Context sentences for kanji should have furigana

#1

It’s my opinion but I think when showing context sentences there should be furigana. The website is designed for “mobile” and I’ve seen other mentions of third party addins but since it has been a complaint for over two years now I would have expected some real solution.

#2

Should context sentences have furigana?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

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Let the people decide!

Kanji don’t have context sentences, only vocabs do.

#3

Since it’s been a complaint for over two years and the solution would be very simple, we can assume that not having furigana is not an issue as much as a choice.

As this is a website for learning how to read kanji, I think there shouldn’t be furigana, or, if there were, they should be available for locked kanji only.

#4

While you cannot really complain that context sentences have too difficult grammar structures or too rare vocabularies, Kanji aren’t the case.

Context sentences should have furigana for yet-to-be-learned Kanji, just like Satori reader.

For the Kanji-in-learning, furigana should be masked, i.e. not shown.

For example, 屁 should always have a furigana, since it is never taught, and it is a standalone Kanji vocabulary.

#5

I don’t really care either way, but since the purpose of the context sentences is to show the particular word in action, it’s not necessary for them to have furigana in order to function in that way. You don’t have to sound out the whole sentence to be able to see the word being used.

So, for me, it doesn’t really matter much.

#6

Alternatively, rather than wasting development time, the five people who care can just install Rikaichan

#7

OP has specifically mentioned mobile, which is a fair point.

#8

https://forum.koohii.com/thread-10184-post-181483.html#pid181483

No idea if it actually works though.

#9

Like @rodrigowaick, I can see this being a useful feature for kanji that haven’t yet been unlocked, rather than all kanji. I think this would be useful for vocab in particular–basically another way to learn some words on the sly while working on the kanji, and another way to help them stick.

Personally, I don’t use mobile or the example sentences, other than to get a general idea of different English meanings the word can carry for kanji I don’t know yet. I tend to get my Japanese-usage examples from outside of WK, either through reading manga or brief news articles, or in other real-life contexts. (I’m not sure where WK gets its sentences from, but I know I’ve found example sentences in the Tanaka corpus where the translation was way off from anything reasonable, so I generally find it more useful to look at actual sentences and translate them myself.)

#10

WK Sentences are all made by Mami, or at least were. Either way, they’re native sentences. I would throw a fit if they made me pay and then put up some Tanaka Corpus bullshit written by some guy in Japanese 101 at LA Community College.

#11

Where did you come up with “the five people that care?” Seems like a ridiculously low arbitrary number pulled based off no stats.

In any case didn’t expect this many responses this quickly. Yes for locked kanji that would be nice, or in the case where there’s kanji you never learn. I definitely didn’t mean always and especially not for stuff you’ve unlocked because that would defeat the purpose of learning :slight_smile:

#12 
僕は世界で一番弱い。

I’m the weakest man in the world.

This is the second context sentence on the first vocab, 一 (ichi). Because someone who just learned ichi will be able to read 僕, 世界, or 番弱. Yeah, some kind of furigana system is needed.

#13

I guess you proved your point there.

But seriously, the second context sentences on early words are there to keep things more interesting.

#14

This right here. The context sentences are useless for those who don’t already know a lot of kanji. Seeing as this is a site to learn kanji, that is probably a large number of users.

I completely ignore the fact that the example sentences even exist right now. I can’t read them.

#15

The early vocab words have 2 context sentences. One with pretty simple Japanese, and one that is more like the rest of the sentences on the site. Until you reach like level 10 or something, there should always be at least one reasonably easy to read sentence there. Complaining that there’s also a more difficult sentence seems odd to me.

#16

I took the current amount of users, then took the percentage who even use the context sentences, then from that I took the percentage of those people who make dumb posts on the forums, then I took the percentage of those people who don’t have some sort of reading aid, then I took the percentage of those people who don’t know how to copy and paste, finally I took the percentage of those people who aren’t going to quit in a few weeks.

It’s basically the Drake Equation.

#17

Alrighty then.

#18 
水中でしか使えない。

It can only be used underwater.

水中で目を開けることができません。

I can’t open my eyes underwater.

These aren’t as bad as the ichi one, but both still have higher level kanji. (Level 10 according to Jisho, but that’s still 8 levels after this) Also, how often do higher level context sentences have kanji that you normally wouldn’t know at that level? This reminds me RPGs, how it starts really hard because you have next to nothing but it keeps getting easier as you go since you can do more.

(I probably could have found worse offenders, but I don’t feel like clicking through all my vocab. I gave up on context sentences after ichi, and when I do look at them, I’m like “Yep, that’s a mess of lines that I can’t read…”)

#19

The problem with levels 1 through 3, is if you limit the kanji used to the same levels, the sentences would all be very samey and boring.

But at the same time, it takes just a moment to look up any words you don’t know there.

I don’t see a pressing issue.

And like I said, the sentences are there to give you the context. Not to be reading practice. I get that in a perfect world maybe they’d do both, but for now they achieve what they are meant to do.

水中 is not a terribly confusing word, but if you didn’t get what it meant before, you would from the sentences.

#20

They don’t teach this one!? It’s my favourite!