Regional English is Screwing Me Over

[Calletha]

So, I started doing WaniKani seriously just a couple days ago since I was looking for extra practice to supplement Textfugu (yes, I know it is more or less defunct, but I decided not to give up this time and am two seasons ahead of where I left off). What I love about Textfugu is the ability to say “yes, I got this right” or “No, I got this wrong” when using Anki.

This isn’t the case with WaniKani, and I am finding it hugely frustrating. An example is 下げる, which is “to lower something”. Where I live this is synonymous with “to bring down”. I would “bring down” my blood pressure, not lower it. I would also perform a rain dance to “bring down” the temperature.

I guess I just wanted to say that this is hurting my brain, not because I don’t understand it, but because my regional dialect is different . Is there another way to think about this word that I might be missing? Thanks.

[Leebo]

It’s possible to add synonyms if something else works better for you. If you speak something other than American English it might be a good idea on many items.

[Calletha]

Thank you, I didn’t realize I have that ability. I really appreciate your help!

Also, I do speak American English, but American English in and of itself varies greatly between geographic and cultural regions.

[Corbayne]

I only speak English so here is why it works better as “lower” in my dumbass opinion:

Lower implies one thing, applied to anything. Bring down implies at least two things, usually applied to something specific. “Bring” is a separate action from “down” and makes things more complex than it is. I have found myself doing this often, making the things in Japanese more complicated than it needs to be. Like, if I was in your shoes and I got hung up on “bring down” being synonymous with “lower,” I have found comfort and courage in taking my hang up for a ride so I can prove the Japanese right (at least, simpler than I am making it). Bring down makes me think of “bringing down the house” and makes me laugh when I see 下げる so I remember, ah, ageru, bringing down the house again by lowering something. Stuff like that times a thousand except trying to enjoy the frustration <3

[Belthazar]

Where I live this is synonymous with “to bring down”.

What verb would you use if, say, you’ve got something hanging from a rope, and you’re feeding out more rope to make it move down?

Bring down makes me think of “bringing down the house”

(Though, bringing down a house would be 倒す )

[Corbayne]

倒す

主演のスティーブ ・ マーティンとクイーン黒の女

[Calletha]

That’s a good way to think about it, too. In this case I would be more likely to say “let the rope down” rather than “lower the rope”, but I could and probably would still say lower the rope depending on who I am with.

[Walter-it]

If you’re on a computer install a script that allows you to ignore answers that you are sure you knew although you didn’t type what the system wanted. If you’re on an iPhone/iPad you can achieve the same result using Tsurukame

In general when one learns another language it doesn’t make much sense to translate things in your own, asking what it means in English is just the easiest way for the system to check you got it. But if you grasped the concept (like really grasped, especially, in this case, the difference between self moving verb and other moving verb -or transitive/intransitive-), then just use a script and move on.

[madtapa]

If you want to add these synonyms when you first learn the items (i.e., during lessons), you can do that via this script: [Userscript] WaniKani Lesson User Synonyms v2