This feels a lot like you are complaining the system in not 100% formed for you, lots of people need these much more helpful memory tricks to remember them by, and knowing the radicals real mening have no use. It is (for a lot of people) much much easier to remember poop for that radical than childish.
No, I’m well aware of how it works, which is why I do have my own synonyms for some radicals, and plenty of other items.
Is there a reason you feel the need to keep implying that I am somehow not genuine? I have Kanken level 2, so I’ve studied the “real” radicals plenty, to the appropriate extent, considering that they are not super useful (questions involving radicals tend to take up about 5-10% of Kanken questions at most).
If something has the “wrong” name in your view, you can rename it. For people who appreciate what WaniKani’s content is, they can use the mnemonics. I was able to study the “real” radicals without interference from WaniKani, since well, if you need to refer to them you probably need to know the Japanese names anyway.
I hear what you’re saying, but some of the meaning changes seem unnecessary, and only making it after one type of person is somehow less excepting it to be 100% formed after you?
I personally think radicals are fine. Majority of them are not that important and I usually focus on kanji and words themselves, as this is a “meat” of Japanese Language. I don’t like however how some radicals that are kanji at the same time have different names. I can’t remember how many types I typed “one” instead of a “ground”. But other than that - it is a fundation for learning actually useful stuff, no need to pay much attention if it’s real or not.
Time for more low level draamaaa
Who’s here for it?
This is why I browse the forums
Just a lill important info for those who think Leebo is a “know nothing level 3” who does’n know much yet or know the system: They reset from lvl 60 TWICE! 
No one knows more about this system than Leebo!
Heck, even more than those who created it in some ways, as he knows what it is to LEARN from WK! 
there is a certain irony in saying that to one of the most helpful people on the forums 
I have nothing helpful to add to this conversation…
Thank you for making a fair response without making a lot of unnecessary underhanded comments, unlike a lot of people here.
I respect this view of it.
I just don’t understand why some of them that had meanings that already made sense had to be changed to something so stupid, and I don’t understand how “triceratops” instead of small would help either.
I used to think like this, and used to look up the etymology for every kanji that I learned.
I used to think that by learning “fake” radicals/components, I would have a false foundation that would hinder me from learning more. I also figured that using mnemonics would be too slow; when reading a text, I don’t want to stop at every character and think “Measuring a field with a cross? That’s my specialty! Just ask the centaur!”
The first step towards leaving that view was realizing that if this approach actually works, and if it teaches me 2000 kanji and 6000 words, that is way more efficient than how I used to study, even if it is wrong.
… and, besides, the “true” etymologies are often very uncertain, not to mention muddied by millennia of simplifications, misidentifications and phonetic changes (especially since they come from a completely different language).
After trying WaniKani out, it honestly does seem to work; I don’t use the mnemonics for every kanji (I like to use phonetic components and associated vocabulary whenever possible), but when I really can’t remember it, the mnemonics help me to recall it without looking it up.
Over time, the mnemonic falls up, and I’m able to recognize a kanji like 専 without thinking about the mnemonic. The purpose of the mnemonic isn’t to stay with you forever, but simply to help you build a stronger memory relation with the kanji until the mnemonic is no longer necessary.
I do still study actual character etymologies, but I consider that to be a separate, slower pursuit than attaining fluency.
Kind of like the way I’m trying to learn about Shintō by reading about its history and translating shrine surveys; it’s an interesting pursuit in and of itself, but it’s not actually necessary for having a pleasant shrine visit.
That being said, if it doesn’t work for you, then it doesn’t work for you, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
It literally doesn’t matter because if you are choosing to use WK then you are making the conscious choice to use their system. What’s absurd is complaining about it after making that choice.
You opt out by not using WK. I personally never used their radicals.
The radical names are meant to help you remember them, and when they change too much they made a new radical for that change to help you separate them in your mind, since they look different.
They are named for what makes a good mnemonic, to help make that type of learning easier.
This is why some sounds weird and has no “connection” with other raicals nor the kanji they are used in.
You can always ignore the mnemonics, and not learn the radicals. Just rename all of them radical and learn the kanji through brute force memorisation
I think @Kutsushokunin really nails it - does it matter, if it works?
I’d personally have a harder time realising that three little spikes is what small looks like when it’s squished to fit in the top position of kanji - that doesn’t make any sense to me, as a learner. I can understand that perhaps it does make sense if your brain works that way, but I take for granted some what that the team behind WK are devoted to perfecting this process and you can tell that by refinements they have made to nemonic over time.
I have a really easy solution for you.
You either use Wanikani the way it is designed, many people have successfully and quickly learned Kanji with, OR you do something else, maybe Remember the Kanji, Kanjidamage (oh, they have made up radicals too), some Anki deck, whatever you like.
This makes a lot of sense. I still think the radical for small should be small, not triceratops, but in a lot of ways I can understand that some of these are helpful.
Thank you for your response.
I agree! The radicals are different and will only change how you “see” a kanji or vocab in that you may see the story attached to it by the wanikani radicals created, but the meaning, kunyomi, and onyomi will remain the same.
“lying”, “nonsense”, “stop wasting my time” - not a great start if you want to constructively advocate for changes to a system that is tested, used, loved and/or accepted by many. the link about why the use of non-traditional radicals has already been posted and alternative views have been presented by others, so i don’t know what else to tell you. adding user synonyms really is low effort and fixes your problem, doesn’t it?
edit: respect for the edits!
It’s true that the fact that WaniKani made up hundreds of radicals and a massive portion of them have incorrect names is incredibly misleading, frustrating and kind of insulting as well. Basically it locks you inside of one learning tool. As soon as you switch to anything else that teaches radicals, you’ll have to re-learn the meaning to hopefully the correct ones. I don’t know why the people who made WK have decided to just abandon all reason and logic and just straight-up make their own radicals. It’s sad, but there’s no other good tool that spans from radicals all the way to words, which gives WK the power to charge the horrendous price as well. Might as well get through the first ~300 radicals and their respective kanji, which approximately covers the ~200 real radicals and then just switch to something that doesn’t bother with radicals, which is the case of most tools. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have switched between others, no problem =)
Also, the price is quite fair for what you get. They could have charged even more.
They are constantly working on it, improving and upkeep costs money. They don’t charge more than they have to to keep in green numbers.
Making mnemonics from “imaginative” interpretations of kanji is not something WaniKani invented. Their main mistake seemingly, which they have basically admitted isn’t optimal, is calling them radicals.