Do you regularly use Takoboto or other dictionaries in parallel to Wanikani to understand the true meaning behind the oompth word for “request”? Does the indirection from Japanese over English into your language slow you down?
If that’s the case (and you are German, because that’s the only language currently supported … ), you could give Doitsukani a try. Doitsukani is a little web app that uploads German translations for Wanikani vocabulary as user synonyms. Once you have uploaded the synonyms, you will see them in your Wanikani app.
How does it work?
Create a Wanikani API token that has the permissions to “study_materials:create” and “study_materials:update”.
Click “Upload” and wait … and wait … and wait … (Sorry, Wanikani has a limit of one request per second.)
Go to your favorite Wanikani app and enjoy German synonyms with the vocabulary.
“ETA” shows the time when the app thinks it will be done with the upload. If you close the browser, the upload will stop. You can simply visit the web page and paste the token again to continue.
The app is at an early stage, but feel free to check it out, help testing it, comment if it’s any use … The app does not overwrite any of your synonyms, but please be aware there’s currently no option to remove the synonyms once they are uploaded. Also, if you have a lot of own synonyms, the app may not be able to add any further to some words. The app comes without warranty. More information at https://github.com/eickler/doitsukani.
The app uses EDICT2 files as base, so if there is enthusiasm for including other languages that have open source EDICT2 dictionaries, let me know.
Feel free to leave comments and star it on Github if you like it.
I installed it. If the computer went to sleep, it did freeze the download and it had to be restarted. Other than that, nice to have these options even as a non-native German speaker. You never know when a meaning will stick.
I am aware of a couple of odds and ends, the input dictionaries are a bit broken and need some brushing. Also there are a lot of duplicate meanings.
Since Wanikani only accepts a certain total number and length of synonyms, I used a heuristic in the code that sorts all meanings by length and truncates very long meanings with the tilde that you are seeing. My idea was that it’s better to have more meanings than one very long meaning, and often the short meanings are more precise where the long meanings are somethings obscure (No-Maske eines männlichen Rachegeistes mit bla bla …).
If there’s something that’s really bothering, let me know.
Maybe an option to not include obscure meanings like the mask of a vengeful spirit, if you can determine that.
This app would have been useful for me when I first started learning, but I’ve already memorized everything in English ↔ Japanese so it would be too much to switch now.
No wayyyy!! Gleich gebookmarkt für nachher am Rechner. Mega!! Ich habe jetzt schon das Problem, dass wenn ich was Japanisches erklären soll, mir zuerst die englischen Wörter einfallen, da kommt das genau richtig!
I just tried to upload the synonyms, but they didn’t show up in my flashcards. I created an api token as mentioned and waited until the program said “done”. I am still on the free version ( level 2) does this have something to do with it?
That’s a good question. Give me a bit, I’ll try it out.
If you know how to open the browser console (for me, it’s on the “three dots menu”, “More Tools”, “Developer Tools”) and could copy/paste any error message found there, that could help.
Hallo André, i just started to review my Wanikanis this morning and suddenly I could see the German synonyms in my vocabulary. I am so sorry that I worried you. Apparently I was just too inpatient and it just needed the night to work. I’m very grateful for your tool! Great work! I’ll let you know how it works out, when I’m reaching the higher levels (btw. The dev error console was already cleared and I used Safari on a Mac - just in case) best, Tim