Is there an App that makes WaniKani less strict?

But hodou and houdou wouldn’t sound the same in speech either…

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After answering, yes.

But the spelling is important in pronouncing the words correctly. To use your example, ほどう and ほうどう aren’t pronounced the same.

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Perfect!

Yes, but I already know the pronunciation :smiley:

Then you should be able to spell them correctly? :man_shrugging:

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Apparently not, haha

Thanks for the help though :smiley:

Yeah, no prob.

Why don’t you just get the ignore answer userscript? Then you can just make every answer correct and not use WaniKani at all.

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Wait so you already know how to speak Japanese but don’t know Kanji?

This post is weird, it’s like saying I want to learn Japanese but don’t really want to learn Japanese.

To answer your question you could also download scritps via tampermonkey to force your mistakes as correct.

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Yes, you cannot add them during the first lesson, but after the first review, you can add synonyms. Go wild with them, I use my own language in some (Spanish).

There is also the iPhone app Tsurukame that allows the synonyms as well.

Vowel length has semantic implications in Japanese whereas in English it does not. This is critical since Japanese orthography has a much closer relationship to pronunciation than English does. The textbook example is the difference between calling someone おじさん vs おじいさん.

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Would you mind explaining to me how you’d pronounce ほうどう and ほどう differently? Or おじさん and おじいさん?

Under the right circumstances, you can learn to speak a language without learning to write it.

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I think he can speak the language, correct pronunciation and all, but just doesn’t realise the differences in pronunciation when there’s a long vowel. He says the correct pronunciation without taking note of it. At least, that’s my guess.

I didn’t mention writing in my comment but that would be learning to speak a language as opposed to learning a language.

Both are totally valid depending on your personal goals.

Wanikani should add an “disintegrate turtle” button. in lesson quiz or later, use this option to instantly remove the item.

For the troublesome items; these are important for your overall Japanese integrity and happiness. But, who am I anyways…

@Leo-Tyrant and you can add synonyms during lessons with this script: [Userscript] WaniKani Lesson User Synonyms v2 (or - without a script - anytime from an item’s info page, even before you’ve done the lesson!)

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Yes, that’s sounds similar to a “heritage speaker” situation - kids who grow in bilingual families can often speak fluently and without accent, but not be able to read or write at all (if language’s alphabet is different).

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Kind of.

In Australian English, we have short and long versions of the “a” in “cat” which just barely create a contrast in meaning: can with a long “a” is the one you drink from, but with a short “a” it’s the auxilliary verb of ability.

More generally, English had a Great Vowel Shift where long vowels began sounding nothing like short vowels, but once upon a time pairs like “bake” and “back”, “bede” and “bed”, “bite” and “bit”, “code” and “cod”, “brook” and “brock” had more or less the same vowel sound. They sound different now but they’re still spelled like they’re long and short versions of the same vowel because reasons.

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Darn it, I was hoping someone wouldn’t mention that. xP When I was fact-checking I saw Australian English still has that distinction but didn’t mention it since I didn’t want to muddy my argument. Completely forgot about the GVS.

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Muahaha… nobody expects an Australian with a linguistics degree…

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