Add synonyms. Really the only reason WK has you memorize a certain meaning for a radical is so it can use it in mnemonics later. If for kanji containing 支 later you’re going to use “support” in your mnemonic, then there’s no reason to learn “branch” (and subsequently no reason to get it wrong and set you back on whatever level you’re on). Since they don’t actually have a real meaning and exist solely to help you, you can use them however you want.
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I’m really torn on whether I like them or not. I’m only level 4, but so for the radical for stone (石) and the kanji for right (石) are the same and it REALLY confused me. There is no link between them so remembering stone just made things harder. If I learnt that the leaf radical and mouth radical made the “right” kanji, that would have been easier. Why add stone into the mix if it’s not really relevant?
Unless it does also mean stone later and I’m just a noob. But right now that one in particular I found to be problematic.
yes, but most radicals come before the kanji, so by the time I SRS’ed it in my memory the kanji shows up with a different meaning. Then I have to unlearn the radical, and add the synonym, and correct mentally all the stories where the radical was used. Not very convenient IMO.
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You posted two stones there. Right is 右.
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Ah, just me being stupid then 
my bad!
To be honest, I’m quite amazed at how WK SRS users cope with all these different meanings, or stuff like vocabulary meanings vs kanji meanings. Kudos to those of you who manage to keep it straight. As a Chinese speaker, all of these things are just one jumble in my head with lots of links between them. My opinion is that using and learning kanji is all about lateral thinking, so extending (pardon the pun) ‘branch’ into the idea of ‘support’ isn’t too far off for me. So…
… yeah, I empathise. However…
… it’s really cool how flexible WK is, and it’s a good thing users can customise things. 
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I really want to hear about people who think radicals are useless. How do you learn kanji besides vaguely memorizing its general shape? Do you just draw every single one of them 100 times? What are you doing on WaniKani, whose entire system is based on radicals forming mnemonics? I’m curious.
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to be fair, branch is also an accepted meaning for the kanji as well
My only problem with the radicals is that sometimes they use a load of simple ones when they could have combined them into a single more relevant one or used a kanji instead. I can see why they don’t though, you’d end up with way too many radicals and just using the kanji would break from the system they’ve made
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When I learn new radicals I tend to look forward to future stuff it’ll be used in, and add synonyms based on that, if I think it’s necessary. But I don’t ever really use WK’s mnemonics, I think of my own for pretty much everything (so if you do use WK’s mnemonics I wouldn’t recommend it, because it makes those future mnemonics useless). But most of the time if there’s a radical that’s the same as a certain kanji, they’ll share a meaning, so this doesn’t tend to be an issue.
Ah. That’s good then. I’ve never tried the SRS, so I wouldn’t know. Funny thing is though, I think it’s more commonly ‘branch’ as in ‘something that split off from/is secondary to the original’. That’s the nuance. I’m sure that etymologically, it used to mean an actual tree branch at some point. Might also just be a hand holding a twig (though perhaps I’m just assuming it has the same roots as the radical 攴 – apparently a standalone kanji in Japanese! – which definitely does have that meaning). I don’t feel like checking at the moment though, since I already know the kanji.
This. When I heard about the mnemonic for 掃 when they could have just used 帚・箒（ほうき）, which is literally what the kanji is (a hand and a broom = sweeping). However, yes, perhaps that might create too many radicals over time… though I don’t see why you can’t just get away with calling it building on previous kanji. (Unless users don’t learn 帚 because it’s much rarer than 掃?)
Come to think of it, relying on radicals to do all the work means WK allows users to learn kanji individually without predicating too much of later success on older kanji that could have ended up as leeches for some users. I guess that’s a good thing.
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Radicals are very helpful until you can start recognizing past kanji embedded within new ones, then you don’t need to learn separate radicals as much.
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support is the primary kun vocab meaning though, so you’re gonna have to deal with that confusion at some point
I agree with this completely, I recently came across this with「市」being introduced as a radical after it was already known as a kanji. This is annoying considering I already know the meaning and I don’t want to have to memorise it twice for some kanji and once for the vast majority!
