Petition to make context sentences more understandable

My biggest problem with the context sentences is when the vocabulary word is given an associated meaning and the word has a different meaning in the context sentence, or is part of a compound word which also clearly changes the meaning. I’ve seen it happen more than a few times.

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I actually got a new found appreciation for the sentences, so much so, I going through them as a personal deck. What I’ve found is that in isolation of the WK format (and now that I can read better), they are actually very helpful. The extreme context actually makes words more memorable and I’m mining useful vocab in process. So my threshold is understanding the content completely and not the just vocab focus (otherwise what’s the point) plus many of less common words really need context which I haven’t come across enough to solidify better. I’ve since turned off the auto-generated audio for comprehension, the intonations were driving me nuts but I’ll still play as a study tool, not SRS.

However, what I find most favorable is:

  1. The sentence is a complete context, not an excerpt found in random native material. No matter how crazy they get, it’s complete. That is not something that I can say about some of deeper context sentences on other study platforms.

  2. They are funny, and funny is memorable. The crazy silliness is the heart of WK mnemonics and this well proven.

  3. It’s mostly colloquial which I like, helps with output ideas and I find new expressions/idoms.

  4. They are well vetted by natives at Tofugu so I can trust the translations. Some choices are not too literal and they take some liberties but overall I think it’s done well.

While going through WK, I completely skipped and just checked them out sporadically so I can see why the petition, lol. But they are by no means worthless. And yes, they use meanings that they don’t even use in their system which is pretty hilarious but it’s a reason to relearn the additional contexts now once there is the kanji foundation and basic meaning are learned. This happens all the time whether it’s the sentences or in the wild.

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Yes someone else stated this higher in the thread.

It makes sense and the word is clearly used in some contexts, but when writing コーヒーメーカー? That just seems purposefully confusing…

EDIT: I’d love to be able to add my own context sentences come to think of it

I agree with all of the points you’re making.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the context sentences and I read them every single time.

So the point I’m trying to make, and why I want to this “petition”:

The context sentences are (as the name implies) meant to put the vocab you’re learning in a context, hence understanding the word better when you’re in the lesson. The example that I used (there are more like it)

珈琲メーカーからの蒸気…

Is frustrating because in no way is the kanji reading for コーヒー necessary to understand 蒸気 and how its used and instead makes it harder for me to understand the context sentence. Maaybe I’ll look it up and figure it out but a lot of times I don’t have the time to do that and so I just let it go, and move on.

Lots of new words, phrases and grammar have stuck through the context sentences and I love that, but when it’s like this for no apparent reason I get frustrated.

EDIT: I read your post too fast and thought you didn’t understand why I made the petition… Oh well

No worries :slight_smile:

As already mentioned, it’s pretty common and good to know. Actually, I petition to have more kanji affiliated with supermarket goods, this is probably my most real life practical application given I don’t live in Japan. I bought a can of 鮪 instead of 鯖 the other day but to be fair the can looked near identical and was a grab and go :upside_down_face:…but it can be studied outside of WK (or in a supermarket).

I think you are looking for something like the 10k deck sentences which are much more straight forward. I would just do those on the side instead of staging a petition for a sentence overhaul here which is no small feat, labor intensive and unlikely in near future (if ever).

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Keep an eye out for the annual sale around year end. I think the 4500 sentence pack gets marked down to $4-5 dollars around then.

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Good to know - thanks.

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The context sentences would be a lot more useful if they have audio recording by Kyoko and Kenichi

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