Worries about a trigger word and yet puts it into the topic name…
I am not a psychologist but I assume the OP isn’t either. Where is the evidence that this specific word will do the most harm to people? Mental health is not an issue to take lightly but censoring content based on a hunch is wrong IMO.
I will never understand a world where people have to be protected from a word. Life doesn’t come with a trigger warning. That level of censorship with kill everything I hold dear to me; it would be the end of movies, books, art, comedy…everyone is triggered and offended by something.
I may have been slightly harsh (not overly so, I think), but it just really irritates me this constant push to neuter language in the never-ending quest to preserve the feelings of fragile people. Don’t think that I don’t have empathy though. I’ve personally been affected by suicide (two close family members). But I still want to learn these terms. And if someone really does want to cushion themselves from the impact of reading a word then I’d suggest taking the piece of advice I’ve seen here and look ahead to find out when that word is next going to come up for review so you can mentally prepare. In any event, words related to suicide and other sensitive topics are not rare in day-to-day life so I view the efforts to avoid them to be completely in vain.
And as far as wanting to keep looky-loos from seeing these words on the screen, there are a couple of foolproof ways to fix this problem: A) don’t do reviews at work, or B) do them on your phone.
I’ve actually been in that spot. There have been very dark times. But I learned one thing…the only way out is through. Avoidance won’t help. Sometimes our triggers are there to tell us what we should be moving toward and confronting/dealing, not avoiding.
Censoring language because you feel uncomfortable is kind of weird. Instead of changing reality, how about dealing with your issues instead? I’ve had a few friends commiting suicide, but I deal with my issues instead of telling everyone to change their reality.
Going to go ahead and post this excerpt from the Community Goals Welcome to the WaniKani Community [Please read this first!] ✨
Goal 3 - Maintaining Healthy Relationships
Respect and recognize others’ boundaries, experiences, traumas and struggles when interacting with the community and when posting.
- If you choose to discuss sensitive topics such as sex, addictive substances, violence and abuse, etc., please use content warnings. Some of our users are minors, and some may be struggling with some form of trauma, addiction or a combination of the above. Be mindful when you post about them.
Creating content warnings is done either by entering the following or clicking the gear icon on the far right side of the text editor
which will generate the tags below:
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I’m going back to cutey wooty doggy pics…
The number of vocabulary words not on Wanikani far far outnumbers the number of vocabulary words that are.
Not including words in Wanikani isn’t censoring the language, and not including them on Wanikani isn’t preventing one from learning them.
The question is just if the (mild) benefit of including it outweighs the (also generally mild, but potentially more major) negative impact of randomly being reminded of a suicide method during what’s supposed to be study time.
Since you specifically can’t prepare for what the next card in an SRS review session is going to be, I think it makes sense to avoid including words that might cause someone to have a worse day just by seeing them unprepared.
Personally, I don’t see any harm in adding the ability for users to remove words since y’know…there are other uses for it and it’s up to the user. Only positives all around imo.
One thing I will say though is that it seems quite silly to me to request a word be removed because you think other people might be offended by it. Like you’re not even triggered by it, but you just assume other people might be. Like WK has been around for awhile, so either there have been people who had a big enough problem with it to speak out and the wk team declined the change, or no one has been bothered enough about it to speak out. So like either way…speaking up on behalf of other people who may not even exist on here after all this time…? Really doe?
cw: honest talk about suicide
飛び込み自殺. that was my preferred and planned way of going for a long time. if you’re at a spot in your life where learning a new vocab will push you over the edge, i’m sorry but then really just about anything will and you should start looking for a therapist or suicide hotline even before finishing reading this post (like now. i’m serious. waiting for a sign? this is it. have a stick.).
i find WK’s explanation to include this item perfectly reasonable and actually see no harm in keeping it at all. plenty things made me uncomfortable, sad or angry when learning about japanese, japan and its culture. that’s just part of it.
Is this a word you might come across in a newspaper?
i mean- i wouldn’t bash people for being offended. I think the word should still be on wanikani but triggers themselves are a very serious thing.
