Anime is one of the top reasons that English speakers decide to learn Japanese, and anime streamer Crunchyroll and language app Duolingo are taking note. The two companies are teaming up to help Duolingo users learn some of their favorite phrases from popular Japanese anime.
Beginning today, Duolingo’s Japanese course will feature nearly 50 phrases inspired by popular anime series.
“Anime is a dynamic medium and we know viewers have a curiosity for learning,” said Terry Li, Crunchyroll’s Senior Vice President of Emerging Business. “Now on Duolingo, fans worldwide can celebrate anime through learning iconic phrases from their favorite series.”
The Duolingo anime crossover makes a lot of sense for the platform, as Duolingo said 26% of the app’s Japanese learners cite fun — like watching anime — as a top reason for learning Japanese. Duolingo is an education app that allows users to practice foreign language words, phrases, and grammar. The service offers courses in more than 40 languages.
As part of this new promotion, premium Crunchyroll subscribers can redeem a two-month trial of Duolingo’s premium tier, while Duolingo learners could be eligible for one month of ad-free Crunchyroll access.
Crunchyroll is also sharing a roundup of anime featuring simple, easy-to-understand Japanese for language learners who are just getting started. These shows include Bananya, Laid-Back Camp, and more.
22 comments
I hope it is more of a beginners guide to the japanese language in the form of an actual anime instead of the doulingo type learning where it has lessons that happen to be specific japanese anime phrases/terms.
> Beginning today, Duolingo’s Japanese course will feature nearly 50 phrases inspired by popular anime series.
That’s kinda, not super helpful imo. Or at very least, not as good as it could be.
Seeing an anime service teaming up with a language learning app, it’d be cool if they did something like, had episodes of some series in the app then doing lessons based on each episode they were offering.
This sounds more like an advertisement for both companies rather than something substantial that could be useful in learning the language.
I’ll pass
Would be cool if Crunchyroll had Japanese subtitles like Netflix. As of now Animelon is a more useful site to learn from than Crunchyroll.
I’ve been meaning to ask my co-workers what their scouters say about the power level.
Duo lingo is only good for somebody who isn’t totally serious about learning Japanese. It’s good for people looking to dip their toes in the waters.
I said this on the Duo form as well but crunchyroll is garbage. Frustrating to see this from a language learning app. I’m wondering now if the Japanese course is even worth doing. I don’t want to sound like an anime character
Are we going to get Japanese subtitles available on Crunchyroll then? That’s been like the biggest problem with Crunchyroll. A lot of Japanese learners resort to pirating anime because that’s the only way to get Japanese subtitles for most anime outside of Japan.
wow… 50 phrases! I will be perapera in no time now!
I’m one of the degenerates that mostly learns japanese to understand hololive vtubers.
I know Duo is pretty unpopular here but I’ve been using it and enjoying it, and I definitely know more Japanese now than when I started so it’s doing something right. I’ve also been trying to get into watching anime to have something to watch/listen to in Japanese to practice on. I did see recently that the Japanese course was completely reworked, it’s much longer now by the looks of it, and they reworked the order/structure in which you learn things. New layout seems like an improvement.
Duo isn’t the only thing I use, I also use other stuff. I started using Anki just recently and that seems like it will help too. I’ve been trying to read and watch japanese content on youtube. Also got my own paper flashcards (almost 800 of them) which I think have been helping too. Mostly what I like about Duo is the gamification of the platform encourages me to keep at it every day, which is helping me keep going when I could easily slack off or give up otherwise.
50 phrases probably doesn’t sound like much but if it’s 50 of the most common phrases, that could be really helpful in my opinion as a good starting point, leaving learners to just search for the stuff that is less common as it comes up.
Duo lingo is really pissing me off lately
I’m learning the words wife and husband and EVERY example is gay. Every one of them… Even if it were blindly random it shouldve been 50/50 but no.. 100% her wife and his husband…
Correct me if I’m wrong but don’t japanese pretty close to exclusively follow traditional man and woman marriages?
EDIT: NO ONE ANSWERED THE QUESTION
i dont care how gay you are or how much you want gayness forced down everyones throat on every possible platform on the internet..
forcing culturally uncharacteristic concepts into a language learning program is NOT OKAY. it misrepresents other cultures, it misleads the learner.. and .. well i’m just sick if it being literally forced awkwardly into EVERYTHING at the expense of normalcy.
They already have some sentences in the mix that are lines from anime or books and they are the worst. They usually don’t translate well, make no sense to people who have never seen the media it’s referencing, or they give a non-literal translation to match the English version of the line, then fail you when you put the literal translation in.
So I hope it’s not more crap like that.
An example of when they use the Japanese title of an English work that is not a direct translation. Just another easy way to lose hearts.
[https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/35946137/The-Man-in-the-High-Castle](https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/35946137/The-Man-in-the-High-Castle)
Can’t escape sponsored content huh…
Cute,but not the best idea,since anime characters (especially the shonen type like DBZ and Naruto) use slang that can be offensive.
my native japanese teacher at the time told me:” do not to speak like Inuyasha, he’s very rude”
But could bring some more anime fans into the language process
Duolingo and Crunchyroll…both my last choices when it comes to language learning and anime watching
Fifty phrases only?
To me it seems that the Japanese course on Duo has taken one step forward and two steps back lately. As a beginner it has good drills and a good interface. But compared to 2019 when I last was on there I don’t get any kanji practice anymore. Some anime sentences from CR isn’t what the course needs in my opinion.
I also sometimes wonder what kind of Japanese you get to learn there, when you use other sources (books mainly) that tell you a different story. A very very basic example: early on they teach you that “dewa arimasen” means “not” or “is not”. Then in one of my books they tell you that the construction you should use is “ja arimasen” and that “dewa arimasen” is mainly used in written Japanese and that it sounds a little odd in daily conversations. If that’s the case, then maybe Duo needs to decide who they want to cater to.
Throwing in some anime slang might be fun for intermediate or advanced learners but I don’t think it’s suitable for us beginners. Because it’s completely irrelevant this early on in the learning process. Even if you complete the entire course that’s still beginner’s level Japanese, so…
That’s it?
Weak sauce.
I just use duo sometimes to practice/reinforce what I learned elsewhere. These threads always spark a duo hate train, but it should be common knowledge by now and on this sub that duolingo isn’t going to teach you fluent Japanese and other sources should be used for grammar.
I guess I’m an outlier in that I’m learning purely to find Imperial Japanese Navy documents that haven’t been translated yet… I guess I’m one of the weird ones
Is there a way to claim the CrunchyRoll ad free subscription after refusing it? I accidentally refused it but I want it. Somebody knows what to do?