Audible is offering FREE streaming of "Stories for Children While Schools are Closed"--Including Harry Potter narrated in Japanese!

I had been seeing several people in the board talk about how listening to podcasts and watching anime can improve a person’s Japanese comprehension, even if they didn’t have the vocabulary skills to understand every word.

So I was thinking "how cool would it be to have a copy of Harry Potter in writing, but then listen to it on Audible… So I would effectively have “subtitles as needed” (but I could write all over my book, as I do).

I was surprised to see that I could stream FOR FREE the first Harry Potter book, ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石, in Japanese (or French or German or Spanish or English).

THANK YOU, AUDIBLE, for bringing a bright spot in these troubled times.

Woah! It’s actually 39 audiobooks in Japanese!

Nb. copyright tends to go with national laws, so I’m not sure in which countries Audible is offering this. This link is to the US Audible.

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They’re doing it in the UK too

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Works in Norway too! Which is surprising since offers like these virtually never work here. :joy:
Thanks for posting this, I wouldn’t have know this even existed otherwise!

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I just put Potter on. I was surprised that I didn’t need to sign up for anything. :slight_smile:

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Huge thanks. I ended up listening to six chapters :sweat_smile:
Well, I can’t say I understand much, but as I remember all Harry Potter books quite well, having listened to English versions so many times, I know them well enough to be able to determine where in text I am when I listen to Japanese version. This is a great practice.
Huge thanks again!

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I felt the same, @trunklayer I mostly only heard 先生 quite a lot! I think I’ll understand more every time.

I think it’s funny when THEY speak the title “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” ハリー・ポッターと 賢者の石 because they say the subject (Harry Potter) and the particle (と) together, it sounds like his last name is PoTaTo. Has ha ha!

Wow @TrinityBringer that’s SO COOL that it works in Norway, also! And @AaronGomez in the UK!

@RoseWagsBlue I’m glad they didn’t make you do a bunch of things like give credit card for “month free trial” or something horrible. I didn’t know, because I am already a member.

UPDATE ON INTERESTING POINTS OF LISTENING:.
(Nb. I can understand only about 5% of what they say :*( )

  • Around Chapter 1 1:02:25 I heard dōbutsuen 動物園, so I’m pretty sure that’s the scene with the snake in the zoo where Harry ハリー finds out about parseltongue skills (smaller language).

I kindly request anybody to similarly note locations of interesting scenes. It would be much appreciated…

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