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Welcome!
Yes, in English writing, parentheses are typically used to denote nonessential extra information. In the context of Japanese, however, they’re typically used to denote a word’s pronunciation, as an alternative to furigana. For example, 入(にゅう) and 入 are considered basically equivalent. Though in this case it’s more like new.
The purpose of using the English word in the English mnemonic is to get you to read the flow of the sentence, and in doing so actually remember what the mnemonic is trying to tell you.
As an Australian English speaker, I have no issue seeing why “new” is used as a mnemonic for にゅう. Unlike some of the other mnemonics, they’re almost identical in pronuncuation. 
It doesn’t, though? The hiragana is right there.
It’s not clear what you’re suggesting as an alternate, here.
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lol I never use the mnemonics, I just let the SRS do its thing and use the Self-Study Quiz and Item Inspector script for extra practice.
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Alrighty, that’s a different issue.
Knowledge of hiragana - and how to type hiragana - is considered prerequisite knowledge for WaniKani. The purpose of WaniKani’s mnemonics is not to teach you how to type にゅう, it’s to get you to associate the sound of にゅう with the kanji 入 - the mnemonic is linked entirely to the sound of the word and not to the spelling of the word.
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In theory, I guess “new” could sound like either にゅう or ぬう in English (…and now I’m using hiragana to encode English phonetics. I think my brain is broken 
)
Maybe the potential ambiguity between the English word and hiragana is the source of the issue.
I don’t think anyone is trolling you.
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Hi, welcome to WK 
So I’m guessing that you don’t know your kana (hiragana and katakana) yet?
Unfortunately WK doesn’t teach them, and you’re supposed to know them already before starting WK (otherwise, yeahs it will be tricky).
Learning hiragana shouldn’t take too long. You should be up and running with them in about ~3 days if you use the right method. I personally used Tofugu’s guide (the same team that made WaniKani). Here’s the link:
It’s quite thorough.
Let us know if I assumed it wrong or if you need any more help!
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It’s an interesting discussion. I feel like there’s more to it than just “knowing your kana”, and his example of にゅう vs ぬう is a good one. You have to know your kana AND have some experience and familiarity with japanese. To me, the first spelling is the only one i’d consider, but if somebody just learned their kana and nothing else, they might think the second makes sense.
I’m not sure what, if anything, would be an improvement, but it’s interesting to think about.
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Since you’re here without knowing kana, did you make the assumption wanikani would teach you how to read Japanese?
To be clear, wanikani is a resource for learning kanji, and you will not be able to read or speak with this alone. Your first step is learning kana, as has been linked above. After that is a combination of vocabulary and grammar, and kanji if you’re reading. Wanikani includes vocabulary to reinforce the kanji it teaches, but is not great at being your only source, and it will not teach you grammar which is essential.
Just want to make sure you have this information before you consider whether or not you want to pay for wanikani.
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- きゅう is not pronounce “coo,” it’s pronounced like “queue.” く (which is pronounced like “coo”) is also an accepted answer here, but they are not the same thing.
- English is not pronounced in a standard way, there have been many mnemonics with an American pronunciation where if I based it off the English written I’d remember wrong. Hiragana have one way to pronounce each one.
I don’t really understand what you’re asking.
Why is nine spelled “nine” instead of “nain”? Why is it pronounced with an “eye” sound instead of an “ih” sound? It just is.
Or do you mean an explanation like に is pronounced “ni” and ゆ is pronounced “yu” but when a small ゆ is to the right of a big に it becomes “nyu,” and this is a long vowel so we need another う as well? Because that’s just knowing your hiragana.
Or do you mean something else?
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I think your confusion comes from really trying to do a back and forth between the English mnemonic and the hiragana. In Japanese, there is only one way to spell にゅう in hiragana, and as was said above, wanikani already assumes you know it. If your English accent means you pronounce the word “new” as “nu”, then the mnemonic might be less helpful for you and you might want to crete your own mnemonics.
Menmonics are not anything important, they are simply meant to help you connecting the kanji to its meaning and reading.
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For many kanji in later levels, they actually only use the hiragana (for example: you’ll never get to vacation in きょうと).
What I also do, personally, is look at the reading of a kanji or a vocabulary item before I look at the mnemonic, so I already have the reading in mind before trying to remember the silly mnemonic. Many times I don’t even bother with the mnemonics, I just look at the reading and move on, if I believe I’ll remember them easily
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Sorry, but this is really just an issue of you not knowing hiragana. If you see にゅう and it doesn’t immediatelly translate into corresponding sound in your head, you need to practice hiragana some more. It is basic alphabet.
Unline english, japanese has very precise spelling and hiragana matches it perfectly. There is only one way to spell にゅう and only one way to write the sound back to hiragana.
Don’t worry about it too much. Over time you will read hiragana as fluently as this text. For now just get to the point where you can get it right with some thinking involved. It will get easier and easier over time. Just lean on the SRS and don’t get too frustrated if you get something wrong.
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ぬう is QUITE different from にゅう though.
にゅう is all one sound. ぬう is two, and kinda distinguished.
It’s the difference between saying “new” and “nu-uh”. I can think of English accents where they pronounce it as “new” or “nu”. I have never heard of anyone pronouncing the word as “nu-uh” 
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う isn’t an “uh” sound at all, it’s an “oo” sound, or sometimes makes an お longer. ぬう would be just a long ぬ.
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I didn’t know how to write the sound, “uh” was the best I could get 
I thought the two sounds would be clearly demarcated. So “ぬう” is also just one long “nuu” then?
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Yeah, long vowels are their own thing. Just double up on the vowel sound except え often gets い and お often gets う.
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Just to double-check I’m getting what you mean:
の —> no
のう —> noo
ぬ —> nu
ぬう —> nuu (not “nu-u”?)
にゅう —> nyuu
(I’m using the Italian pronunciation of letters 
)
I know long vowels, I just never knew “ぬう” would just be one sound.
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Sorry if I’m misunderstanding your question🙇🏼♂️
Are you talking about using mnemonics for hiragana?
So in your example when you see しち, you’re not sure it’s “shichi”?
If that’s the case, I think it’s because it is assumed you already know hiragana. So you should already know that し is “shi” and ち is “chi” before starting Wanikani.
So when you are shown, for example, 七 and the reading is しち, you should already be able to know that it’s pronounced “shichi”.
If you look up a hiragana chart and spend a week or so memorizing them, or maybe if you just have a hiragana chart on hand, it should make it easier to understand the readings.
I apologize if I missed the point and misunderstood the issue.
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I am unsure on how Italians pronounce their letters, but I think you’ve got it 
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Are you using AI to generate your posts @anon37645119 ?
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