Hey guys!
I recently moved on to learning my kanji once I had finished upgrading 90% of my radicals to Guru level. When it came to actually typing out the ‘reading’ of the kanji I honestly found it a bit disorientating. On the first reading I tried typing in the two On’yomi I had learned for that specific Kanji but ended up being told I that I had got it wrong. At the time I couldn’t understand why it had said I got the answer wrong, but when another Kanji with two On’yomi popped up again I tried typing only one of the readings in and it succeeded. So now I know, but I didn’t then, and as a result I got a fair few Kanji wrong, which quite frankly is unnecessary, and they were ones that I genuinely knew. Another thing is I installed a Japanese keyboard onto my computer. It works in approximately the same way as WaniKani’s; it makes you type out the Japanese phonetically in English and then it translates it into Hiragana or Katakana. I attempted using this instead and it ended up using a mix of Hiragana and Katakana, I thought nothing much of it, “why should it matter as long as the correct pronunciation is there”, alas it corrected me wrong once again.
So I have a suggestion: I think there should be some sort of small explanation as to how to type the reading correctly. And I know what you’re thinking, “What sort of dim-wit can’t grasp something that’s quite simple?” Well, honestly with people like me I constantly misinterpret pretty basic clues, it’s just the way I am. So that’s why I think it necessary for this to be done; for people like me who miss the obvious. It can be disorientating when you’re not completely sure why the algorithm is telling you you’re wrong when, to you, your answer seems pretty valid. And even though it’s a pretty small thing, I think it would be great if you could fit it in!
So once again, all I’m asking for is a small explanation about how you’re supposed to answer, it might prevent any confusion for future learners. If you had/ have the same difficulty with the app then comment! And if you think what I’m saying is unnecessary and stupid then also say so!
Otherwise I absolutely love WaniKani, you guys are truly doing a great job!
Thanks
P.S A small hello to Koichi, the half-naked construction worker with a nice mouth!
Both of these are explained in the FAQ, but I agree with you that WaniKani could do a much better job of explaining this kind of thing to new users within the app itself.
P.S. I’ve moved your topic to the feedback section since it’s not actually a bug.
Are you sure you actually typed the answer correctly? As far as I can tell, it does not matter if you use your own IME. I just used mine to answer a few and everything was marked correct.
To be honest, a little optional tutorial wouldn’t hurt?
For example, there are a lot of topics from users that have not been introduced to the concept of, for example きゅう, and confuse it with きゆう. つ vs っ also could give some issues to beginners. Another interesting problem would to write ぢ and づ. A small explanation of the IME and basic hiragana tricks and tips might not be such a bad addition.
I totally agree! Dakuten can be really confusing, especially for beginners. Luckily for me I knew what it was from when I learned my Hiragana and Katakana on Tofugu. But if you managed to learn those elsewhere, and that resource hadn’t mentioned Dakuten, I know I’d be confused.
I think dakuten are hopefully par for the course for most Hiragana sources, however interacting with Wanikani’s homegrown IME regarding dakuten etc in some cases might be a bit of a challenge for a beginning learner.
I am completely used to it by now, so I have forgotten the initial struggles. But starting with a feeling of unfairness could turn people away from their brilliant method.
