It's often hard to find the time to learn a language (even in lockdown, as many people promised they would do last year, and then failed.) But now, language learning app Duolingo is helping people to learn some new phrases in a place where they might find some downtime: the restroom. 

In a campaign from Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, which started out as an April Fool idea but has in fact become a real product, the company is printing language phrases on toilet paper. The Duolingo rolls are available for English speakers learning Spanish, as well as Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese speakers learning English.

As well as influencers being sent the toilet rolls in the U.S., Brazil, England, Mexico and Japan, the agency has persuaded WeWork to install the toilet paper in 18 of their restrooms in China, while other bathrooms will also carry information about the product. There will also be a Twitter contest for English speakers to win a roll in Spanish. And if the idea is a success, it hopes to (ahem) roll the toilet paper out on a wider scale. 

 “Duolingo understands that one of the most common barriers to learning a language is how much time it takes,” said Thom Dinsdale, planning director at W&K Amsterdam, in a statement. “However, studies have found that people spend an average of 14 minutes a day sitting on the toilet. Developing a new product to help learners utilize this down time was a natural extension of its multi-platform offering.”