An enhancement that could help reduce kanji pronunciation/meaning confusion

Not really sure if I should post this idea in the API and Third-Party Apps area or the WaniKani area. I figure if Koichi and Viet won’t do it, perhaps a Third-Party App developer could? Maybe Kyle Coburn, the developer of WaniKani Customizer? ◕‿◕

Here’s my idea: what if WaniKani spit out the kanji you entered the pronunciation or meaning for if you entered in the wrong thing for what you’re being quizzed on, but correct for some other kanji or vocab? Would that help you stop getting similar kanji/vocab confused as much?

For example, if you are asked the meaning of, say, 入り口, and you type “to enter”, WaniKani could say “Incorrect. You entered the meaning for the following vocab:” and then list 入る”.

Similarly, if you’re asked for the pronunciation of  and you type “りょく”, WaniKani could say “Incorrect. You entered the pronunciation for the following kanji:” and then list “力”.

What do you think?

hmm… one issue i see is that the list can get very very long and thus useless. especially for the kanji reading where some readings (こう、し、き to name a few) show up in tons of kanji. Not saying this is a bad idea, but at least that part would need some refinement.

Yeah… good point. Well, I just wanted to throw it out there so that hopefully whoever can make this happen reads it and if they haven’t thought of it, now they did, in case there is some smart way to do it that would be helpful. Maybe it would only be helpful at lower levels or something.

The first example would be nice, but the second one using the pronunciation would be an issue since a lot of kanji use the same pronunciation. For example こ is used for the kanji 個 and also for 子.  But I guess the system could list all Kanji that use こ.

Ah, hmm. Yeah, maybe just for meanings then…


Nyueru said…  But I guess the system could list all Kanji that use こ.
 己 戸 古 呼 固 孤 弧 故 枯 個 庫 湖 雇 誇 鼓 顧 五 互 午 呉 後 娯 悟 碁 語 誤 護 口 工 公 孔 功 巧 広 甲 交 光 向 后 好 江 考 行 坑 孝 抗 攻 更 効 幸 拘 肯 侯 厚 恒 洪 皇 紅 荒 郊 香 候 校 耕 航 貢 降 高 康 控 黄 慌 港 硬 絞 項 溝 鉱 構 綱 酵 稿 興 衡 鋼 講 購 号 合 拷 剛 豪 克 告 谷 刻 国 黒 穀 酷 獄 極 骨 今 困 昆 恨 根 婚 混 紺 魂 墾 懇 子 小 恋 鯉 濃 冀 乞 請 麹 声 肥 超 越 氷 凍


I just wish WK would take a little more care in teaching you to distinguish similar-looking kanji.  For instance, when 牛 and 午 started both appearing in my reviews, I kept getting them wrong, and I wasn’t sure why.  I had to look at the kanji side by side, realize how similar they looked, and teach myself to differentiate them–by the little extra line on top of 牛.  Then I had to make up a mnemonic to keep them straight (in my case, I imagined the extra line was the horn on top of the cow’s head).
It would have been nice if, instead, WK had called attention to their similarity when I was learning them, and offered a handy tip for telling them apart.

It could work for the vocab. But for the kanji, i’m not sure being shown a huge list of other kanji would all that beneficial.

BreadstickNinja said...
Nyueru said...  But I guess the system could list all Kanji that use こ.
 己 戸 古 呼 固 孤 弧 故 枯 個 庫 湖 雇 誇 鼓 顧 五 互 午 呉 後 娯 悟 碁 語 誤 護 口 工 公 孔 功 巧 広 甲 交 光 向 后 好 江 考 行 坑 孝 抗 攻 更 効 幸 拘 肯 侯 厚 恒 洪 皇 紅 荒 郊 香 候 校 耕 航 貢 降 高 康 控 黄 慌 港 硬 絞 項 溝 鉱 構 綱 酵 稿 興 衡 鋼 講 購 号 合 拷 剛 豪 克 告 谷 刻 国 黒 穀 酷 獄 極 骨 今 困 昆 恨 根 婚 混 紺 魂 墾 懇 子 小 恋 鯉 濃 冀 乞 請 麹 声 肥 超 越 氷 凍
Perfect! Nice and concise.
Goluxas said...
BreadstickNinja said...
Nyueru said...  But I guess the system could list all Kanji that use こ.
 己 戸 古 呼 固 孤 弧 故 枯 個 庫 湖 雇 誇 鼓 顧 五 互 午 呉 後 娯 悟 碁 語 誤 護 口 工 公 孔 功 巧 広 甲 交 光 向 后 好 江 考 行 坑 孝 抗 攻 更 効 幸 拘 肯 侯 厚 恒 洪 皇 紅 荒 郊 香 候 校 耕 航 貢 降 高 康 控 黄 慌 港 硬 絞 項 溝 鉱 構 綱 酵 稿 興 衡 鋼 講 購 号 合 拷 剛 豪 克 告 谷 刻 国 黒 穀 酷 獄 極 骨 今 困 昆 恨 根 婚 混 紺 魂 墾 懇 子 小 恋 鯉 濃 冀 乞 請 麹 声 肥 超 越 氷 凍
Perfect! Nice and concise.
 I looked up 戸 and I'm not seeing how it uses こ? Isn't this the page for it? Isn't the pronunciation と? Or is this because WaniKani does not include all pronunciations?
squint said...
Goluxas said...
BreadstickNinja said...
Nyueru said...  But I guess the system could list all Kanji that use こ.
 己 戸 古 呼 固 孤 弧 故 枯 個 庫 湖 雇 誇 鼓 顧 五 互 午 呉 後 娯 悟 碁 語 誤 護 口 工 公 孔 功 巧 広 甲 交 光 向 后 好 江 考 行 坑 孝 抗 攻 更 効 幸 拘 肯 侯 厚 恒 洪 皇 紅 荒 郊 香 候 校 耕 航 貢 降 高 康 控 黄 慌 港 硬 絞 項 溝 鉱 構 綱 酵 稿 興 衡 鋼 講 購 号 合 拷 剛 豪 克 告 谷 刻 国 黒 穀 酷 獄 極 骨 今 困 昆 恨 根 婚 混 紺 魂 墾 懇 子 小 恋 鯉 濃 冀 乞 請 麹 声 肥 超 越 氷 凍
Perfect! Nice and concise.
 I looked up 戸 and I'm not seeing how it uses こ? Isn't this the page for it? Isn't the pronunciation と? Or is this because WaniKani does not include all pronunciations?
 WaniKani doesn't include all readings. こ isn't that frequent but it still shows up sometimes, like 戸 (げこ), someone who doesn't drink.

Well, here’s a quick-and-dirty script that might help a little when you’re in that situation.  It’s nothing elaborate, it just helps you look things up a bit more quickly and easily when you make a mistake like that.  It might be enough…

/t/userscript-Speedier-Search-during-Reviews/4994/1