First time today I got the warning when I typed “defend” for 防ぐ. The intention is clear; “you knew it, just didn’t type the right syntax. You get a free do-over.” I’m extremely happy about this development. I assume it’s new, since i’ve gone 20 levels without experiencing it.
Other things I’d enjoy seeing: rendaku warning, つ becoming っ warning. I don’t expect a free do-over, I can take the L, (maybe it’s even better didactically like that,) but if the system gave me that sort of hint instead of me clicking on the full explanation, that would feel encouraging.
It is new, yes: Extension of Shake Animation and Messages. Interestingly they had the つ・っ thing as a shake/warning just like this, but after feedback they removed it entirely. I think your proposal is a nice idea though. Still mark it as wrong, but give the hint immediately. You may want to cross-post this suggestion (or link to this thread) in the topic I linked to above. Keep in mind that some people may not want the answer given to them though, as they may want to try a second time before checking for the correct answer.
The thing with つ vs っ is that its a mistake from not knowing how it works, and not really a typo. Its more comparable to no dakuten vs dakuten, which you wouldn’t give a warning for, you’d just mark it as wrong.
In general we should avoid giving more leniency for the japanese inputs. The english ones have more leniency since you know what you’re writing about.
Seanblue’s idea of still marking as wrong but showing you a tip on how it works would be the best option imo
Other errors I would like to see this on (still marked wrong, though):
づ vs ず
じ vs ぢ (as well as the related ya/yu/yo versions)
んや vs にゃ (as well as yu/yo versions)
These would be helpful for those of us who learned to speak Japanese, but never learned the written differences that are ignored when speaking, or how to type it properly.
It is OPs idea, but I still disagree as like the post said, it is basically the same as the difference between typing ふすく instead of ぐ. The extension is to fix common mistakes, mostly on the English side, not give you significant hints as to what the answer is.
I’ve accidentally done this several times. I could be wrong, but I think it just says it’s wrong without any explanation. I’ll try to remember to get it wrong on purpose next time I have one of those come up.
Especially in the first few levels, I also often found myself accidentally entering the reading in when asked for the meaning–this seems like a good spot to say, yes, you’re right, but that’s not what we’re asking for, just like for on’yomi vs. kun’yomi (which BTW should be explicitly listed somewhere during reviews–I think it’s important to be reminded which one you’re using as you’re learning them so you can keep them straight later on). Accidentally putting in the meaning instead of the reading already does this in most cases because the result ends up with dangling letters that couldn’t be converted to hiragana.
I don’t have a horse in the race regarding whether there’s a free do-over or not; I could go either way. I agree that mistakes should be more lenient on the english side than on the japanese; especially since someone might know a different correct english option for a word, that they haven’t added to their synonyms yet. The precedent for that sort of thing is already set by having the user synonyms function and I approve of it strongly.
What I would like however, is if my mistake is say, a simple rendaku error (like おりかみ instead of おりがみ) i would get a shaking screen and a notification saying “Rendaku!”. If I need more detailed advice, I should still have the option of going down to the detailed explanation, but if it gave me that simple hint I would jog the noggin and perhaps instantly recall the correct answer for the next try. I might also mess up again; thinking the rendaku was supposed to be elsewhere, like when it jumps to an unexpected mora in bigger words. Same for っ, it can go red for all I care, but instant feedback telling me “you sure you want a big つ there pal?” would get keep me more immersed in the fight. Perhaps there’s an analogy to context switching to be made here; i’d rather not interrupt the flow.
