The Roko's Basilisk of Learning Japanese (Second Post)

Japanese Language
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Hey there. I hope you had a good day today. Mine was alright. I’m making forum posts instead of catching up on my lessons like a good student. That being said:

In your opinion, what’s the “Roko’s Basilisk” of Learning Japanese?

For those unaware, “Roko’s Basilisk” is a very silly thought experiment that often makes people uncomfortable just by knowing what it actually entails–for those familiar, you know what I’m talking about. For those unfamiliar, the experiment could be compared to Pandora’s box, where choosing to learn what the thought experiment actually is leaves whoever sought the knowledge in a less-than-ideal state (depending on how much credibility you give it). It’s one of those “you’re better off not knowing, ignorance is bliss” sort of scenarios. If you’d like to risk opening Pandora’s Box, then Google Roko’s Basilisk yourself. But it’s your fault at that point. I am not culpable.

…all of the above is to ask what’s one piece of “cursed knowledge” about learning Japanese at a higher level? I’m still a beginner, and a part of me is curious to know about how crazy things get later on down the line. What’s one little quirk or factoid about the language that just drives you up the wall? What’s one thing that’s going to have me saying “jeez Louise” after reading it, dreading the future? Part of me would rather know about all the jank and “bugs” of the language that appear later on so I can mentally prepare for them. This might be a fun way to lessen the impact of future learning-revelations.

Thank you for taking the time to read this (and taking the time to respond if you so choose to).

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Well, I was initially quite taken aback by very similar kanji like 士 and 土、未 and 末、剌 and 刺…
But once I was able to accept it, I felt better about it.

More generally, there was this realization that in Japanese there are a lot of exceptions that need to be memorized (this especially applies to various readings) and that a lot (and I mean A LOT) depends on the context… Again, this wasn’t easy to accept, but once I did it – I felt better :sweat_smile:

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Just how different Japanese grammar is from English. In beginner textbooks we are confidently told that sentence x ‘means’ sentence y. But differences like subject and topic prominence mean that even ‘easy’ examples have extra hidden layers of translation. I don’t think there’s any fix for this - you have to start somewhere. But it’s a shock when your English ‘translations’ collapse around you…

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This was another Roko’s Basilisk of mine. Distinguishing between different kanji and same kanji written in different styles… Like, image and image

In the first one the “fins” radical is used, in the second one – the “legs” radical. Yet the kanji is the same – just different styles.

On the other hand, in image and image the same difference leads to them being two completely different kanji…

However, again, once I accepted that I’ll just have to memorize these things – it became much easier :sweat_smile:

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