So I was doing something completely unrelated to anything involving Japanese when I ran into one of the words I listed here. I was playing a non-Japanese game (Infamous 2)*, when a new trophy popped up that said: しっぺ返し. Sweet, I just learned that word! What are the odds that a word I just learned popped up so soon in some other completely different place? They must be pretty good, because it happens all the time!
*So if you set your language settings for your PS3 to Japanese, the trophies are translated into Japanese for some games even if the game itself doesn’t have a lick of Japanese in it.
It’s called the ‘Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon’. 😉
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon/
Yes, that was it. I can never the name. Still, sometimes the odds seem so unlikely that it’s uncanny.
The same thing happen to me right now.. I was reading your Complete Guide at the Kanji section where it says 中学校, the first Kanji 中..
I finished writing down 中学校 on my notebook and then I got sidetrack by searching on Google, ” having a good memory for kanji ” I was scrolling down and I saw Tofugu’s website, his blog on ” 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Japanese Learning When I Was First Starting Out ” where it says ” 7. Existence of SRS Learning ” and I saw 中…. lol..
“For example, if you could recall the kanji 中 very easily, it might not show you that card again for a couple months (if you’ve recalled it several times easily, anyways).”
So yeah… it has happen to me a couple of times.. Btw .. I’m now changing my PS3 to have Japanese..