Is using a Japanese keyboard "cheating"?

Hi! This is a bit of a weird question, since obviously it should be good to use a Japanese keyboard when typing in Japanese. But when when I use this keyboard, the suggested kanji I am typing pops up, since (surprise!) it’s a keyboard that fluent Japanese speakers use. [I use the Japanese swipe keyboard (the one that you swipe up/down/left/right to get each kana) instead of the qwerty keyboard that transforms roman letters into kana.]

Using this keyboard, I can see immediately if I’m using the right or wrong reading, and I am able to change my answer accordingly when I start to type the wrong reading (though tbh I usually notice I’m wrong before the keyboard doesn’t pop up with the right kanji). Also, it’s not 100%–sometimes I’ll get the kanji I’m looking for with the wrong reading, or get the wrong kanji with the right reading, which is bizarre. I’m guessing it’s just a context thing.

I can’t tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing, since even though I am forcing myself to remember the correct readings, I’m not getting the answers “wrong” in the first place in the SRS system.

Not sure how to end this post so have a crabigator :crabigator:
Thanks!

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If you’re using a mobile app for WK, most of them have options to prevent the suggestions from popping up, IIRC.

Using the suggestions to get the right answer would take some of the meaning out of using a tool like WK, for sure.

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If it shows the kanji before you can answer. I’m confident that it would sabotage your learning on WK in the long term. I think it’s even worse than using a script that could undo your answer.

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Using direct kana input (on desktop) in Google’s IME I disable all suggestions during review sessions for precisely this reason.

Another solution (on any platform) would be to commit one or two kana at a time to block the prediction from working.

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Unfortunately I would say yes, that probably is messing up your SRS.

Yeah… that’s what I was worried about. I’ll stick to the QWERTY keyboard I guess, even though I don’t like it as much. Thanks everyone!!

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I use the swipe keyboard on the phone because i always miss things on qwerty and rely on autocorrect. Yeah it is cheating but it also looks more cool to others when you do high apm swipes.

Also this video inspired me to use it back then: Google 日本語入力物理フリックバージョン - YouTube

I just spent an hour reading about this. Thanks. :expressionless:

One thing nobody mentions here.
I use flick input on my phone with flaming durtles, and yes, it totally shows the kanji I’m typing.

But you can ignore it. Just don’t look there. Might sound weird at first, but your brain is really good at not seeing things that you’ve told it are not important.

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I’m actually training myself to do that now! I type so much more quickly with the swipe keyboard lol. Sometimes I physically cover the popup kanji with my other hand

I don’t feel like that’s necessary, and it will slow you down somewhat, the other hand is perfect for the tenten button, if not for the other half of the keyboard.

Tbf, I am not the fastest with it and I do make a lot of mistakes from time to time, but that’s the whole reason I’m doing it.

The least that can be said is that you need to be honest with yourself while learning. If it’s helping you get the right answers despite the fact that you feel you didn’t deserve to have it marked as correct, chances are you’re sabotaging yourself.

I personally don’t use WK on mobile because I feel much more comfortable with my desktop keyboard typing speed.

Ah, but then how do you durtle while you poop?

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