Dilof

The website is way too annoying and actually distracts you from the point of the page... He may be a language fanatic but he certainly isn't a website layout one.

Hey, welcome back! I agree that Japanese is a very interesting and inspiring language and it also has a lot of material that warrants the learning of it. Also if you ever wanted to teach English in a country, Japan would probably be a pretty good one!

I think the mistakes happen when these things are translated from english and then translated back in to the tongue they were translated from originally. This breeds mistakes (in our eye) as some people view different words more suitable for certain situations depending on where they live and how they've been brought up. However, I have noticed some mistakes even on sites like aftonbladet and nyheter (Swedish news sites by native swedes).

I'm not sure what someone would gain from cheating anyway? Some fictional points which don't mean anything? Can't a person devote their time to actually wanting to learn a language more so than the average person without being branded a cheater?. That being said I have used Memrise a lot and I'm not sure on it yet, I much prefer Duolingo and Babbel at the moment, Memrise is more at the back of my list.

Obviously when you listen to things you pick up patterns in the speech and expressions of the speaker. The tones of voice they use you really get used to as they're very similar in english in which words they put emphasis on. Is this a way to actually learn how to speak it yourself? I'm not sure, but it's certainly good for listening skills.

Hey; I'm also new to the forum! Welcome and I hope to see some posts from you soon.

It's free; it's got an active community that are always willing to help (moderators aren't paid so there's more incentive to actually be passionate about helping people); the course is well setup and your feedback actually goes through to make things easier. The only thing I don't like about it recently is the new EU law that does not permit duolingo to use articles for immersion and free translational services for the newer languages (which is what the site was set up for in the first place.). Overall I'd definitely recommend it and as a user of both Babbel and Duolingo, I definitely like Duolingo more.

I listen to local radios and other forms of entertainment like podcasts. You most likely won't understand much to begin with; but you'll eventually pick up certain words and the tones associated with them, and will then be able to piece together the sentences. This worked really well for me.

I've have both Babbel and Duolingo and honestly Duolingo does exactly the same thing... with the immersion on duolingo I actually feel as though it's slightly better. May just be my opinion though.