How is that answer incorrect? Or have I lost my marbles

I think that びいだま should be accepted as a reading for ビー玉 as well. I accept that ビーだま is the only actually correct answer, but if you’re going to accept a hiragana equivalent out of convenience I see no reason to accept びーだま but not びいだま since they’re representing equivalent sounds. In my mind びいだま would be more correct than びーだま anyway, since the former is the standard way to lengthen a sound in hiragana which I assume was the OP’s thought process. I see the Japanese do this as well, when they want to render a katakana word in hiragana for stylistic effect or whatever they often change ー to the equivalent lengthened vowel, for instance I’ve seen ゲーム written as both げえむ and げーむ.

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Just wanted to comment, OP, that for a non-native speaker, your english is AMAZING. :+1:

Also, as you’ve said, you’re still alive, so keep at it! がんばれ!

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You can add synonyms to your vocabulary words - type the meanings in your own language if that’s easier for you to remember!

However, for some reason you are unable to do this in the LESSON, but you can do it on the item page after the lesson. You can also do it during the quizzes (when you review your items), however when you do it that way, you will have to answer it again.

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That’s a good idea! That way I can simply do reviews in my own language :smirk:

And those are some interesting statistics. I guess that since Japanese is a living language, it’s constantly being adjusted according to people’s needs? For example for the stylistic purposes as @rhet mentioned.

Hi there C:
You’re almost my neighbour (there’s a sea between us)

Yes, that’s what I was thinking (about the equivalent sounds). That’s why I was puzzled with the「びーだま」reading. I thought I didn’t understand something and I was wrong.

Perhaps we should just ask in the feedback forum if「びいだま」could be added as an acceptable answer? I’m not familiar with the procedures tho.
On the other hand, we can write katakana characters with space bar so maybe there’s no need to complicate things…

If we met face-to-face I probably wouldn’t be able to say a word. :sweat_smile:
And honestly, it takes forever to write anything, so I’m relieved my posts are understandable. :hearts:

So that’s why I didn’t see this feature - because it’s not available in lessons. Since I was always rushing through the reviews I didn’t see that option.
Until now I was just adding notes to the ‘meaning’ section with a translation :I
Kudos to you <3

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There’s a script which enables it for lessons

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Wow, you’re a boss!
immediately searches through the forums
Is it this one?
https://community.wanikani.com/t/userscript-wanikani-lesson-user-synonyms-v2/21960

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Yep yep. I think it’s only before the quiz though, not during it

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Hey thanks! I didn’t know about that one.

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Glad to be of help!

I hope you stick around.

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Just so you know, it is commonly misunderstood that doing well at school (‘intelligence’) and learning a language are traits fluent learners have, but that’s not true. Learning languages have more to do with thinking differently (i.e., thinking outside the box of one’s own languages, understanding the culture, etc.) and using the language.

I had the concern about learning more kanji down the line. I think WK does a good job at breaking down and reviewing the kanji so that it becomes easier to distinguish similar looking kanji. Over time, the one’s you used to struggle with won’t be so bad anymore. From time to time, I make mistakes, but for the most part I can tell the differences between similar ones. Again that comes with practice (e.g., reading and writing).

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I would not recommend WK for someone who struggles with English. Have a look at how the radicals are done and then substitute you own language to do the stories. It is counterproductive to try and master one language in order to begin another. I also don’t see Kanji as being the best place to start learning Japanese, since there are simple grammar lessons available on YouTube in a variety of languages.
What is your home language?

I’ll definitely stay for now. :blush:
I just hope that life won’t get in my way.

Your reply cheered me up a bit!
My biggest issue right now is simply not noticing the small differences between characters when I’m reviewing them.

For instance, 右 and 石 are almost identical (for me at least). When I slowly deconstruct them into radicals it’s not a big deal - one has a narwhal radical and the other is a stone radical (which looks like leaf+mouth), and then I remember that “leaves are not supposed to grow on a stone”, thus 石 means stone. Bless the radicals and mnemonics :crabigator:

But when I’m getting ahead of myself, I start rushing through the reviews, and then I stop noticing the small details and it results in wrong answers.
Hell, I even mistook 月 for 日 several times when I was in a hurry :sweat_smile:
I also hate the 午, 生, 矢 and 天 :sob:

But all in all, maybe it’s for the better that all these kanji fall back into Apprentice1? This way I can review them more. Maybe one day I’ll be able to distinguish them quickly.

