Will learning the radicals actually help me learn the readings of kanji? Does it help when seeing a kanji I’ve never come across before?
Without the radicals I wouldn’t know more than 5 kanji. So for me, yes they really help. Radicals don’t always directly help you with the reading though. Often, there’s a mnemonic based on the radicals to help you remember the meaning, and then a continuation of the same mnemonic to help you with the reading.
(This might be incorrect usage of the word ‘mnemonic’, but I’m basically referring to the little stories that come with each lesson)
Edit:
I think I originally misunderstood your question. Do you mean if it will help you figure out completely new kanji? If that’s what you mean, then no. As far as I know, they are only made to help you memorize the kanji, and help you remember those you’ve already learnt.
SOMETIMES, and only sometimes, the “main” radical (this is what it’s under in a dictionary) can help you figure out the category of a kanji, but not it’s full meaning. Like anything with 言 on the left hand side (語, 記) tends to be about talking. Words with 火 tend to be fire or cooking terms…
Yes it will help when coming across unfamiliar kanji - as you recognize the pieces, you can search with them on electronic dictionaries, their “search by radical” function. However some parts are made up by WaniKani just to break it down further and for more mnemonics… So you might not find everything in the electronic dictionary right away. Later, you will recognize which radicals you can search with more easily. : )
EDIT: And what Chezmax said is true too… Just like how anything with 心 squished at the bottom or to the left usually has something to do with feelings. (It by itself means “heart”.)
Hi Good day! I’m new here and I’m having a little trouble answering my first lesson in Kanji. I answered the “enter” as にゅう I got correct but when I answer other Kanji like the “seven” as しち, it won’t and instead the textbox shake as well as the “person” as にん. Please help…
Try refreshing the page and make sure you don’t have multiple WaniKani tabs open.
Ok. ありがthank youございmuch!
Still wont work. I answer 十 as じゅう, but the textbox shake again same in the “power” kanji I try to answer りゅく or りき or both still the same.
What browser are you using?
@viet maybe you can ask better questions to get to the bottom of it.
Can you post a screenshot?
Just making sure… it’s not asking for meaning, is it?
You’re right. I tried many times and I figured it out, the quizzes were asking for meaning and reading, both. I didn’t notice earlier. Sorryません みんあ!
It shouldn’t shake for that, should it? Still sounds like a bug.
Well I guess the textbox shaked because it’s looking for a hiragana character instead of romaji for the reading quiz and vice versa
The IME is built into the system, it converts romaji to hiragana automatically when you type in the reading field. Were you using a separate IME to input hiragana in the meaning field (which doesn’t have the IME functionality for obvious reasons).
I got a little confuse in the quiz tho, some of the hiragana are from on’yomi and others are from kun’yomi.
It’ll shake if it is asking for meaning and the text input contains a kana character.
It’ll also shake if it is asking for reading and the text input contains an alphanumeric character.
Hi! New to the community, just checking things out
Welcome! Poke around, don’t forget to read the FAQ and pinned topics - and don’t be shy!
Is it pink for kanji, or purple for vocab? That will make a difference for Power, at least.