Hi everyone,
I’m in Japan now! Which is incredible and すごい！！
I find myself using vocabulary sounds where I need the kanji sound and using the kanji sound when I see something that needs a vocabulary sound.
This happens a lot with single kanjis.
The reason this happens is because WaniKani will not disqualify your answer if it asks for a vocabulary and you write the kanji sound (or the other way around).
For example 他.
I think that maybe it’s best to change it (for single kanjis only), but I don’t really know. What do you think?
You could probably find some user script that does this if you want to personalize your own experience, but if you’re going fast, it can suck to get a kanji you really know well knocked down because you misread what it was asking you for. The point isn’t to do WaniKani perfectly, it’s to learn kanji.
What do you mean with “not disqualify”? If WK wants the Kanji-reading, but you type in the vocab-reading then you should get some shaking and a text that informs you about what they actually want. Same the other way around. I’m confused now.
Edit: Also, you get a hint what they want with the coloring in the review. I myself am at the beginning of this journey too, but I guess, everything you read in Japan will be the vocab-reading, not the pure Kanji-reading. So if you see 他 in the wild on its own, it’s not the Kanji but the word (= vocab) you’re supposed to read.
The coloring isn’t always consistent. You would think sound or vocab reading would always reflect kun and on-yomi but there’s a few cases where the kanji reading is just the vocab reading because it’s the most commonly used one. It’s best to make doubly sure something is kun or on-yomi on here before you run into trouble with that later on.
It becomes a fun stumbling block when you’re in the burn phase and haven’t seen that character show up on Wanikani for months. And then mistakenly expect the colors to be consistent that way.
Wait, what? That’s how it used to be before, did they change it? If you’re being asked the reading of a vocab and you write something that isn’t that reading, it should be marked as incorrect imo. I know there’s a shake function on the kanji questions because most kanji have several readings and you shouldn’t be marked wrong just because it wasn’t exactly the one they asked about (腕 = うで/ワン), but vocab questions shouldn’t have the shake.
Here’s an example to illustrate the point I think you’re making:
Let’s say you’re talking with someone in Japanese and wanted to say ‘right’ (右). The word we learn on WK is みぎ. So if you were to say the on’yomi ゆう instead because the kanji do indeed have that reading, the listener wouldn’t understand what you’re trying to say because that’s not the word for ‘right’. That’s why it’s important to learn the correct reading/pronunciation of vocabs especially if it is standalone kanji like 家, 日, 火, etc.
I don’t think MurasakiChou necessarily said that the color reflects whether it is kun’yomi or on’yomi.
Yeah, that’s why I think for kanji questions it’s useful with the shake function while the vocab questions should be relentless because vocab rarely have several readings where only one is accepted by WK.
Annoyingly, some of these will then go on to present vocab that use that kanji and present it as “xyz is just the on’yomi reading, you should know it already” when they’ve taught the kun’yomi reading.
Although it’s not an exact analogy, it would be like saying I have “octa” apples, because the concept of 8 can be pronounced “octa” in “octagon”. That would be wrong.
When it comes to kanji multiple readings are correct but WK just wants you to learn one, often on-yomi.
If you type a valid but not primary reading the answer box will shake and tell you it’s looking for a different answer. It’s fine because a kanji can have multiple readings.
As for vocabulary, in pretty much all cases there’s only one reading. In my memory WK marks it an error if you enter an invalid reading. But perhaps it’s changed Anyways, I think it should be marked an error on vocab reading.
I thought we were agreeing until the very last sentence If you type the kanji (let’s say on’yomi) reading on a single-kanji vocab (which would then use kun’yomi), I think it should definitely just shake, like it does now, not be marked as an error. It’s not an issue of knowing the material in that case, but rather of just skimming over the question too quickly.
Personally, I find that the review prompt text is small enough that my eyes skim right over it, and even at level 40, I occasionally find myself forgetting whether purple is for vocab or kanji, because my brain occasionally decides that radicals (blue) → kanji (purple) → vocab (pink) makes more sense. I’d probably quit WK altogether if I kept failing vocab reviews because I’d just misread the question and typed the kanji reading instead.
Mmm, ok, mark yourself right as your conscience allows, there’s no wanikani police. But if you say it wrong in real life you’re going to be wrong. Make sure you’re not fooling yourself into “oh I knew that” – after you’re reminded.
Seems easier to stop doing that. (I mean, we all do that sometimes, don’t get me wrong. But if it’s happening often enough to be a problem, might want to fix the real problem and wipe out all the “going too fast”-category errors in one fell swoop.)
I was about to say, what do color-blind people do? But then I looked and it says “vocabulary reading” in the black bar right above the text entry field (on desktop). Maybe force yourself to read that? I have the same problem with entering readings vs. meaning and having to backspace it out, which doesn’t give me a wrong answer, but it’s super-annoying to do so many times in a review session
I guess I should say why I don’t like the shake - when I’m wrong I want to be wrong, not get a bunch of chances to start guessing. (I’m ok with it if I put in a correct kanji reading but it wanted a different one, because my answer is technically correct)
I mean, it’s not as though mistaking What Wanikani Is Asking is the same as mistaking the actual word, though— that’s the point that I’m making. Marking a word that you know as wrong because of a mistake in reading the English is hardly going to help anyone’s motivation, and if you don’t know the vocab reading, then you’re going to proceed to get it wrong anyway.
The current system makes more sense than marking it wrong. It’s the same as when radicals remind you that the meaning they’re looking for is sometimes different from the kanji that looks exactly like them. As it is, it’s consistent and makes sense.
Oh I know and I agree. It’s just very easy to fall into that “oh I knew that” trap and don’t like to get chances to do it. I’ll just do it over again until I CAN’T make that mistake because when it comes up, I automatically think “aha, that one! Be careful not to make that mistake again!”
If you’re being asked the reading of a vocab and you write something that isn’t that reading, it should be marked as incorrect imo. I know there’s a shake function on the kanji questions because most kanji have several readings and you shouldn’t be marked wrong just because it wasn’t exactly the one they asked about (腕 = うで/ワン), but vocab questions shouldn’t have the shake.
Anyways, I think it should be marked an error on vocab reading.