Please give at least one example for every new kanji that uses the given reading

I was also under the impression that the examples were meant to be: here are other ways this kanji can be used that are different to the reading we just showed you. A peek at the other usages that differ from the “main” reading.

However, I can’t see any damage that would be done by including an example with the main reading as well.

I also don’t see any harm in encouraging learners to do a some self-research for each new item.

2 Likes

I was really confused as to how this thread would exist without someone being at a word like 茜 or 梓

A close friend was going out with an 茜, so I got lucky with that one :smiley:
And yet… I always stare blankly at my favourite leech 莉

茜 bugs me mostly because of 茜色 being a not-that-rare color. I’m fairly certain the only reason I remember 莉 is because of it being an On reading. But if I haven’t burned them yet I definitely have a “What the fuck is that?” moment.

The purpose of the purple items (vocab) is not to reinforce the pink items (kanji)… it is a different set of material. The purple items are what end up getting used when you are actually communicating in Japanese. The pink items are building blocks to get you to the purple items. If anything, knowing the pink items well can help you make inferences about readings or meanings on the purple items, and sometimes you get lucky and readings are shared verbatim, but for the most part they should be treated as separate types of info.

On WK, that actually is their purpose. The reason why WK omits some common (and includes some uncommon) words in the vocab list is because they’re choosing vocab to reinforce the kanji, rather than the other way around.

Learning useful vocab along the way is a (nice and important) bonus, but WK is a kanji learning site before it’s a vocab learning site. The vocab list would be different (and larger) if vocab were the primary focus.

As the OP mentioned, however, it is easier for them to use practical examples (like the vocabulary) in order to remember the Kanji. As I literally NEVER use the WaniKani mnemonics, the vocab is my primary method of remembering readings. Of course, my experience is largely built upon the fact that I have a wide vocabulary of spoken/heard Japanese, so it’s more likely than not I know words that use the readings.

I can’t agree that they are a different set of material, as they wouldn’t be included in the lesson portion of of the Kanji if they weren’t meant to be linked. For English meaning, I agree more that Kanji should be used more as a reference point than a direct correlation, but, for readings (outside of the army of exceptions), it is incredibly important to NOT separate the Kanji from its vocabulary. If that were the intent, we’d always learn the Kun’Yomi with with Kanji rather than usually learning the On’yomi first.

I think it’s very useful and quite fine to have examples that use the other readings, but the OP was simply requesting that at least one example match, not that all of them match. If you have no matching examples, you’re effectively teaching a non-English learner “Two” for the Kanji and giving them only “Bicycle,” “Binary,” and “Diatonic.” It’s nice to know that it will do strange things, but it does absolutely nothing for the purpose of reinforcing the given reading for the Kanji, which is what you need to remember to even unlock the vocabulary.

Thankfully, 生 is an abnormality in how many readings it has, compared to the norm, so this normally shouldn’t be a problem. Most Kanji default to one Kun’Yomi and 2 On’Yomi, meaning it’s unlikely an example containing the Kanji reading (normally the most common) won’t be listed. 生 has the unfortunate circumstance where only 1 of the 5 vocabulary in its introductory level use the given reading, whereas 22 of the total 43 vocabulary containing the kanji use the same reading.

Maybe I’m weird, but I see the lessons as being fairly useless overall, as I always take time afterward to view the Kanji page and search it on Jisho if I am not familiar with it already (I also practice writing, so stroke order is necessary if I can’t guess it immediately). So personally, it’s small requests like this that are my favorite to see.

4 Likes

We hear you. I personally think this is a good idea. Will add it to the ideas list.

9 Likes

Don’t forget 生じる or 畜生 which is using しょう as reading, ohohoho. Until 54 days until Christmas, anyone need 辞典 as xmas gift? ohohohoho.

I think that sentiment is coming from people (like me) who are totally new to kanji, and so giving completely different readings from the beginning can be confusing.

If you are not really aware of how many different readings there can be, or even that there can be different readings, then seeing the kanji used in a way which was never explained to you could even look like the creators made a mistake, as it doesn’t match up with what you just learnt in the lesson.

Obviously if you are already aware of nature of kanji readings then this wouldn’t be a problem, but level 1-3 are obviously aimed at beginners so I quite like Zenguros suggestion, even just for level 1 stuff to get people going.

1 Like

Seems like a good idea to me and was asked in a super polite way:

“Thanks for considering
Love You all
Ben”

So can’t quite see where some of the negativity towards the OP comes from to be honest.

4 Likes

As I literally NEVER use the WaniKani mnemonics, the vocab is my primary method of remembering readings.

Yes. Although I find the mnemonics useful, some are really not strong enough to last. Gotta depend on the vocab instead.

Yup, agreed. Makes no sense.

Since the kanji is supposed to carry an “idea” more than anything, I’ve always seen examples as “Here are some words that uses this kanji’s meaning”, and I’m perfectly happy with that.

One way you can tell the example vocab is not designed to help you with the reading is by noticing that they don’t even bother to show you the reading of the words.

Once I reached level 4 I started tearing through DuoLingo. One lesson uses every one of those readings. You can do those lessons over and over. Helps with grammar and listening as well - but it is hard.

Thanks, you got a new subscriber :sunglasses:. Keep at it!

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.