I've always wanted to learn Japanese, so recently I started using Duolingo. So far I'm over 20 lessons in, and am put in something called the "Pearl League", apparently I get enough points each week or so to get promoted to a higher tier.
I've learned a bit of Hiragana, and Katakana, but haven't gotten into Kanji yet. I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation, but I'd be able to ask some basic questions and maybe understand the answer. My biggest problem is with the grammar, and numbers. Some of the numbers are pronounced entirely differently depending on the context. The number 7 as an example can be pronounced as "na na" or "shi chi" in different contexts. Then with the grammar my problem is that in many sentences it is very similar to English, but in others it is backwards or even scrambled compared to the English version. One example where it is more intuitive "Nakamura san wa sensei desu" means "Mr Nakamura is a teacher"*, Then in "densha ni nori ma su" it means "I will ride the train", even though train "densha" is before "nori".
I'm kind of brute forcing some of these phrases by memorizing them at this point. Still, on other stuff I'm starting to get the hang of it.
*"san" can also mean Ms. or Mrs.
I've learned a bit of Hiragana, and Katakana, but haven't gotten into Kanji yet. I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation, but I'd be able to ask some basic questions and maybe understand the answer. My biggest problem is with the grammar, and numbers. Some of the numbers are pronounced entirely differently depending on the context. The number 7 as an example can be pronounced as "na na" or "shi chi" in different contexts. Then with the grammar my problem is that in many sentences it is very similar to English, but in others it is backwards or even scrambled compared to the English version. One example where it is more intuitive "Nakamura san wa sensei desu" means "Mr Nakamura is a teacher"*, Then in "densha ni nori ma su" it means "I will ride the train", even though train "densha" is before "nori".
I'm kind of brute forcing some of these phrases by memorizing them at this point. Still, on other stuff I'm starting to get the hang of it.
*"san" can also mean Ms. or Mrs.
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