遇 and 貫徹 meanings

Japanese Language
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I just learned 遇 and 貫徹 on level 52 and I’m concerned that the meaning explanations might be misleading or outright wrong. I wanted to double check my understanding before emailing the staff.

遇

Meaning on WaniKani: Treatment

If Splinter slips down a water slide he’ll need treatment as soon as he hits the bottom! He’s a rat. Rats hate water! How did this happen?!

Imagine what kind of treatment Splinter will need after hurdling down a water slide at top speed.

I’ll tell you what kind of treatment Splinter will need. Really good (ぐう) treatment! Otherwise you’ll have a dead rat on your hands. And the turtles will be out of a mentor.

Why would you want anything but good treatment?

This explanation makes it sound like the kanji can mean medical treatment. But from all the words I’ve looked up using the kanji, it seems to only mean treatment of a person, hospitality, etc. Is there any case where it can mean medical treatment or some other version that I’m not thinking of?

貫徹

Meanings on WaniKani: Realization; Penetration; Accomplishment

You make information pierce your brain so that it finally penetrates deep enough for you to have a realization. You realize that thinking clearly and understanding new material is a huge accomplishment. Good for you!

The explanation here implies that 貫徹 can mean “realization” as in “I didn’t realize that you were hungry”. However, the meaning that would go with “accomplishment” is, for example, to realize a goal.

A simple definition says it means: やりぬくこと

A more complex definition says: 意志・方針・考え方などを貫き通すこと。最後までくじけずに続けること。「要求を貫徹する」「初志貫徹」

But I don’t understand a lot of the key words in that definition, so it’s not really helping much. From using a J–>E dictionary for the words in the definition I get he sense that it roughly means to persist with your plan, way of thinking, etc. and continue to the end without losing heart. This doesn’t seem to relate to the other version of “realization” at all.

Anyway, can this word mean “realization” in the sense that the mnemonic implies, or does it only really mean it in the sense of “accomplishment” or “carrying something out to the end”?

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About 遇, it has other meanings, but medical treatment isn’t one of them.

About貫徹, the definition you put up indeed means to do something until the end. The long definition says it applies to implementing plan or going with one’s way of thinking, so realization might be a valid meaning in that case, but it does not sound like the realization they were going for in their explanation.

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There’s more than a few words where Koichi’s mnemonic uses an English term with a significantly different meaning to the Japanese term’s. Not that any of them are springing to mind right now.

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遇 is in KKLC 1. TREAT, receive [a guest] 2. ENCOUNTER, and the text says “the kanji generally refers to the treatment one shows to others.”

In the Wisdom dictionary 貫徹 is only used with する:
▸ 初志を貫徹する
carry out [accomplish] one’s original plan.
▸ 賃上げ要求を貫徹する
carry through a demand for higher wages. (!carry out より「困難を排して」の意が強い)

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And 氏 isn’t actually a duck, but these things are just there to jog your memory, ya know. They leave the actually looking up of the words to us.

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That’s not the same thing at all. When they are teaching kanji and words they should be as close to the actual meaning as you can get for an English definition. We should have to look something up to figure out nuance, not to find out which version of the English word is correct.

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They stretch the visual concepts, so it never occurred to me that they wouldn’t stretch the verbal ones too. And what I mean by that is often they will say “the kanji looks like a [noun]” but then the meaning of the word is some other nuance of that word, not the noun that it visually looks like.

I guess I just stopped even bothering to think about their choices in that regard a long time ago.

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Well, it’s also not the first time I hear of a misleading meaning in WK, but I don’t want to fall into @Leebo’s pessimism.
The WK team is updating and tweaking meanings on a regular basis, so I think they will probably update the lessons if you send them an email :slight_smile:

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I agree that settling for teaching an english homonym shouldn’t be enough! I definitely think it’s worth mailing them.

It’s like if they’d teach you that 鶴 means construction crane and expect you to just notice that it’s wrong from all the strange looks you get.

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