WaniKani Perpetuating the Columbus Myth?

Hahahaha I’m on level 6 right now so I’m glad you’ve warned me about the dangerous misinformation I’m about to face. If I hadn’t seen this I might’ve become a flat-earther come level-up. :smiley:

In any case you’re totally right and the “people thought the earth was flat pre-Columbus” is a very silly myth. That being said, I concur with your own suggestion that you’re “vastly overthinking something harmless”. It’s misinformation but it’s weirdly popular misinformation and I think that probably helps people remember kanji better, if anything.

Remember, WaniKani is here to help us become better at kanji. They didn’t make any promises about leaving us well-informed about anything else. If we end this journey thinking that Columbus discovered the earth’s shape and that Kouichi is our collective father, then it’s mission accomplished as far as they’re concerned!

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Thith ith not funny

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a userscript that adds nitpicks to mnemonics about scientific accuracy

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It’s definitely a joke. But it also definitely perpetuates the myth :person_shrugging: wouldn’t hurt the joke or mnemonic at all to change it to something less historically controversial (I like the flat earther one, personally hehe)

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Shouldn’t you be frustrated with Japanese, rather than WaniKani? 精度 (not 制度) is a word that encompasses both accuracy (正確さ) and precision (精密さ). Sure, this makes it difficult to be sure how someone is using it, especially if they aren’t thinking about it the way you are, but it’s not wrong to say it means both accuracy and precision.

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historical*, not scientific

As long as we’re in the spirit of nitpicking :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I though history was a science :thinking:

I mean, it does involve using methodologies developed through critical thinking to find out something closer to the truth. But I guess it’s not like chemistry.

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Now you’ve gone and sent me into an existential frenzy. Your point isn’t illogical. I had to double check several definitions and really do a big think to work out why my brain was screaming at me that historical is correct here and scientific isn’t. This is what I’ve concluded.

why am I like this please somebody halp this ate up an hour of my day I could have spent doing anything but I spent it overanalyzing linguistic nuance

Teeeechnically the study of history is a science under a more vague but completely valid definition of science. However the adjective scientific heavily implies the more concise definition wherein science refers to, shoutout to Myriam Webster:

knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method

The accuracy in question is one considering the validity of information regarding specific truths about specific events with no direct statements about any general truths or laws, and was not obtained through the scientific method, but through the corroboration of various written records and artifacts. Therefore I believe that in this case, “scientific” would be technically correct but extremely misleading, whereas “historical” is entirely correct.

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I’m too lazy to look it up so you win this argument

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I actually had a similar reaction to this. I ended up writing it off as a joke and not worrying about it spreading misinformation - figuring no one is out there thinking that Mrs. Chou lives inside all birds. :wink:

Seriously though, at first I didn’t even read the mnemonic because I saw the name Colombus and honestly who wants to give that guy more play anyway?

History is a humanity.

This isn’t related to the whole myth perpetuation thing, but whenever somebody is talking about flat earth, I always think about this image:


Carry on.

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It is also considered to be one of the social sciences

The social sciences are also humanities, despite the name. Don’t believe them if they tell you otherwise. :stuck_out_tongue:

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What if there are two types of science consisting of different things

my favourite flat earth theory is the norb theory. there’s some videos on youtube with cooler graphics than the competing flat earth theories.

also it just feels even crazier than the usual flat earth theories.

that’s right, quality of the graphics on youtube videos is my primary metric for choosing a flat earth theory

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For me, it’s all about food. That’s why I prefer the Toroidal Earth theory. Donuts are better than pancakes.

Well… unless it’s blueberry pancakes.
But then there’s raspberry-filled donuts…

*sigh*
I can’t decide.

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Hahaha you’re not ready for this. (It’s actually a theoretical application of legitimate physics.)

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I consider Wanikani’s mnemonics to be in the same categories as fables . I do see any reason to apply any historical scrutiny to them. Today, I enjoyed watching Peter Pan with my 3 year old son. I know that the depictions of Native Americans in that animation is deeply flawed but that did not subtracted from my pleasure in watching the movie.

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Jesus, people will find anything to complain about.

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