Could we have "close" option instead of just pass and fail?

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The most tempting thing to use the ignore script on is kanji (not vocab) meanings, where I get the meaning close, but not quite what WaniKani wants. My hunch is that it doesn’t really matter that I typed farm instead of farming, for example (again, on the kanji and not on the vocab). But maybe there’s some subtlety I’m not aware of that will screw me up down the line? I go back and forth on how much I use the ignore script on errors of this nature. And Radicals I give myself a fair amount of leeway because they’re fairly arbitrary anyway, as long as when I see the word wanikani uses I think of the word I answered with I should be fine.

On the other hand, the readings are sacred, outside of typos (oh how i hate you ん). And vocab meanings are pretty much sacred because I can never be sure about subtleties in usage.

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My feeling is that since kanji meanings are more of a feeling rather than something exact, I’m pretty lenient if the part of speech doesn’t match (farm vs farming, for example), but the meaning is basically the same.

I definitely use it for that kind of thing. Like when I type “hot” instead of “heat” for 熱. I would worry more about losing meaning from trying to attach English words to Chinese characters than from inputting an alternative that is essentially the same thing.

See, that was my hunch, but as a beginner I wasn’t sure enough to use it for those purposes guilt-free (and also why I’m hesitant to add my own synonyms). Glad to see others use the ignore script for those purposes, I’ll feel a little less guilty next time I make “mistakes” of that nature. (I’ve also made the hot/heat mistake!)

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If people are really set on ignoring a kun/on reading mistake for vocab, I recommend using @rfindley’s Double-Check script instead of the Override script, because it allows you to retype your answer instead of turning it into a correct one. Then you can check whether you really know the other reading. (It also allows you to mark a correct answer as wrong, which is needed at times.)

that’s exactly the kind of thing i wanted!

I want to preface this comment by saying I make stupid mistakes in WaniKani all the time and it drives me craaaazy. Why aren’t my fingers typing what I want them to type? I don’t want to be at apprentice level on 女の人 forever!

But I resist installing an “ignore” or “double-check” script for a couple reasons. First, errors that don’t seem that big from an English point of view can be pretty big in Japanese. For example, しゅじん means “husband” but しゅうじん means “prisoner”. Ok, maybe not that big a difference, bad example. (Haha - old, dumb joke, I know).

But the bigger reason is that even though my brain thinks my fingers typed おんなのひと, if I actually typed おんあのひと, that’s a problem that my eyes should be able to catch before I hit “enter”, just as my eyes would be able to catch “womzn” if I mistyped “woman”. In other words, I am training my eyes to read hiragana accurately which is pretty bleeping important for being able to read Japanese.

I agree with sigolino that it seems unfair to be marked penalized for getting an english definition off for a kanji meaning, like the example “hot” instead of “heat”. (Or today writing the radical “cloak” as “cape”.) But in those cases, I just add my preferred meaning/name as a synonym.

Anyway, learning new things always involves a certain amount of frustration. That’s a good thing. That’s how you know you’re learning. Try to think of dumb mistakes as cues to firm up your mastery of the language, and that’s the object here, not getting to level 60 ASAP. And it’s always good to blow off a little steam on these forums.

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Mind you, I really do not recommend using it for that purpose. I cannot emphasise that enough. People will not understand you if you use りょく instead of ちかた for 力, which means using the on’yomi is just plain wrong and should be marked as such.

/linker’s disclaimer.

To be fair, I make mistakes in english all the time along the lines of “womzn” all the time, and they slip through without my eyes seeing them >_>

While I don’t disagree with you that training the eye to recognize hiragana is important, it’s also the single skill I get the most practice at daily, so it isn’t quite a large enough priority for me to set back my SRS over. I do agree that a certain amount of frustration is expected and even desired, but I also think that it’s important to pick your battles- avoiding burnout is important, and nothing provides motivation like the positive feeling of success.

Which is to say I wouldn’t do that myself, but if it’s working for you, awesome!

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All valid points! And who knows, by the time I’m at your level in WaniKani, I may change my mind. Though I do maintain that at least for the first few levels, it’s probably better not to take any shortcuts. (Of course, how people choose to use the platform is completely up to them.)

I have to agree with not doing it for the first few levels - I was actually really surprised by how quickly I got over the ‘typing the reading when it should have been the meaning’ mistake, for example. I pretty much never do that anymore at all, and I can’t remember the last time I had an ん error.

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Unlike in English, spelling in Japanese is pretty vital, isn’t it? With so many similar-sounding words (as well as a lack of spaces), there’s no room for error. Thankfully for kanji, the only misspelling you could have there is converting them the wrong way.

ちから :slight_smile:

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THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I USE THE THE DOUBLE-CHECK SCRIPT, HOLY BROCCOLI

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Welp, “holy broccoli” is getting added to my list of wonderful ways to curse…

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