Yes, I realized it doubly today again when I learned 普及 in Tobira and it turned out the word has nothing to do with “diffusion” which is a physicochemical process. The definition in WaniKani is misleading and the context sentence uses 普及 exactly the way the word should be used, contrary to the definition . There is sadly more words like that…
I think in general it would be good if the “haha funny” definitions were replaced with actual useful word definitions or the glosses aligned closer with what the word means.
I think the other one that made me wonder was 血液型:
WK’s word choices are baffling sometimes, but diffusion is the first definition in the 10ten dictionary and Jisho for 普及. The other definitions seem consistent with that to me .
The root concept is the process of spreading something into a wider medium. Like a solute into a solvent in chemistry, or a meme into the minds of the general public. Usually the implication is that the process is not complete unless the sentence is in past tense.
Examples: “BTS has spread much further than BTK did, thank goodness” “Salt your steak the day before to allow time for the salt to diffuse throughout the meat”
English is my first language, and dare I say, I’m pretty good at it. I’m always happy to help with the nuances of English if anyone wants to chat.
yeah i fear a lot of the nuance of english is being lost. i’ve found the definitions generally useful (however sometimes i’ll rely on a secondary meaning to supplement it as I think was intended, in cementing them in my brain). often it helps to try and imagine how the english term would be used in writing as honestly a lot of the words are rarely used in everyday speech (much like how many of these kanji/vocab readings probably aren’t as common in speech as writing as well).
Yes, but the difficulty is that from what I understand 普及 is never about the diffusion of physicals stuff, like a solute into a solvent, salt diffusing throughout meat or particle diffusing throughout the air, it’s always about the diffusion/spread/popularization/dissemination of <new technology, idea, knowledge, product, trend>
Tbh, I’d argue that a field of rice and a rice field are different things occasionally, but the distinction is fairly useless. A rice field is a bit of farmland used for rice whereas a field of rice could either be a rice field or a large patch of wildly growing rice. But when would you see a large patch of rice growing in the wild? Probably never.
Like other people have said, definitely more useful to add synonyms in your native language after a certain point (like now) :).
I’m a native English speaker but I think your post is very valid and I commend you for learning another language via your non-native language. That isn’t easy!
With that said, I think it would be helpful to many members in your situation if you have a thread where members can post English meanings of kanji characters they don’t understand so native speakers can help them out!
(Since that’s already happening in this thread, you can always change the thread title so other non-native English speakers can ask for clarifications too.)
I’m not qualified at all to talk about the Japanese nuances, so that may be true. However, diffusion is not limited to physical interactions either, despite it’s most common usages now days being in the physical sciences.
This is one time I’m glad that I have English as my native language. I’ve not much to contribute here, aside from encouraging you to utilize user synonyms in your own language more (as another commenter already suggested).
Btw, probably completely out of left field here, but if you ever make a big list of wanikani words with their English + Thai equivalents would you mind sharing it? It’d be really helpful for me (really struggling with my Thai vocab right now, haha).
I think I’ve seen quite a few people doing this user synonym stuff (polv, the dev of jakeipuu) but there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to export it, unfortunately.
Edit: also, it seems kinda obvious, but it would probably be more accurate if you translated the Japanese term (instead of the English gloss) directly into Thai for user synonyms. I think there are a couple of dictionaries for that.
Exactly this. Those are different nuances, it’s just that English is not very good with nuances like that and recycles words.
普及 - diffusion, spread, popularization (of a concept, idea, etc.) 拡散 - diffusion, scattering (of light, gas) 散乱 - diffusion, scattering (in a physical sense)
@Tenugui in cases like this it’s a good idea to check a JP-JP dictionary as well
EDIT:
I did some extra digging after 普及 came up several times in a Tobira reading passage and it seems in Japanese there are completely different words depending on which X “diffuses” in which Y and supposedly 普及 is not used when one talks about the dissemination/spread of information.
I’d argue plenty of the kanji don’t have a proper english translation. Probably lots of abstract concepts don’t have a good match. Wanikani just picks the closest translation they can. Also, Japanese is fairly contextual, these words don’t often get used alone. Looking at example sentences (or reading books) can help you with seeing it in context.
In that situation, I just add a synonym and move on. It’s annoying when you incorrectly “miss” an item like that, but it will come up again sooner or later, and next time you’ll have the synonym in place.
I can’t even remember how many different synonyms I’ve come up with for “secret photography”. It seems like every time, I put in a slightly different wording!
Uhh maybe it’s just because I’ve made so little Japanese forward progress since March (I’ve had great retention at least), but this feature doesn’t ring a bell. I just found it but I didn’t realize what people were talking about with the synonym thing until now. Thanks for clarifying this and bringing it to my attention. I’m not sure I ever knew about it.
Ha! I initially kept “incorrectly” writing “to humbly say” instead of “correctly” writing “to say humbly.” Adding “to humbly say” to Synonym was the way to go in this instance if I humbly say myself!
Sometimes I feel I’m learning more English than Japanese doing my reviews on WK. There are words and expressions I’ve never heard before, so I have to google them to get their meaning.
I’ve seen several “reality” words, but when should I use one and not another?
It would be great if WK would do a little more to explain the specific nuance or usage of words it teaches. And don’t give me that “well the words are just there to train kanji” because if they’re teaching words they can at least teach them accurately.
HOWEVER
I also don’t think it’s necessary either.
When I started WK, I had a lot of naive ideas about how it was important to learn the items correctly, so that I didn’t have to unlearn things later on. And I mean that is kinda important but… the point of WK is really to get you to a point where you have basic Japanese literacy. If you can see a squiggle and know basically what it means, and ideally read it out loud, then WK has done its actual job. Anything else is gravy.
So it’s not super important for WK to teach you exactly when to use (e.g.) one “reality” word vs. another or whatever. You’ll get that from reading, additional vocab study, or whatever you use to learn more Japanese. WK makes it so that you can recognize “reality” when you see it so that you can learn it better.
I use a script to let me repeat wrong answers and as long as I got the general sense of a word, I’ll use it to mark my answer right (and maybe add the synonym for later). Because I don’t care if I accidentally nouned an adjective or whatever as long as I remember what it was talking about, I can figure that out from context when I’m reading and even if I have to relearn a few things it’s a drop in the ocean compared to all the stuff I still have to learn for the first time.
Not even in 30+, and yet I still occasionally find some random nonsense I’ve never heard of before. Like chute. Guess I can’t wait to see what the higher levels have in store for me :laughing: Honestly though, I personally don’t find it frustrating at all - I think it’s super exciting to learn new stuff and improve my English on the side without actually having to ‘study’ it actively. I consider it to be a lil bonus to the efforts I already put into studying :3
. There is sadly more words like that…
