From Tokyo to Massachusetts: What Manga, Anime, and Culture Teach Us About Learning Languages

Dora the Explorer, portrayed in an anime style.

This summer I traveled to Japan, an unforgettable journey filled with beauty, precision, and rich culture. Between the lantern-lit streets of Kyoto and bullet train rides through the countryside, I spent time talking with Japanese language teachers. And one truth kept coming up: culture isn’t just a part of language learning, it’s the soul of it.

According to the Duolingo Language Report, Japanese is now the fifth most studied language in the world, and the fastest-growing in the U.S. and U.K. Why? It’s not just about career opportunities—it’s about anime, manga, J-pop, and food. Students fall in love with the stories and imagery first, and that love becomes their motivation.

And that’s the key: culture sparks curiosity, and curiosity keeps students going.

At the Spanish Academy in Massachusetts, we don’t have manga, but we do have 21 countries, hundreds of accents, and endless cultural treasures. Flamenco, Día de los Muertos, tango, reggaetón, Shakira, García Márquez, Frida Kahlo… The Spanish-speaking world is full of powerful stories that connect students to the language on a human level.

Even Dora la Exploradora helped bring Spanish into millions of homes in a fun, relatable way.

In every class, we bring culture to life. We don’t teach grammar in a vacuum, we connect it to:

• Ordering food at a taquería

• Singing along to Marc Anthony or Shakira

• Watching videos about Las Fallas or Carnaval

• Reading about traditions like quinceañeras or posadas

Culture builds connection. Connection builds confidence.

Talking to educators in Japan reminded me: without culture, language is lifeless. But when students connect emotionally—through a song, a dish, a holiday, or even a cartoon—every word starts to matter.

At the Spanish Academy, this is what we believe. Whether it’s a five-year-old beginner or a seventy-year-old traveler, culture is what brings Spanish to life.

While languages compete for students' attention, Spanish has something unmatched: global reach, cultural depth, and human warmth. We may not have manga, but we have magical realism, fútbol, salsa, and 500 million voices waiting to be heard.

From Tokyo to Massachusetts, one truth remains:To truly learn a language, you must first fall in love with its culture.