Hi, I am fairly new to this course because I am aiming for JLPT N3 and above level kanji. I am already certified as N5 on the JLPT so starting fresh is somewhat frustrating to say the least. What is bothering me is the fact that with my experience of the Japanese language and multiple text books and reference material, there is an abundance of mistakes in the course or vocabulary to kanji that is marked wrong when it is in fact correct or how it is actually written in a Japanese dictionary or course.
Examples are from the beginning æąăă often most JLPT textbooks will have âto make stopâ as an option, sadly this is missing from wanikani and as a result am marked wrong, forced to wait up to 12 hours for a review before more lessons come available. The next one ć€ăă âto come undoneâ again this is missing from the vocabulary of wanikani and is actually a common Japanese word that they would use if a button or shoe lace has come undone. Other frustrations are the names of radicals which are rather dogmatic on this course and do not reflect what they are called in some JLPT material or other Kanji dictionary type books.
Is anyone else having problems like this and if so what can we do to overcome it.
Add your own user synonyms if you want. WK canât possibly cover every possible English translation that every resource out there covers by default.
There is functionally no difference between WKâs âto stop somethingâ and âto make stop.â But you can phrase the same meaning a variety of ways in English, so thatâs just something that you typically have to deal with with user synonyms.
As for the radical names, they are designed specifically for the mnemonics that WK makes, so of course they are sometimes unique to this site. Anyone not making the same mnemonics wouldnât use them. The JLPT does not test radicals, so there really shouldnât be any conflict with JLPT resources anyway. Someone studying for, say, the Kanji Kentei will need to know the Japanese radical names, but thatâs beyond the scope of WK.
Like @Leebo stated, use user synonyms. WaniKani lets you input your own meanings for reasons just like this. Its not fair to say WaniKani is âfull of mistakesâ because they use a slightly different meaning. If you had done WaniKani first, then gone to those other materials, would you then say they were âfull of mistakesâ? Both are correct, but you canât expect everything to teach everything 100% the same.
omg, so I saw the user synonym thing, but for some reason, it didnât click that it would then accept your added synonym as a correct answerâŠthis could have saved me so much trouble earlier on for similar mistakes as the OP Thanks for the tip!
To add to what Leebo and DaisukeJigen said, if you find a critical meaning that isnât at all covered by the WK-provided list, you can email the WK team at hello@wanikani.com and ask them to add it to all users. Kristen posts what changes were made on a weekly basis in this thread:
There is a reason that few meanings are listed. Especially when there are a wide range of applications, it isnât beneficial for the learner to list them all. Found/Know any other? Add them manually. This doesnât have to be done in reviews, you can search for vocab in the wanikani database and add them there.
But of course, if you had been paying attention during the lessons, you wouldâve seen that particular translation missing.
Also note that in the case of vocab this wonât affect your leveling up speed.
Thanks so I see I can go into the word details and add user synonyms. That is helpful. It is probably best to do that in advance to save wasting time by waiting like 4 hours, 8 hours or even 12 hours to review it before new lessons become unlocked slowing the process down.
Yeah. If you feel like you miss translations often, just keep an extra tab open during lessons. I donât think it will take that much time, as you can view the vocab/kanji/radicals per level as well.
You can use the wanikani override script to have your answer ignored if you deem it was wrongly marked incorrect, then add your answer as a synonym. You wonât be penalized for not adding your synonyms before your reviews this way.
Note that this script is easily abusable, so if you think you lack discipline you may want to stay clear of it.
Yep, I got liberty added to èȘç± and saving added to äżć. I felt they were pretty important and I provided context (screenshots of applications, links to jisho.org, etc). If you think itâs going to be a big help for other people to have more context, it doesnât hurt to see if It can be added for everyone.
You can also use this script to add your created synonyms during lessons rather than open a new tab to create them during your lessons.
One thing to keep in mind is that synonyms donât work for the lesson test, but they should work for the reviews going forward. Iâm not sure if that issue has been resolved since Iâve last used it, but the script is useful nevertheless.
The script that rfindley linked to specifically lets you add user synonyms during lessons already. Seanblue was wondering if it also works during post-lesson quiz, but it does not.
Edit: Although, I just checked, and itâs not working for me right now. Iâll have to poke around at my scripts.
I didnât mean you can add synonyms during the quiz. I meant that if you answer using a synonym you added before the quiz your answer would be accepted.
This is what I was referring to in my earlier post. In the past, I tried and failed. Whether thatâs changed, Iâm not sure. Seanblue understands what Iâm talking about.
Thanks for that info re the override script. I am just wondering how I do that. I think I need to use it.
Just as an example I had reviews this morning and got scored wrong for seattle city where I had to type it in Japanese. I typed shiatorishi instead of shiatorushi. Clearly an easy mistake ăăăšă ăăăă ă·ăąăă« ă·ăąăăȘ given that the u and i on the keyboard are next to each other.
This is another example of my frustration with the reviews as it adds it to the queue to be reviewed again when in fact it is a word that I will never need to review because it is such a simple word to remember.
Thanks for the tip!
Iâll have to poke around at my scripts.