Also by practise, do you mean handwriting? Like in a notebook? I’ve read somewhere that it’s not an effective way to learn kanji :thinking:

Studying in English is extra work, that’s painfully true.
But on the other hand, as others stated, it’s worth a try. I also browsed through the old threads and it turns out that there are quite a few non-natives here! Seeing mid- and high- level people from my country is pretty encouraging.

I always postponed studying Japanese (like, for 7 years or more??) and constantly deceived myself that “I’m studying the language because I watch tons of anime”.

If by ‘simple grammar lessons’ you mean things like how to introduce yourself and what’s the basic sentence structure, then rest assured, I have those things nailed. Also, I firmly believe that Youtube won’t teach me anything useful/long-term. If I, myself, won’t be the one doing the work, then I’ll forget stuff shortly after I close the video.

Just a week ago, I knew ZERO kanji. I want to properly study Japanese so I need a reliable tool to learn them, and truthfully, the English resources seem better compared to those in my language. WK is one of the things I’ve recently started using.

//That doesn’t change the fact that I’m sitting with the dictionary open in the other tab//
I’m a lil’ jelly of you, native English speakers.

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I have a notebook in which I write out the grammar lessons that the youtube videos at nihongonomori give me… Which makes a 7 minute video take me at least 20 minutes to watch! XD

It certainly helps me, but it’s important to know that everyone has their own learning styles. Once you’ve found yours, keep at it. There are many different ways to study and memorize and practice things. Do you know what kind of learner you are?

Video? Audio? Physical (you have to do it)? A combination (audio-visual?)?
I know some people who cannot learn things unless they figure it out for themselves or work it out for themselves. Some people need music/a song. When you learn these things about yourself, you will learn better.

I hope that helps!

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Not going to post anything helpful as it been debated above…

But you missed a perfect opportunity. You should have titled this pose:
How is that answer incorrect? Or have I lost my marbles.

Tbh, good eye, When i reviewed this item, I didn’t even notice at all - just filled without thinking. Maybe I lost a few marbles.

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Dont worry your not the only one. Even though I do reviews daily it still takes me about 15-20 days to level up. Learning a new language is pretty hard, why most people don’t even try. I have many friends who watch anime and most them don’t even care enough to try learning Japanese because they know it will be difficult.

I have gotten some like 力 九 and others mixed up all the time. It wont be easy but will be worth it, will get many answers wrong and will forget things but just dont give up. Wanikani is for sure the best resource for learning kanji and works well with other resources. Knowing the kanji will make learning grammar and vocab a lot easier.

Edit: also dont forget to use other resources to improve your Japanese. I cant list them all here but there are other topics talking about them. Things like memrise, anki, lingodeer, bunpro, Genki, Japanese from zero.
While wanikani will teach you vocab its main purpose is just teaching kanji, to really learn Japanese will need other resources too.
Wish the best of luck

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That’s interesting. I guess I’ll have to try out those methods and then evaluate which works for me. Whatever the case may be, I think that it all comes down to being pressured/motivated to learn something. I finally have a reason to speak Japanese so I’m more serious about it than I have ever been. So no matter which method I’ll decide on, I’m going to do my best!

Oh my. I didn’t know abouy this idiom before, such a shame. But the opportunity is not yet lost! //secretly changes the title//

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I have been looking for that magic method!

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I once thought that the language in anime is exactly the same as the actual Japanese, and man, was I wrong. And I actually have the Genki textbook but I haven’t done a single chapter yet >…> I thought I should learn some kanji first so I wouldn’t feel as overwhelmed.
Let’s cheer on each other on our way to fluency :sparkles::sparkles: (however long it’ll take)

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Maybe not. But it should be pretty obvious that @tododoki doesn’t really have any problems with English, and any efforts to convince us otherwise can be attributed to modesty. :wink:

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It’s just that my self-esteem is as high as me.
And I’m rather short

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