If they want to use it in mnemonics, that’s fine. There is simply no need to add it as a radical when its meaning is already known!
It’s my biggest criticism of WK (granted, it’s still great). I understand why it’s done, but it’s an awkward way of going about it. Revamping the system to allow any kanji learned to also be usable as a radical is a possible solution, though I could see that being messy or confusing for low levels.
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I definitely don’t think radicals themselves are useless.
However, like others have mentioned I have experienced a few issues with Wanikani’s implementation, most notably:
- Radicals with weird meanings (e.x. “lip ring”, “gladiator”, “geoduck”, “helicopter”)
- Radicals that are exactly the same as a kanji learned in the previous level. This just seems like a waste of SRS time to me, unless the meaning is actually different (for example 月 as a standalone kanji means “moon”, but when used as a radical it most often means “flesh”, derived from a simplification of 肉)
- Radicals learned after kanji they appear in (e.x. 食 level 6, 艮 level 11, 良 level 13)
I do feel there is some room for improvement with some of this, but I also understand why these issues exist: trying to identify each part of a kanji for a mnemonic, even if that part is not officially considered a radical; trying to balance introducing simple kanji before more complicated kanji with introducing kanji you are more likely to see or use, etc.
I also think that radicals themselves are a necessary part of learning kanji, and Wanikani does a very good job to that end.
I meant that the particular sort of ‘branch’ we’re dealing with when 支 is concerned is of the non-literal variety.
Never underestimate the power of lateral thinking (or perhaps more accurately, how much practice I’ve had with drawing links out of nothing 
): both meanings exist in Chinese, just like in Japanese. I can pass from ‘branching’ to ‘support’ via two routes:
- In order to pay/spend money (支出), my hands have to ‘branch’ away from my body, and spending money is a form of ‘support’
- 支 is related to 枝, which is a tree ‘branch’, and branches provide lots of ‘support’
In any case, in my mind, when I hear 支 (‘zhī’ in Mandarin), I see some sort of ‘branching out’ coupled with energy or resources being ‘channelled’ through those branches, so there’s never been any contradiction or confusion for me. They’re one and the same. I just have to lateral-think my way out of everything. 
PS: So… I checked the etymology. It really is a hand holding a twig, and was the original form of the kanji 枝. That strengthens the ‘枝 pathway’, and provides us with a third pathway: when a hand holds a twig, the ideas of ‘support’ (holding) and ‘branching’ (twig) are both present.
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食 is actually taught after being introduced as a radical; trust me, I’m on lv6 currently.
I agree with your main point though.
I think it’s so they can have kanji that contain it listed as containing 2 or 3 radicals instead of 4 or 5. And it makes for better mnemonics. As for why you’d have to memorize it to continue the level, they need a certain number of radicals per level so you can’t finish in 3 days 10 hours, it’s possible in some of the later levels but I assume there’s a reason it’s never possible until the 40s.
oh, i find them to be extremely useful. this is being written by someone who didn’t have any sort of foundation in japanese or kanji.
while i don’t use radicals for kanji i’ve already seen before wnkn, like 私 and 夜, those kanji are very few and far between. i think it’s easier to learn the “building blocks” for each kanji rather than the stroke order. it’s a much faster process, and sticks much better in my head. while yes, learning kanji isn’t a race of any sort, using radicals makes learning kanji much more comprehendible for me.
Usually they are useful. It irritates me though when there is a Kanji that is obviously two other kanji smushed together, but Wanikani insists that it’s really three radicals, and the mnemonic is is reliant on them.
Also, fins, horns, drop, and ground are basically worthless to me in a kanji of more than like ten strokes, since they are just extra lines and usually aren’t the distinctive thing about the character. Powerhouses like turkey though are excellent.
Sometimes I tweak the radicals though: fins can be eight, and cross can be ten (obviously) or even Jew lol (because cross I guess, and ten commandments, and the onyomi of 十)
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