Most common reading or usage not in examples and loan word usage

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Just noticed once in a while that the most common reading of a kanji or usage of a word is often not reflected in the examples provided. For example the examples for 車両 were all used as “vehicle” rather than “railroad car”. So is railroad car actually the most common usage or is it vehicle? Can’t think of any kanji readings off the top of my head but I know I’ve seen some where it’s listing the readings and then none or few of them were the readings used in any of the examples. Not doubting the readings, it just seems odd.

Also seems strange how many loan words are used. I get that they may be slow pitches for us who are actively learning kanji so may not be ready for the Japanese word, but depending on common usage, it might lead to bad habits. Going the opposite way, I learned 台所 from a few sources for kitchen, then a tutor told me pretty much everyone says キッチン. I don’t mind learning both but whichever has the most common usage being used more or emphasized would be appreciated.

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Thanks, that’s a good point about 車両 - I’ll bring it to the content team’s attention.

For 台所, I agree I mostly hear キッチン in conversation but we still think 台所 is useful to know especially as it reinforces the kanji :sweat_smile:

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I want to address this. Tutors and even just any native people you talk to will, fairly often, say something on WK isn’t used often when people speak.

But WK is a platform to learn Kanji, which is used for reading - books, manga, anime/movie/news subtitles, song lyrics, etc… And I know I have seen 台所 in those settings because book and media Japanese can be very different from spoken everyday Japanese. Many of the words people have complained about being taught in WK, I have seen in books.

This isn’t just in Japanese btw. It’s like how in English we might not say “I’m going on a journey to Europe”, we’d probably say “trip”. But words like journey, voyage, and trek do show up a lot in media/written English, whether it’s a fantasy novel/movie or a self help book about the “journey to a new you”.

So personally I would advise not worrying too much about whether something is common on WK.

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Learning made up words that use on or kun readings also “reinforces the kanji”.

台所 is a top 5000 frequency word on jpdb. It’s actually more frequent than キッチン, so there’s plenty of reason to learn it. I feel like “Kanji reinforcement” is such a scapegoat for bad vocabulary choices on here that it feels weird mentioning it for actually good words

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That was just something I said tongue-in-cheek and didn’t mean to imply it was an official reason for including the word.

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If anything, it feels to me like the share of loanwords / 外来語 is just increasing and increasing. I think the English term “loanword” is misrepresenting what’s actually happening – these words are now 100% Japanese, yoinked from the origin, often with shifted or additional shades of nuance.

As an example, my Japanese teacher recently had trouble recalling what would be スーツケース using only words derived from Japanese, and ultimately decided that 旅行かばん would probably be understandable but weird to use in today’s context.

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Fair enough, never mind my comment then.

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荷物？ But yeah, The カタカナ言葉 has drastically increased. Although thanks to that, there is a fun game called カタカナなし where you have to describe a word without useing any カタカナ words. It’s easy to find at any Japanese store that has games..

Regarding the OP,

My boyfriend’s family all use 台所 and then sometimes they’ll switch it up on me into キッチン They use both interchangebly, I’m not sure the nuance quite yet, but I’m thinking if actively cooking they are more likely to use キッチン and if it’s finding something in that area they will say 台所 like “Where’s the TV remote?” “I think I left it in the 台所” Either way, it’s cool to know both.

also I never encounter 車両 much irl so I still am unsure of what it’s true meaning is…

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