The Japanese learning space is known for having many learners with an IT background so I wonder how it is on LearnNatively.
I guess computer biology does count somewhat as computer science…
Yeah, I know a lot of people who on some level seem to treat duolingo as a fun game that is good for them. It’s a bit like sweet gummy vitamins 
Once someone starts supplementing Duo with other learning resources I think “ah, they’re in this for real”.
Does dabbling in R count then? Just when the regular statistical analyses softwares aren’t enough…
If you have doubts, I’d suggest to vote for “No” but you’re free to interpret it however you want.
I wonder if that’s because we have so much spare time at our jobs. 
I was thinking, does a friend learning latin count then (and I do mean actually learning it, that friend is currently working on translating a text in latin from I think the 1500s) ? 
But well, I also know two people who are studying German, just weirdly to me, not to read but mostly to speak.
I absolutely agree. For one of those friends learning German, I only considered that she actually did once she started taking classes. And it’s not that it has to be classes necessarily, but 1 or 2 minutes of Duolingo not even every day doesn’t count as actually learning a language in my opinion.
Whoa, very cool! What text, if I may ask?
I’m a data scientist but currently unemployed/on a sabbatical. I worked in one company where my role was in marketing (but our product was software), one where data was its own department (product was games), one we were part of the engineering department, and one that was just a hot mess of a company and I disagreed with pretty much all of the executive decisions, so I’m gonna leave that one out of the calculation.
So I guess… it depends on your definition of “computer science” and/or it’s complicated?
If you’ve ever watched the TED talk from the CEO of Duolingo, their goal is to create a mobile app that is addictive enough that your sense of guilt/duty/desire for self improvement overrides your addiction to social media/mobile games. That doesn’t sound much like a language learning curriculum to me. That said, I have seen people start there and then transition to some other form of language learning. But if one more person asks me if I’m learning Japanese or French from Duolingo I’m gonna scream
Just a personal hunch of mine for very online people.
Do you have ADHD?
answered no, but I am responsible for IT topics at my work. No IT background, though. 
That’s a really interesting poll! I’ll be waiting to see the results when more people participate, but so far, it’s already surprising, considering that the percentage of neurodivergent people in the general population is estimated to be around 15-20%.
Fwiw it’s forum users who are being polled, not the site’s overall user base. So I suspect there’s some sample bias in one way or another.
I went back and forth if I wanted to just make it neurodivegent vs neurotypical or call out lot of neurotypes and make it multiple select, but I don’t want to make an exhaustive list. Since I have ADHD I decided to call that out specifically and call it good.
Obvs people are welcome to clarify if they want to but absolutely not expected!
I find it both interesting, surprising, and not surprising that the leading answer so far by far is >6 years ago. Surprising because I always manage to convince myself that I’m surrounded by Japanese learning geniuses who studied the language for one year then immediately dove into flawlessly reading >L30 books, and not surprising because I know that’s not even remotely realistic.
I’m glad to be surrounded by so many long-time learners!
Samesies!!! 
I’m glad we’re having this topic, it feels like a little townhall meeting 
I never know how to answer this question to be honest. I started learning Japanese about, I don’t know, 20 years ago? A bit less probably. Started in class, then continued on my own, on and off, off and on, for years. Each time I sort of restarted. The first time I actually made progress past the absolute beginner level was when I started Wanikani (and joined a book club there), which was, let me see, 3 years ago?
I answered 6+, and technically it’s true, but also it isn’t quite? I don’t know. 
I should have expanded the longer duration options in hindsight…
I guess this is scientific method in action, my hypothesis was apparently a bit off 
