So I was going through my apprentice items via self study script - I stumbled when I heard the vocal. Then I looked up the answer and (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
- Go to https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/考古学
- Listen to the female pronunciation then the male.
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? Sounds normal to me. Are you referring to the nasaly g?
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Sounds normal to me as well.
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I don’t hear gaku at all.
Sounds like “kouko nuk”
Hes making the g more nasaly and hes devoicing the last u a little bit. This is like how desu can sound like dess. It’s unmistakably がく for a native’s ears, but it can be a bit hard to hear for newer learners if you’re only accustomed to standard fully articulated sounds. You’ll get used to it as you gather more experience.
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Yeah, the nasal g- sounds are definitely a thing. It seems a bit rare nowadays, but that may just be my perception based on where I live and its general absence in “TV Japanese”.
You may get used to it, but…personally, I only seem to get used to not being used to it, though being aware of its existence allows me to consider it as a possibility when trying to decipher something I just heard. 
As an aside, if you think that sound is difficult, just wait until you have to listen to old Kansai men talk in what to me sounds like another lost language. 
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Oh yeah. A couple of the local hole in the wall places I frequent have quite a few regulars (older generation like myself) from areas with a different dialect. Very hard to understand, if I can at all sometimes.
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