First of all, I’m not an English native speaker. After level 40+, I really feel like the langauge barrier is really high. There are so many times during a review that I put a wrong answer then I just scratch my head confusingly “Aren’t they the same things?”
For example, 照らす I oftenly answer it as “to shine” then the correct answer is “to illuminate”. I was like “what??? Aren’t they the same things?”.
The other one is 田畑 I just don’t understand the different between “field of rice” and “rice field”. Aren’t they the same things?
Also there are some English meanings that a bit too convulted (at least for me) to understand. I don’t get it even after I open an English dictionary. I understand the true meaning of them in Japanese only when I actually use them or encounter them in a book or dramas.
Nah I’m not asking Wanikani to change anything and not even complaining. Wanikani is not perfect but it fine as it is. I just want to get it off my chest and see if anyone struggling like me.
I always recommend using the synonym feature to add stuff in your native language. Hell if I know what a lodge is, but I sure know what’s a chalé/alojar.
I can’t speak to the Japanese meanings, but your first example words are not exact synonyms. They can have similar usage, but shine implies a light source, and illuminate implies the object receiving the light.
Example: “The bat-signal shined into the night, illuminating the clouds”.
The second one is 100% interchangeable english. A field of rice is a rice field.
I think it’s just slight differences in the English nuance that’s throwing you off on these.
For 照らす “to shine” is slightly incorrect as it’s more “to shine on” the distinction here is because the first is more an intransitive action while the second is transitive. Illuminate is transitive as well so I think they went with that to help avoid confusion.
For 田畑 Either one is fine, they mean the same thing. You could also just use field as it doesn’t have to specify a rice field.
If you’re running into issues with English translations I think it would be best if you looked the words up in a Japanese dictionary and add an appropriate word in your native language as a synonym instead.
There is a kanji that really interesting for me in term of history and cultural is 孝.
There is no concept of 孝 in English? I know this is from Confucian and heavily influence East Asian countries. However, I thought there would be a word in English that could describe 孝 in Western culture. I guess there is but it would be better to avoid any confusion so they use the exact term as filial piety.
The concept or at least a similar concept exists in Western culture. There isn’t a single word for it though and filial piety, while accurate, doesn’t get used in regular conversation. It’s mostly tied in with having good manners and being a good child to your parents.
As a non-English speaker I can relate to this, that’s why Double Check is a must-have script for me. If that script doesn’t exist I probably already quit WK a long time ago
At least WK gives you an option to add your own synonym, probably to mitigate this sort of issue.
My mother tongue is not English and I can totally relate to this.
In my head, some groups of words are synonymous. But, after being rejected several times by Crabigator, I ended up: 1) making sure my understanding is correct about the English word or 2) adding the synonym to the system. In most cases, I find slight differences in the English meaning and decide to not adding the synonym since they are not the same thing.
So I guess I’m not learning only Japanese here, but also some English
When I see an English meaning gloss which looks off, I go to Jisho and pull some synonyms. No harm in that.
Also, even above level 40 there are regular words like “telephone pole” (is not but whatever ) so it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes WK goes for less common synonyms like “calisthenics” or “wirepuller” for some reason.
I have been around here a while.
I have watched people’s skill with English improve, out of necessity, while studying Japanese.
It is so hard to learn a second language. I cannot even comprehend the difficulty in learning a third, by way of the second.
You have my commendations.
I just want to say that I’m a native English speaker and sometimes I feel like half my “wrong answers” are a result of situations like this. I’m not very far along (unfortunately been sitting most of the year at level 16 but recently got back into it!), but like with “to warm something up” I put down “to warm up something” and was like, “Really!? You’re going to fault me for not ending in a preposition?”
I know adjusting what the site deems acceptable is probably not worth the effort relative to other features or maintenance they have to work on, but sometimes it can just be really de-motivating. Still, a small price to pay (in addition to the actual price, of course) for what we get out of the service.
I certainly did the same for a lot of items later on. Like anatomy, flower names, legal terminology etc. While you might be able to get yourself to answer correctly the first SRS-intervals, but during the wait for the burn-review?? Yeah, there is no way I’m going to answer correctly in English then. The English terms is shallow knowledge, my native terms are deeply ingrained so a much better foundation for sure as the items you review become very specific in their meanings and nuances.
Honestly I find some of the definitions they provide to be baffling and make learning a card unnecessarily harder. I’ve asked them if they could make it possible to add synonyms when you are first learning a kanji/vocab/radical instead of when you first review them. They said it is in their feature roadmap, but that was over a year ago.
I only use WK from my phone in tsurukame and it does give you the option to select “my answer is correct” and “add as a synonym”…I use both of these options since I know what the Japanese meaning is but I can forget the English term.
English isn’t my mother tongue either and I have come across words I do not know - in English. So I look them up in my own mother tongue and I still can’t remember them in English when they come back, let alone in Japanese.
It is a struggle, definitely. I did end up adding synonyms just to get into the right direction with these kanji / vocabularies. For some I have added the translation into my mother tongue.
For instance, I know view / sight is not the same, but I was drowning in all the view / sight vocabulary, so that I added some as synonyms. (In my mother tongue they are used very similary, so I was already struggling to tell them apart in English, let alone in Japanese.)
Same with the military vocabulary. I even have to look up the English meaning. I have never come across it in my life (thank heavens), so I added a “military” synonym for now. Maybe I will have time to go back and study them later, but right now I can’t afford to have them clogg my leeches.
I know it is a bit of cheating, but I want to go ahead with the vocabulary that I come across a lot when reading what I want to read (which is not about military…).
English is not my native language and also I feel that some words I would never use, then I have to add my own synonym from my native language to try to remember the mnemonics as well.
) so it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes WK goes for less common synonyms like “calisthenics” or “wirepuller” for some reason.
