Just encountered the word 阪神 in my lessons, and the meaning description is “The slopes of the gods! What could this be? Well, it’s mainly just a company, known as Hanshin. They’re everywhere, though, and even have a baseball team (the Hanshin Tigers), so it’s good to know.”
… The word 阪神 refers to the section of Japan comprising the bits in between 大阪 and 神戸. Like, the word is literally those two highlighted kanji glued together. While it’s true that the Hanshin Tigers take their name from the Hanshin Electric Railway Company, the company takes its name from the region, so this kinda seems like an odd way of defining it to me. Or does the great Crabigator believe the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 was also named after the company?
Mmm, as someone who doesn’t live in Japan and isn’t super familiar with the it’s geography, I found this discussion to be incredibly enlightening as to “why does this word matter”, which in turn should make it easier to remember, so I think at least adding the region as a meaning is a good idea.
I can assure you that Hanshin is a word you hear in Japan all the time, either to refer to the area just west of Osaka, the Hanshin Tigers baseball club, or one of the many railway lines and so on…
Japanese place names do this all the time. Another one you’ll encounter is Keihan (京阪）which is Kyoto (京都) plus osaka (大阪) to refer to another train company. There’s even a line called the Keihanshin (京阪神), linking Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, and one called Keihanna, I think liking Osaka and Nara (The Na is for Nara). That’s all I can remember now…
@anon20839864 I think it’s still beneficial to mention (either in the meaning or in the reading explanation) that 阪神 comes from the kanji of 大阪 and 神戸. It’s easier to memorize than the slope of gods.
Just send a letter to hello@wanikani.com. The staff will always take your suggestion into consideration. Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good case!
ETA: It’s not like they’d need to change the meaning, just the meaning explanation. It’s currently defined as Hanshin which seems fine. Just maybe the explanation could be altered so that people understand that it refers to the Kobe-Osaka area as well as the railway/department store/etc.
I also think it’s a good idea to mention that 生保 is an abbreviation of 生命保険, just like they also explain that 自販機 is an abbreviation of (and more popular way to say) 自動販売機.
Thanks. I didn’t know this. And I agree that this would be very useful information for WK to include in the entry. They wouldn’t even have to make 生命保険 a separate vocabulary item. But knowing the origin of 生保 would make the meaning easier to remember. I wish they’d do this with all abbreviations.