Is it just me or do some of the levels in the 30's seem sadistic?

I am currently in level 37 and up to this point, I have learned that several words can be expressed in MANY ways! I mean how many ways do I need to know the words “consent” , “agreement”, “request” and “trust”? It makes it difficult to memorize even with the examples. Are all these ways of saying the same thing really necessary?? Please help!

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They only all seem the same because of the oversimplified Japanese to English translation. Many have their own nuance or use case and aren’t necessarily interchangeable. (Don’t ask me which ones though!)

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We have tons of synonyms for these words in English as well.

I would recommend looking up words in a Japanese thesaurus when you have trouble telling what their differences are.

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You can always check websites like this:

to learn more about the difference between similar Japanese words.

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I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about

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I’m sure you just wanted to make that lifetime subscription worthwhile.

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look them up in the Japanese dictionary and use http://hinative.com to ask for nuance clarifications.

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使い分け is also a good search term to use if you want to see explanations of nuance differences by native speakers.

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I think that is going to be my next step…

Your comment just made my day :smiley:! I am sorry that you strugged with that level for 392 days. I wouldn’t wish that for my worst enemy!

I will certainly start doing that but in the meanwhile, I have to memorize those very definitions for WaniKani or else be marked wrong (so in the end, I’m really stuck learning many words with the “same” translation)…:sweat:

What you really have in a lot of cases is just the fact that words have many definitions. When you take words in two languages that share some definitions, they likely won’t share all of them.

“application” has 6 main definitions in Merriam Webster, and there’s no particular reason to expect Japanese to use the same word for “a program that performs a particular task or set of tasks” and “a medicated or protective layer or material” the same way we do in English.

It’s just that, in some cases, those definitions are more subtly different than the ones I just mentioned.

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So the levels 31-40 aren’t called ‘Hell’ for nothing, I guess… :see_no_evil:

Also, looking up stuff on Japanese sites intimidates me. :eyes: Better prepare my kokoro myself :durtle_the_explorer:

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Yes, I agree with words having many different meanings depending on context. I was just wondering is there is a need to learn all such definitions? Wouldn’t 1 or 2 ways of saying “agreement” would be enough for the WaniKani program to still be successful?

I forgot that about levels 31-40 being “hell”. It certainly is living up to that!!

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Yeah, I’ve kept up a pretty rapid pace with WK up until I was in the 30’s. It’s brutal, but we’re almost free! (Unless the 40’s are worse)

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がんばってね:muscle:

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Well, I mean, if they’re all written with different kanji, and combos of kanji, then isn’t that what we’re here for? :slight_smile:

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Absolutely, but 2-3 ways of saying “consent etc…” is more than plenty imho. I would guess that the average person doesn’t use the word “consent” with 5+ different nuances…:smile:

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