Hi,
and yes, there is a typo in the header but this time it is intentional.
“Public announcement” or 公告 (こうこく) is just one example of dozens of typos I have had labeled as errors on WaniKani. In addition, at least when writing on tablet, the keyboard itself seems to somehow guess wrong quite often and proactively change the answer to こうかく or こくかくwithout me even noticing it. From language studying perspective this is extremely frustrating, to say the least.
There is a typo recognition system on WaniKani, but then again it flags things like “book of names” as an error, when the correct answer is “list of names”. Or, “public commendation” is wrong when “commendation” is not.
It is possible to train AI to spot typos better, but when two languages - Japanese and English - are used together, this comes much more difficult. And, as mentioned, tablets have their own typing issues when it comes to guessing writers’ intentions.
This is why, in my opinion, a straight-out second chance for users to answer would render better results regarding studying motivation. If the first suggestion by the user does not match the correct answer, a mere “want to try again?” text would probably in most cases be enough for the user to see what’s the problem.
On Bunpro reviews there are several chances for user to try again with optional hints, which in my opinion makes the whole studying process more fluid and better motivated.
I agree, and as someone always doing my reviews on my phone u-i mixups are super common when typing fast. So entering こき when I mean こく has happened a lot… I doubt WK will do anything about this so I just use the app Smouldering Durtles which does have an undo button.
I often use wanikani on my phone and I don’t want an undo button.
type, think, confirm.
Sometimes I still do a typo but then I restart that set. Makes it easier to not cheese through review sets with out remembering. Harsh punishment for typing wrong and I like it.
I feel like if this got implemented it would make sense to have it a toggle-able setting. That way, people who don’t trust themselves not to abuse it could keep it turned off.
On the one hand, I agree completely that it can be frustrating to fail due to a typo or reasonable approximation of the correct answer (you gave some great examples!) It’s also understandable to feel like Wanikani could do a bit more to help with these sorts of issues.
On the other hand, where do you draw the line on accepting synonyms, typos, and other close-but-not-there answers? I feel like there are diminishing returns at a certain point, and that may have already been surpassed here (based on my own experience at least). Also, I don’t think it’s a bad thing if I get to repeat an item more due to an error on my part; the worst that can happen is that when I finally do burn it, I will really have it etched into my brain after reviewing it to the point of excess.
And on a related note, I’ve experimented a lot with WaniKani on different devices with various input options: Windows PC, iPad, iPhone, Android, etc., using kana input, romaji, and plain old English QWERTY input since WaniKani does a good job of converting to kana automatically – the latter seems to be the least accident-prone since it’s designed with that in mind, but I did get reasonably good at kana input for a bit until I stopped using it and quickly lost the flow.
P.S: The 3rd party WaniKani i(Pad)OS app “Tsurukame” has an option to “Allow Cheating”, described as “Ignore Typos and Add Synonym” which may be of interest.
My laptop keyboard is starting to break. I have to press u, e, d, and p several times to get them to work but sometimes they’ll double press. r will usually work but sometimes comes out as rrrrrrrrrrrr. My laptop is from 2019 but it’s had some really heavy use and I apparently type a lot.
I’ve been making lots of typos in my reviews because my keyboard is betraying me, and I intentionally try to go slow because of it. This ended up frustrating me too much when my keyboard inserted too many ええええ or turned る into るうう, so I started using my phone more. I make typos on my phone too but at least they’re all done by my hand and feel more intentional and responsive at this point.
I agree though, all of the accidental mistakes aren’t adding too much to my review time and worst case I’ll remember my vocab extra hard and the help is extra practice.
That’s awful. I hope you can get the keyboard fixed. I had that happen a few years ago and it was a nightmare to get anything done. I was clicking an onscreen keyboard with my mouse for a while there…
Wow, so new (as I type this on my 2012 laptop) About 2 years ago I had to buy an external keyboard. The “C” key just outright stopped working completely and a few others were problematic in the same way you describe. About 4 years ago I had to do the same with my main laptop at the office. Seems the keyboards are something that wear out first. The W A S and D keys have no printing left on them. Can you guess what sort of games I like to play
Don’t bother fixing/replacing a toasted laptop keyboard on an older machine (unless you take and use the laptop on the move a lot of course). A nice external keyboard will be much cheaper. Even if you just take the laptop mobile once in a while, easy to just slip the keyboard in the bag with the laptop.
I’m also doing all my reviews on my phone with “double check”-userscript. If this wasn’t possible wanikani wouldn’t be an option for me. I’m still confused why there’s no “retry-button” by default. The person who’s learning knows best if he/she just made a typo or if the answer really is wrong.
I ruined my laptop screen and charging port with a banana once. New screen + inverter board cost me $87 on ebay.thats cheaper than most monitors.
Replacement keyboards for my laptop are listed at $20.
Im going to say that if you can find the parts on ebay or wherever, and you have screwdriver and youtube video, it will be cheaper than buying external keyboards.
It could be due to the age of the laptop I have and combo of being a Japanese brand and Japanese keyboard. The best I could find was about $150 for a replacement keyboard for my laptop. I could find some cheaper options, but all from the category of “spare parts stripped from machines, not tested, cannot test and no guarantee it will be work”. I did attempt repair of the key switch itself but it was unsuccessful. The external wireless keyboard was $20 at the local Yodobashi near my place. Same width as my laptop and sits on top of the existing keyboard, but has a much nicer touch and feel for typing. This old laptop does not travel so I prefer the external one anyway.
Edit. For fun I searched a bit now and found some for around $30 - $40.
Banana. I do have to ask if there is more to share about that…
I have had thinkpad laptops for quite a few years. easy access to replacement parts. but the laptops them selves are quite quite costly. I have bought cheap brand new in box from bankrupt companies. and got one with broken screen hinge for free, screen hinge was $2
Other brands may be hard to fix and might not have decent replacement part market though.
As for the banana. Banana in the bottom of my backpack. shoved the laptop into it without knowing and it was left there with a squished banana for a few days. it was all into the fan intake as well, every time I used it smelled like banana.
I loved the ThinkPad series as well. I used to get a new one every 18 months at a past company I worked at for about 12 years. Due to the job role and what we used it for, my team always got the latest model fully kitted out and were first in the pecking order. I think I had 7 or 8 models during my time there. Now that I work on my own, such “nice to haves” are not in the budget.
I can just picture the banana incident. Going way back, while I was at university (30 plus years ago) I worked for several years for a computer shop. Saw a lot interesting situations when machines were brought in for repair or we went out on site. But never anything banana related. That is a new one
I had to replace the hinges in my work horse laptop (Samsung) a while back. Parts were cheap. Doing the replacement was a finicky and frustrating exercise. Had to practically disassemble the thing down to component parts to get to the hinges.
About 2 years ago I had to buy an external keyboard. The “C” key just outright stopped working completely and a few others were problematic in the same way you describe. About 4 years ago I had to do the same with my main laptop at the office. Seems the keyboards are something that wear out first. The W A S and D keys have no printing left on them. Can you guess what sort of games I like to play 
