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For those of you who don't know, Wikipedia (along with the rest of Wikimedia) uses a pronunciation key called IPA. After while of looking up every symbol when I wanted to pronounce a word, I decided to actually learn the IPA.
And I did.
I know the correct pronunciation of every IPA symbol used in English, and several that aren't.
is it normal to actually learn the IPA?
It is normal. I did linguistics and we all had to learn it....its pretty useful. The dictionary uses IPA to show how words should be pronounced if u have never heard them before....so, normal for those who studied linguistics
No. In fact, IPA tries (emphasis on "try") to get rid of accent marks. For example, the "sh" sound, written in some languages as "š" or "ś", is written in the IPA as [ʃ].
They try to give each sound its own letter, not just an accent. There are some sounds which still have to be represented by accents since they're uncommon.
The IPA is also a very useful toll for actors who are learning accents. I know it because I'm an actor and it is extremely useful. I also think it's used for
Speech therapy.