Yeah, I didn’t know those too. kkk. Ladle was a nightmare for me to remember. And kleat kkk. Oh my!
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One thing I’ve noticed I have to be mindful of with example sentences is that the way the vocabulary words are translated in the context of the sentence is not always a valid synonym when you do a review. It doesn’t happen often, but often enough to be noteworthy. You really have to flip back and forth and make sure you don’t memorize the wrong meaning (although a few times I felt the example sentence translation was a “better” meaning for the word than the one given under Meaning, and accepted that I’d just have to fail a review once so I could add it as a synonym myself).
I do find example sentences useful, though, just as an impression of how the words are used “in the wild,” even if I still can’t read the bulk of it. And in that respect, the usage patterns list for some words is also very helpful—especially when it comes to learning which particles the words expect.
at first i found the example sentences to be mildly annoying, but the further i go the angrier they make me: they could be useful. they could be informative. they could reinforce the material. they could be a learning aid.
instead someone at tofugu is jacking off to how weird and random and long winded they can be.
do they have any clue who their demographic are? is this designed for people who just so happen to speak fluent japanese without ever having seen a kanji before? it’s baffling. a 3 line long example sentence filled with kanji that haven’t been taught yet, only to use the kanji from the lesson in a way that doesn’t even fit the provided definitions.
/rant
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I think the main issue with example/context sentences is that they take way too much liberty with the English version to the point that either the exact translation and/or meaning of the word taught is no longer preserved. Sometimes there are bigger “whoopsies” like in the case of using the English title of 進撃の巨人 to teach the meaning of 進撃 (military advance, advance attack), except that the English title “Attack on Titan” is a mistranslation 
.
And yes, overall it seems like the target audience is different than the target audience for teaching kanji through the WaniKani app.
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I’m just glad they did not use the title バス男 for the example sentence of 男. Otherwise I’d still think that 男 means Napoleon Dynamite.
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“Advance-Attacking Titan” just doesn’t have the same ring to it 
.
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See I’m not anywhere near level 60. Best I got was level 16 then I reset after falling off for a year and I’m on level 5 right now but I don’t mind the vocab. But not being able to hit a button for “that was a typo, I swear I know it” on a reading is really frustrating as I usually go really fast and sometimes my fingers slip up. Especially if I’m on mobile. I know people will use it to cheat and say they knew something when they don’t but since there’s no reward for completing level 60 outside of bragging rights and being better at the language it seems like it should be an easy trade off to make.
For mobile, you should use an app like Tsurukame (iOS) or Flaming Durtles (Android) which have an ignore feature.
You might consider a userscript on desktop such as Double Check, but in any case, use them wisely!
I don’t know if it’s a mistranslation or just a bad translation. That is, the “Attack on” Titan works for translating 進撃 adequately. That is, as in “Keep attacking,” or “attack onwards”. This use of the word “on” is similar to the phrase “play on!”
The problem is that most people interpreted the “Attack on” portion as “Attack” on Titan.
That is, an attack on where/what? Titan.
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I agree with this to some extent. I’d love the sentences to be more comprehensible at the level they appear.
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Its a shit translation, but I don’t think they ever intended for it to be a good one.
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Correct. It’s also useful to know that Attack On Titan is a sequel to the Carry On franchise
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