It probably has to do with how the answer is checked. When its expecting Roman letters and you give it Kana then it knows to not accept it. But when you enter roman letters, it checks it against the answer key.
If you can, its likely easier to get the override script and just ignore your typos. Doubt its something they can change overnight
If I’m quite honest, I quite like these terms. I don’t really know a lot about Japanese culture, so if I were to encounter one of these words in the wild, I would not know what they meant. For example, I had never heard of an Izakaya before, and if I were to see a shop front with the kanji for that plastered on the front, I would have had no idea what’s inside.
Oddly, if you input hiragana (using ime) for a meaning you do get the little shake.
Usually in cases like “Izakaya”, etc, Wanikani has an explanation/example of what it is in the lesson and example sentences. So, if you didn’t know what they were beforehand, you will afterwards, and also learn that it is a increasingly common word in English. For example, I had never heard the term “bosozoku” until I learnt that vocab the other day, and now I know that it is loan word.
But since izakaya is such a Japanese concept, why wouldn’t I learn exactly that word? Also, if you want to add your own synonyms that is still possible.
This was covered about three posts further up:
Oh, right. I get that know…
I guess Wanikani is just giving you options, and different ways of expressing what it is.
I’m confused by this entire exchange. None of the provided examples (音読み and 旅館) represent the alleged issue because you can literally input “on’yomi” and “ryokan” as definition meanings for each of them, respectively. Alternative meanings are always accepted as valid definition answers, and each of those has the reading as a meaning.
I would argue that if you have Japanese vocabulary so ingrained in you that you believe the Japanese readings should serve as acceptable meanings (even though you have provided very few examples of where you believe this should be implemented), then the service is not for you, or at least you’re not WK’s main target audience. No offense, but trying to accommodate a handful of people already proficient in Japanese who associate Japanese words with the readings themselves negates the purpose of the service in helping foreign speakers associate Japanese words with English meanings.
But not the other way around! I can’t tell the difference when I read “Meaning” or “Reading” and so when I typed “nine” for 9, it read it as ni-ne which of course is not the number nine!
This is driving me INSANE. SO many of my errors are because I am typing in the meaning instead of the reading. Maybe they can change it the “Vocabulary Reading” and “Meaning of Vocabulary” ?
I don’t understand… Wouldn’t nine show as にね if you typed it in the reading field? And it should immediately look strange and you wouldn’t hit enter… Right?
Well, wrong in my experience, especially at low levels. I used to type answers in so fast that by the time I notice the problem, my hand hand already pressed enter.
Of course, this has been adressed before in this thread and all around the forum: slow down, get more used to the UI, etc. Still, that was also a problem I had at first.
Where I would go with this is to do the „no, gimme the onyomi“ wiggle when I enter a romaji text for the meaning.
IE…
The vocab word 車 pops up. I can enter „car“ and get it right. But I could also space out and enter „kuruma“, the romaji for the vocab.
It would be nice to get a wiggle that pops up „Wanikani is looking for the English translation“.
I guess I’m not a great touch typer so I’m looking more at the keyboard and hit enter before seeing it 
I type with two fingers, but I still look at the screen when typing. Actually, I can even type without looking at the screen. 
I’m on level 24. I’m still having the problem regularly. Arg
Somehow, this reminded me of:
Which was quite the opposite 
Some Japanese words just don’t have a succinct English equivalent. For example 親子丼. It’s annoying that WK doesn’t accept the answer “Oyakodon” whereas 焼き鳥 accepts the answer “Yakitori”. I have never gone to a restaurant where you order “Parent and children bowl”, the dish’s name is Oyakodon.
Aye, I added oyakodon as a synonym loooong ago. Aside from anything else, I am not typing P-A-R-E-N-T-[space]-A-N-D-[space]-C-H-I-L-D-[space]-B-O-W-L every time that comes up for review.
The first time I came across the vocab 親子丼 on WK, I knew exactly what it was since it’s one of my favorite dishes to cook. I instinctively typed “oyakodon” even during the lesson and got it it wrong. I rarely add synonyms out of fear that my synonym may stray a bit too far from its original meaning or nuance, but I immediately added “oyakodon” as a synonym.