/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Every time I'm reminded of the existence of that subreddit and scroll through the front page, I feel an emptiness growing inside. These people all share their little tricks, secrets, some new app, a new way to think about duolingo, a "hack" how you can speak Japanese without knowing kanji, a method to remember the katakana etc.
I'm willing to bet that nobody on that site is actually putting in real work. It's as easy as that, engage with the language in a way that is challenging but not impossible for as much time as possible and you'll learn. Anything else will lead to failure. All these little tricks will do nothing in the long run, their mentality is completely wrong. They're looking for shortcuts. It reminds me of the feeling I get when I see these magazines for women that tell you to eat avocado every evening for quick weight loss. This will do nothing if you're still eating 4000kcal a day.
But the scariest part about these people is that they're unaware of this fact. Might there be something in life where I myself am just threading water, getting nowhere, wasting my time, even though I want to improve? Creating that tiny little doubt in my mind, which might lead to further improvement is the only positive quality of these people. They are worthless in virtually every other regard and should be-