Notes about vocab/kanji

[fixbane]

Hey all,

Was wondering if there’s an already existing list of notes I could import or something that has more info on words or individual kanji. I’ve found that I learn things better if I know facts about them, like for example a quick usage guide vs other kanji/words with similar meaning, or a note about why words have a weird reading. The usage sentences are sometimes ok but a lot of times I don’t know specific grammar or non-kanji words to really read those, and there usually isn’t a focus on the reasons why words are used like they are, or why this word was used instead of another one with a similar meaning.

I think things like this exist in various places across Japanese dictionaries/other learning things, but wasn’t sure if there was an easy way to put something like this in, or if my best bet would be to manually edit… Probably not likely to happen given my current free time being very low.

Thanks anyone for reading!

[Jaredrules]

Yeah, I do wish there were more explanations, and not just “this is a weird reading” because I’m the same way.

[MegaZeroX]

Generally I think Weblio is both the best English Japanese dictionary and native Japanese dictionary.

For the first, in addition to being better at showing how it is actually used, also has a section of example sentences that often has like hundreds, with many not originating from the Tanaka Corpus (which is unreliable).

If you are confused about nuance between words/readings X and Y, usually googling “X vs Y” will give you decent results, from a combination of the Japanese Stack Exchange and Hinative.

As for not understanding the grammar in examples, I’d say that is usually a sign that you need to be working on grammar. Nuance isn’t really worth much if you can’t read basic Japanese sentences yet.

[ekg]

@fixbane

The usage sentences are sometimes ok but a lot of times I don’t know specific grammar or non-kanji words to really read those, and there usually isn’t a focus on the reasons why words are used like they are, or why this word was used instead of another one with a similar meaning.

I think of WK as purely a tool for learning kanji. So, for getting the context you need to go outside of WK, whether that is reading manga, watching anime, JP dramas, listen to drama CDs, or something else. You need that extra immersion if you don’t live in Japan to connect the words and phrases to the right situations. Experiencing the language in the wild is the best way to do that.

As for your wish to import notes, I don’t personally know of something like that. I do make a lot of notes myself though, as part of how I learn the new kanji.

But, as an extra, I also have the Keisei-userscript by @acm2010 installed. Now, this doesn’t really add notes as you wanted, but you do get extra info during your lessons related to the semantic-phonetic composition of kanji, which places their readings in context. It’s a long shot, but I thought I’d mention it anyways, as I do find it helpful in navigating the readings of kanji. (and this doesn’t require you to make your own notes).

[Userscript] Keisei 形声 Semantic-Phonetic Composition

Keisei Semantic-Phonetic Composition by acm I am proud to release the stable version of my first script, Keisei Semantic-Phonetic Composition! Installation Instructions Get Tampermonkey (installation instructions in this thread) Click on the installation link (Tampermonkey should auto-detect .user.js files) Install the script after you check the security (at least see that script will only change the wanikani website, all @include should be related to WK ) News v1.7.3: Fixed issue whe…

[fixbane]

Thanks all. And regarding the ability to use nuance, definitely higher than my current overall level- my point is that knowing the nuance for myself is a better way to remember it.

Thank you for the links and userscript, sounds like I’ll need to make my own version of this. Was just hoping this was already done as it helps me more to have facts about it than it does to have mnemonics only. Remembering for example that this reading is probably weird because otherwise it sounds too close to another word really drives the points home for me.

If wk is purely a tool for learning kanji only then I’m a little confused at the majority of the content being vocab- just was hoping there was something there to give a little more context.

Thanks again!

[prouleau]

@fixbane

If wk is purely a tool for learning kanji only then I’m a little confused at the majority of the content being vocab- just was hoping there was something there to give a little more context.

The vocab is there to solidify the knowledge of the kanji used in the vocab. Some vocab are also used to introduce additional readings of the kanji on top of the one taught with the kanji. You turn up learning more vocab in the process which is very useful. But this is not the main point of the site.

[Leebo]

@fixbane

If wk is purely a tool for learning kanji only then I’m a little confused at the majority of the content being vocab- just was hoping there was something there to give a little more context.

Imagine a tool for teaching English pronunciation. You would obviously need to introduce words as examples of how to make different sounds in the language, but if your focus was on the pronunciation, you wouldn’t spend much time explaining in detail how to use the words. Just enough to make sure people can understand the basics of the word. That’s what WK is like, but with kanji.