Hello all. It seems like there’s always a frothy anger about WaniKani’s strict handling of typos, but some people don’t seem as bothered by it. I had the realization that my own passiveness about it might be related to having bought the lifetime sub on sale, and that if I was paying month to month having a typo throw something back into the SRS would annoy me a lot more and add to the sense of urgency I felt. It basically ties a real dollar value to each word and the longer it takes to burn, the more that word costs.
To clarify before the attack dogs are unleashed, I don’t love makin’ typos and having to redo a word, but I don’t mind having to practice it again too much either cause I figure I’ll do it all in time.
Do you think your feelings on the friction points - like typos - in WaniKani are stronger or weaker than average because of your subscription method?
Hi.
Yes, it could be that a lifetime subscription takes a little pressure off but for me how long I have to pay for isn’t an issue. I just feel frustrated with myself if I get something wrong when I 100% correctly knew it but just typed it wrong clumsily. As the kanji and vocab get more complex and so similar to others it’s so easy to trip up when you were 99% there so a typo when I knew it drives me nuts.
Honestly I remove the frustration points in wanikani.
I have double check for typos, I hide the level up or level down when doing reviews and also use back to back. I am able to finish 100-150 reviews in 15mins to 30 mins.
I don’t think I have any frustration due to the subscription methods I use. Maybe because I’m using scripts
You may be right. I’m a Lifetime subscriber who used to use an ‘undo’ script, but after a while deciding if something was a ‘true’ mistake or not was causing me more stress than the typos. So I deleted all my scripts and just let the SRS do it’s thing.
The ones that still annoy me are where I have the right answer but think “No, it’s x” which is of course wrong
I have the double check script for typos and I have lifetime subscription but I still reserve the right to be irrationally angry at a kanji memorization app, thank you very much.
I was monthly subscribed to get to 42 but my complaint wasn’t the typos, it was the fact that the meanings are very much American and as someone that is definitely not american, failing something like お菓子 because I said sweets and not candy is criminal.
the service being VERY strict on the japanese input is warranted because there is literally no predictive text using an IME and even a native 12-key keyboard won’t infer what you meant like using spell check to type an English sentence.
tbh, even with Double Check, I still see typo as an issue – There can still be misleading Reds or Greens that aren’t submitted yet, due to typo acceptance. And acceptance can come from a valid hidden synonym, but the ?typo has a wrong meaning.
Block lists don’t make me wrong when typo’d, but I actually see that as a non-issue.
Reporting to Worst Typo thread all you can, but it’s only just like healing a deep-seated wound with plasters.
Always monthly/yearly turned me towards Double Check for sure. I like typing and can usually type with few typos, but I don’t like taking time to remember exact English words or phrases. I usually look up further elsewhere, also. Keywords are worse than phrases, imo, because they are harder to remember long term; and they hardly help at all with Japanese fluency (so less incentive).
No idea about mobile experience. Even if the website is mobile-accessible, typing experience might not be on par. Mobile apps are third-party.
As for the frustration, my point of view is that until I learned the last item, every item will potentially be burned before the last one, so mistakes don’t cost me anything other than more workload. I will start worrying about it after learning everything.
I use double check script, but always make sure I redo only typos, if I genuinly thought the answer is something it is not, I will use the script to force a mistake. Typos are not real mistakes and shouldn’t be punished, so I recommend everyone to use a script to handle them. You just need to be willing to accept mistakes even if it is soooooo easy to just undo them. Resist the temptation.
This. I can never remember if 斬殺 is killing with a sword or stabbing with a sword or slaying with a sword or dying from the sword or murder with a sword…I do add half of these as synonyms but then my brain comes up with a new way to say it.
It’s true lifetime took away the sense of urgency that I must finish asap or pay more money. But I lost a lot of time to covid and I think part of me is rushing to 60 just because I’m only one human and I have zero ability to predict when the next giant life crisis will happen and/or if it would be big enough to take me away from SRS.
But also if I’m typing on mobile I tend to give myself more grace with typos. Normal Japanese input on mobile is usually with the 12 key layout, but I’m using the regular keyboard and frequently will say かく out loud and type kaki or kski or kaky. Thankfully it doesn’t let me submit a mix of English characters and Japanese so ｋｓき is always rejected.
This is the way for me though. My goal is to learn kanji, which enables me to read text containing kanji more quickly than having to guess stroke order or try to guess looking up by radicals. Arguing over whether I know rut isn’t spelled ryt or the difference between wise and clever is counterproductive and a waste of time I could be putting towards paying attention to kanji.
Just as an edit to my point: I started my reviews right now, and 名 the radical came up. I typed “name” but I was so fast that my scripts were still loading and reset my answer, so it only input “ame” and marked it wrong. I saw the n on the screen before it reset my answer - it wasn’t even a typo. I burned the kanji years ago at this point. I’m undoing it.
I’m a lifetimer and the issue with the way wanikani handle typos goes beyond the monthly/yearly subscription. It’s complete disregard to UX 101 which is taking into consideration the range of your costumers hardware and software compatibility to your product plus the accessibility issue. And it’s not that wanikani aren’t aware of accessibility it’s just that they fail to get that handling typos has anything to do with it.
I feel like there is a difference when you have lifetime. For me it means I can take things slowly and not worry that I’m throwing money down the drain if I take too long. Though I do still get frustrated with typos, that’s at myself and not not at the site.
Oh yes, I’m so happy I got the lifetime, because when I was at level 3 I had no freaking idea how overwhelmed I was going to be and how much slower I’m going to progress! I imagined myself gulping one level a week forever, little did I know that one level per two months would become a more realistic pace. If I hadn’t bought the lifetime, it would either have become super stressful, or I would have abandoned Wanikani altogether.
Having a lifetime subscription is definitely one of the reasons why typos are my friends and not my enemies.
