Mnemonic frustration

So this is a source of frustration for me: when the same word is used for different syllables.

In the case of the kanji 数 and the vocabulary 住む, the mnemonic uses the word ‘sued’ to help you remember both ‘suu’ for 数 and ‘su’ for 住む. This may not seem like a big deal, but it really is for me. I’m very reliant on the mnemonics, and when there’s standardised words for individual syllables it is a massive boost to my learning. In this case, it’s particularly problematic for me because these are both introduced in the same level. I’m sure this issue is repeated across several kanji and vocabulary words.

Does anyone else find this problematic or no?

They try to avoid this as much as possible, so it’s probably a mistake. If you email them, they’ll probably change one of the mnemonics so they don’t overlap like this.

While you’re e-mailing them, 吸う also uses the “sue” mnemonic for just the す reading of the kanji.

Apparently other kanji with the on’yomi reading すう also use “sue”, so it appears to be a widespread issue for す・すう.

Maybe it would be better to create a topic to form a snagging list of items people identify this problem on rather than a bunch of sporadic emails with individual examples?

Nah, that’s what the e-mail address is there for - they don’t really check the forums in great detail.

hello@wanikani.com

I was thinking more of using the thread to compile examples and then send as a batch.

Really no point in waiting. Having a thread can’t hurt I suppose, but I’d just email them about these issues as soon as you have time.

There don’t seem to be that many overlapping mnemonics though, as they generally try to avoid them. The す/すう example is one of only a few. It’s probably better to mail them immediately, they can probably change the mnemonic for any word that uses one of those to separate them out.

Fair enough. I’ll pop them an email.

They’re pretty responsive to email and they’re already working on standardizing all of the words/sounds correlated with each of the Japanese character readings.

I emailed them back at the end of September about the same thing regarding using “roe” instead of “road” for ろ in 滅ぼす.