Why are posts with big achievements controversial here?

7 comments

1. > the answer is obvious (jealousy)

   It’s more that I come here to learn, not to listen to people humble-brag. I also dislike these meta posts.

   For whatever reason, those two type of noise make up at least a quarter of the /r/LearnJapanese posts that make it to my homepage.

2. > I mean, the answer is obvious (jealousy)

   if people really can pass n1 in 9 months why isn’t everyone doing it?

3. I think a real “I did the grind, worked my ass off, and earned N1” post is very well received. People celebrate victories that people have worked hard for.

   What I don’t think is liked is the casual humble brag where someone got N1 in 3 months but only through memorization and can’t speak a word of the language. There’s been a lot of posts like that and they’re shit on (for good reason.)

   I don’t think it’s jealousy (or envy, which is the right word). I think most people just don’t care for the humble bragging and most just don’t care overall. People are on their own paths and working at their own pace.

   Language learning isn’t a race and I think many people forget that. For me, I learned in high school from 14-18, stopped for 10 years and forgot it all, then was sent to Japan for work at 28 by my company and have been learning again for the last 5 years on-and-off. I know it’s not a race and I enjoy my progress. I got N3 in 2019 before Covid and was pleased. Covid hit and I stopped studying outright. Now we’re ~2 years later and I’m studying again for .. N3! That’s right. I’m reaffirming what I know and it’s low pressure for me.

   I think you have a misplaced understanding of people’s perspectives here.

4. Because it’s often easy to tell a genuine accomplishment from garbage. Passing a high JLPT level because you happen to be great at rot memorization isn’t what I’d call an achievement.

5. >I mean, the answer is obvious (jealousy), but…

   Is the answer already obvious to you, or not? Will the concept of arrogance be considered as the non-obvious answer that you could add to your mental repertoire?

   Or could you have not even conceived the possibility that people could very be operating within those perceptions, other than your “obviously jealousy” answer?

   Could you have not accepted a different answer than the “obvious answer” you had? If not, why bother asking?

   What you should be asking is: “Where is the line drawn between a “humble brag”, and just being “arrogant”? What are the “rules”?

6. >the answer is obvious (jealousy)

   Now that’s a rationalization if I’ve seen one.

   What rubs people the wrong way is when people treat a discussion forum like a personal blog. It feels to me like making a post announcing that you unlocked a trophy/achievement for a game.

   I don’t mean to disparage anyone, but maybe you could consider launching a personal blog or website instead. Or at least concentrate everything in a single post where people can post their exam results.

   >Why are posts about the latter always looked down upon and hated?

   I don’t know where you get that. I don’t like either.

7. Personally I like those posts, as long as they come with suggestions for resources and study methods that I could be incorporating into my own studying. Even if I cannot (or do not want to) copy what they have been doing, it is still interesting for me to hear how other people are studying. There is value in getting ideas from people who achieved something impressive and personally it does not bother me one bit when other people learn Japanese faster than I do.

   The main problem I see with these posts is that inevitably some people are going to make up achievements in an attempt to get attention, or to sell stuff, or just because they are trolls. And often it’s just impossible to tell what’s real and what is not.