Like the expectations a person has for the news (which can cover things from puppies to something aweful). You can just- turn the news off, right. your expectation is that the next story can be a bad one. where as i’d still call it pretty rude to talk up to a total stranger and to just info-dump every serious thing that’s happened in your life even if its “something that can potentially happen in real life”
Learning material in itself is “Usually” more on the sfw side of things. Most apps and websites either have a search engine (meaning you can ignore any words or topics you don’t want to learn about) or they cover very simple or lighthearted topics (conversations, common nouns, simple grammar) so i wouldn’t say its very odd that people point out that certain words seem a bit harsh, its just up to wanikani in how they want to deal with that kind of topic (in this case they seem to want to keep them around but make it clear in why they do it)
So yeah i mean, i wouldn’t expect R rated thing to just vanish out of thin air, people are just handling them in new ways. Probably one of my favorite ways was a game had some pretty triggering material, but they had a link leading to all the triggers it had, but since it was in a link people that wanted to not get spoiled were able to play the game without looking at the list at all, but obviously if you wanted to know you can click on it. So it’d say if your materials are vanishing due to being upset its moreso an unwillingness to adapt vs the content itself being the issue (is the content too well hidden that it shocks people too much, what’s the average consumers expectation going into the product) . Its also important to keep in mind that its relatively easier to find trigger list for movies/books/comedy then things like learning material since people might just not think about it the same way. but either way i doubt they are removing the words since i think a couple API’s exist that can potentially hide the words.
Just commenting to add my support for a SFW mode, and to do a little finger-wagging at some folks who, I think, have leaned a little too hard on the “suck it up, buttercup” side of things. It’s nobody’s place to insist that someone who has experienced trauma be subjected to language that can exacerbate that trauma. Telling someone to tough it out and stop being a snowflake is ineffective at best and mean-spirited at worst. The purpose of the forums is to grow together in our shared language learning journey, and part of that is expressing concerns and questions about the language and how it is taught AND responding to those questions in a helpful and compassionate manner. Nobody’s lived experiences are the same, and as a result, nobody’s perception of the world and its myriad injustices are the same either, but they should still be respected.
Lastly, for anyone reading this who’s had a similar question to OP’s and might feel a little strange or silly for asking the question in the first place, I just want you to know that your feelings are valid and supported. Sometimes the path to healing is long, winding, and full of tree roots and big rocks and other nasty stuff to trip over. The important part is, you’re still walking it, and I’m so proud of you for that.
Triggers must be faced. It’s good to know sensitive words in case someone actually uses them in a conversation. You wouldn’t want to misunderstand what they are saying and respond in an insensitive manner, would you? You can’t learn by avoiding something.
Again, there are TONS of words on Wanikani that this could theoretically apply to. Where do you draw the line?
Honestly I don’t really see the point in extrapolating to other words, or quibbling over the poster’s intentions in drawing attention to this one, or arguing about how sensitive or unsensitive hypothetical people should be.
To me it’s just:
I see the logic for how for this word in particular could be sensitive, and how that could potentially outweigh its educational value in being in Wanikani. No more than that.
I find SRS a comforting ritual each morning, and I can see how if I were suffering from suicidal ideation, this word in particular could jeopardize that feeling in a way that other words don’t, and how therefore it’s an identifiable edge case in what words to include or exclude.
Like, I have no personal preference, but the line of thought holds more water to me as an argument for removing a word than “it’s useless.” (because personally I think even slight usefulness is worthwhile, and even slight/rare negative impact on real humans is bad)
I’m not surprised that if threads about “this word is useless” generally devolves into a long thread of people’s perspectives not quite gelling with each other, that this one about an even more emotionally fraught one would do the same, but I don’t think it actually needs to be about anything more than about if this specific word fits or doesn’t fit.
So, my answer is it’s up to the Wanikani team where to draw the line.
They should take the thread as “hey maybe this one item should be outside the line” and nothing more.
Agree. That’s what I’m saying. I then also expect others to respect my preference to live in a world where I can risk being offended and where other people’s experiences don’t dictate what I can and can’t see or read. If people want to avoid the word I don’t care. I earlier advocated for a system where the word of their particular choice could be hidden from them. Avoid whatever you feel. It is your life and choices. I’m not “insisting someone be exposed to trauma”, I’m insisting that other people’s experiences and fears shouldn’t allow them to dictate what I, myself can choose to be exposed to.
I’m sorry if I have given anyone the impression I am mean spirited. Quite the contrary. I just feel that there is nowhere to draw the line as many people pointed out. What if every single person on here was horribly triggered by a different word. Where would we be. And don’t say that’s impossible because as you just pointed out nobody’s lived experiences are the same so you would have absolutely no idea what I might be horribly offended or triggered by on this site.
I go in peace. I truly do not mean to offend, just a strong believer in free speech and I will never stop being that.
You’re making an assumption that they’re innocent, but maybe they just killed your dog…?
Hence the SFW mode I mentioned at the beginning of my post. You want to learn sixteen different terms for suicide, neat-o. More power to you. Not everyone does, and some people could be harmed by seeing those words again and again due to SRS, so I think those people should be accommodated. That’s it. Nobody’s rights are being attacked, lol.
