Duolingo Japanese course

I'm paying attention to what it feels like to learn to read for the first time, because I can't remember what learning to read the actual first time was like. This is as close to the experience as I can know directly.

Unlike Spanish and Esperanto, having the volume on is keeping me from really learning the hiragana.I know a lot of these simple words by sound. Today I turned off the sound and had to sound out sushi, aka, shiro... it was very exciting.