Can I actually learn Japanese by watching anime?

4 min read

Introduction

Many people are interested in learning Japanese through anime or dramas, but often find the results less than satisfactory. While this is true, I believe learning Japanese through anime is severely underrated.

Why Isn't It Working?

Let's examine why we don't see progress when learning through anime. I've identified three main issues:

Problem 1: Lack of Comprehensible Input

Many people watch anime with subtitles in their native language or bilingual subtitles instead of pure Japanese subtitles. This won't work - if you can't understand the subtitles, you should pause and study rather than continue.

I understand this affects the viewing experience, so if your Japanese level isn't high enough and you need to pause frequently, I recommend watching once with native language subtitles first, then rewatching with pure Japanese subtitles, studying each line during the second viewing.

Problem 2: Lack of Systematic Review

Without systematic review of learned material, progress will be limited. Most people struggle to maintain a system for reviewing vocabulary and phrases.

Problem 3: No Shadowing Practice

Shadowing is crucial for speaking practice, but many people don't actually do it.

Why Do People Struggle with These Points?

Because it's too cumbersome! First, you need to take screenshots, write prompts for AI, then take notes for review - where to put them? What format to use? You need to copy the original text, copy AI's content, and organize the format yourself. It's all too much trouble. And when reviewing, with all these notes, where do you start? Which ones should you focus on because you keep forgetting them? For shadowing, you need to leave your note-taking app and open a recording app. Everything is scattered and manual, extremely tedious - this is exactly why we fail at these points. It's not our fault; these tasks are inherently anti-human! That's why I created Bunn, automating these processes. Now all these hassles have disappeared, and everything becomes enjoyable.

How Bunn Solves These Problems

Bunn will recommend interesting, naturally expressed, and truly useful anime that I've personally curated as a real Japanese language learner living in Japan, not algorithm or AI-generated recommendations.

You can choose your favorites from the recommendations and start enjoying interesting anime directly. When you encounter unfamiliar expressions, simply click the subtitle recognition button in the bottom right corner to turn subtitles into memory cards, with sentence positions marked on the progress bar. You can always view the entered sentences and watch the anime clips again.

Everything is integrated together, intuitive and natural!

Bunn memory card and anime learning interface

Review Should be Enjoyable

Of course, to make learning truly effective, we need to ensure adequate review. However, as a language learner, I've found that review can easily become painful and resisted.

So I've designed review to stay simple. First, Bunn will play the video clip of the sentence you entered 3 times to jog your memory.

Then it will do simple word meaning Q&A based on the sentence and reconstruct the sentence from the clips.

Bunn anime review flow illustration

This won't cause you pain, but it's effective enough. Through this method, you will absolutely remember the core expressions in the sentences, far better than memorizing words.

Conclusion

Try using Bunn to learn Japanese right now - whether you're learning Japanese with anime or doing YouTube Japanese learning, it becomes easier and more efficient!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What if I can't find good learning materials with embedded subtitles?

Bunn will recommend several channels suitable for learning, and has built-in selected videos from these channels on the site, making it convenient for you to experience and start learning directly, without having to search around for videos with "embedded subtitles."

Q2: What level of Japanese learners is Bunn suitable for?

Bunn is more suitable for Japanese learners who have reached around N3 level.

If you haven't reached this level yet, it's recommended to first build a foundation in grammar and vocabulary using textbooks or more basic Japanese learning apps, then use Bunn for YouTube Japanese learning for better results.

Q3: Can Bunn only be used with YouTube?

Currently yes, because only YouTube videos can be played directly within the Bunn website and used with cards and review workflows.

Technically, subtitles from platforms like Netflix can also be recognized and collected, but the actual experience has not been ideal, so this type of functionality has not been launched yet.

Can I actually learn Japanese by watching anime?