I know it's the shortest tree on Duolingo, but it's my first time completing a tree so I feel decently accomplished ^^u

It took me 150 days to finish (I only did 1 new lesson a day and focused on strengthening every skill, so I definitely took my time...) and I have to say, it was pretty tough.

Despite all its flaws, the Japanese course DID help me understand some grammar aspects...I just feel like they could have made it a bit easier on the learner by including a tips and notes section for each lesson. By far my biggest gripe is the lack of Kanji. I took an N5 vocab course before taking on the tree, and even though I knew all the words already, I had to unlearn the way I was used to seeing them to adjust to the sheer amount of Hiragana, meaning I literally had to unlearn the correct way to read! I get that they don't want to overwhelm the learner, but Japanese is simply an overwhelming language. You'll get frustrated by Kanji sooner or later, so may as well do it sooner. There were some technical bumps as well, but I'm sure those will be smoothed out with the transition out of beta. :>

I'd 100% recommend taking this course on Memrise (https://www.memrise.com/course/122927/jlpt-n5-readings/) either before or alongside tackling the Duolingo tree. It'll make things a lot smoother so you can focus on grammar. Other than those small things though, it was a good experience! ^^ To everyone working on their own tree, 頑張って! あなたに信じます!