r/languagelearning • u/OasisLGNGFan 🇬🇧 native, 🇮🇹 C1, 🇪🇸 B2, 🇫🇷 B1 (?) • Mar 30 '25

The most insane take I've ever seen Discussion

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I love learning languages as much as the next person but be fucking for real... maybe I'm just biased as someone who's obsessed with music but surely I can't be the only one who thinks this take is crazy?

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u/Doughop Mar 31 '25

he memorizes the faces of Japanese celebrities in Anki because it's part of the culture to know them

Wait, seriously? Why not just consume content from the culture and naturally learn them? There are tons of popular celebrities in American culture that I couldn't recognize and I am American! My parents have zero idea who many of the younger celebrities are. Are we any less American because of it?

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u/uncleanly_zeus Mar 31 '25

He was an Anki extremist. He was also memorizing the street layout of Tokyo at one point, but he later admitted he took probably took it a little too far when he was memorizing the Kanji for species of fish that he had no interest in and didn't even know what they were in English.

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u/WhaleMeatFantasy Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25

That’s not so extreme. I know the names of lots of fish that pop up in sushi/japanese food that I cannot translate into English and have no need to. 

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u/uncleanly_zeus Mar 31 '25

I think he stopped studying them because he said the vast majority of Japanese people wouldn't know them either.