I know, there are many missing kanji. But it’s a bit weird that only one of the kyōiku kanji (kanji taught in primary school) is missing from WK. For completeness’ sake, and so I won’t feel bad when I’ve learnt all the kyōiku kanji minus one, here’s my mnemonic for 蚕!
蚕
radicals– 天 heaven and 虫 bug
onyomi– You die, and climb to the top of Mt Heaven. (テン・サン）As it turns out, there are animals up here after all. They’re the heaven bugs, making silk for God’s robes. They’re silkworms.
(I find it easy to imagine that any god would have silken robes, given how expensive and ‘royal’ silk has always been!)
kunyomi– There are also coyotes up here, all clad in silken robes. Why do they get robes too? Because the silkworms are their children. The silkworms are the かいこ!
(Some classic WK absurdity, sure to help me remember at least.)
What kanji have you guys found that WK doesn’t have that you found frustrating? What mnemonics have you come up with to help remember them?
None. The only “complaints” I have in the moment is that there are 3 or 4 kanji without vocab around the highest levels (50+) and that the vocab a lot of times lacks the nuances (being fixed lately).
So yeah, after 1000/1500 kanji, you get pretty good at memorizing them Kanji with 1/2 common vocab are completely learnable with the vocab itself.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve heard several times about the ‘missing’ silkworm kanji (to be fair, I can see why it’s not super useful to know), but never actually known what it looks like - and certainly didn’t have a helpful mnemonic!
I don’t think I have any specific missing kanji that frustrate me. There are several kanji in WK where you don’t learn a particular reading though, so I wish they’d add more vocab for those situations (especially where the kanji also doesn’t have many vocab associated with it).
I once caused a shitstorm because I said it doesn’t really matter that WK doesn’t teach this kanji. Because honestly, I do not think it is important to learn for the average person.
The silkworm fans went nuts. Probably a vocal minority, but eh.
I had never thought about silkworms in any capacity before that happened.
I certainly agree with you all that it’s not a useful kanji, nor one you need to know by any means. My problem is that this is a kyōiku kanji. I will not be bested by a twelve-year-old.
I already knew the word and the kanji from when I prepared for the Kanken, but I remember thinking at the time “oh, I didn’t know this from WK, but I can see why they didn’t put it in.”
Kanji with 1/2 common vocab are completely learnable with the vocab itself.
