the alternatives are.

Memrise vs. Duolingo – A Head-To-Head Comparison
We do an in-depth comparison of Duolingo and Memrise including an overall score, screenshots, feature comparison, a matrix of the two platforms. Other platforms you might want to check out are also listed.

Pimsleur Japanese Review 2021 and Real World Experience
My personal experience of using Pimsleur Japanese. Screen shots, things I noticed and liked or didn’t like. Where to buy Pimsleur cheap, if it’s your thing, and alternate language programs if it’s not.

Japanese Pod 101 Review 2021 – Hands on and In Depth
My personal experiences of using Japanese Pod 101 as a long time Japanese learner. Includes discount codes and free resource pack link.

Duolingo Japanese – Personal Review
Complete review of Duolingo Japanese learning app.

About the reviewer
I’m Peter Head. I have succesfully completed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N1). I lived in Japan for four years as a student and on working holiday. I have toured the country six times playing music and singing songs in Japanese and English.
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