Tribe or clan? Continue or continuous or continuation? Skill or technique? I hate having to memorize the very specific definition wanikani has chosen sometimes. I can’t clear certain terms….
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Are you talking about vocab or kanji? You wouldn’t say “let’s continuation the meeting”. And “I improved my speaking skills” is very different from “I improved my speaking techniques”.
For kanji it doesn’t matter as much but for vocab you should distinguish all the things you listed
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That was a big problem I had the first time I did it all, I think it wasn’t until like level 40 that I realized you can add your own synonyms 
It’s a game changer
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You can add user synonyms for the cards which you have difficulty remembering 
. Just bare in mind what @Vanilla mentioned. Japanese is quite context-sensitive and different kanji/words will often mean different things even when it might seem like they mean the same thing in English.
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Check out the (now closed) rejection thread for some emotional support
https://community.wanikani.com/t/your-best-typos-wanikani-has-rejected/52026
getting it almost right is indeed a thing
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I add synonyms even if they’re not entirely correct. Reyling on direct translations is something to be avoided anyway, so as long as I get the idea, it’s fine. The situations in which to use the words will come with experience.
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I can add synonyms!!! I had no idea!!! I am going to do that. My spoken Japanese is quite strong and so some of the accepted default definitions throw me (pitch black versus all black). Thank you!! This gives me hope/
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yeah I also had some problems when during the same lessons it teaches frequency, frequency, frequent and then frequency, this is asking for you to confuse all over them during reviews.
same with disastrous and disaster for synonyms
view, viewing and observation are eternal leeches for me.
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same with view, viewing and observation…
i also have the problem of remembering just the english word they want. i know what the japanese word means and what it would implicate but remembering the right english word is so annoying as a native german speaker. sometimes it is almost like wanikani is quizzing me vocab in two languages 
but putting german synonyms for everything is just too annoying. also considering i sometimes don’t remember the correct german word for something 
i should consume more of my native media… are talk to people 
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I think as long as your english answer is close enough it should be accepted. I use an addon to rewrite my answer correctly if my intention was correct. E.g. warship vs battleship.
English and japanese don’t match 1-to-1 which means being overly concerned with the english definitions might be needless busywork. Ideally you would get a feel for how the words are used by reading and listening to japanese instead of trying to translate to-and-from english.
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user synonyms and double-check script
some words really do have literal 1 to 1 translations. most words don’t. and even if there is a 1 to 1 translation, cultural context means that it might be used in a very different way.
so on WK, use user synonyms, and perhaps use double-check.
and then read and listen to the language as much as you can, to learn all the context which is essential to learning the language, and which can never be taught on a site like WK.
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I feel you 
I have the same issue, and I’m pretty generous with user synonyms because of it.
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If you have an iphone, the tsurukame app can help you self-manage these kinds of issues, either by adding synonyms or just telling the app to accept your answer.
agreed but it also depends on the word/sentence, and WK doesn’t really teach grammar or context fully enough to make certain distinctions always clear at this stage of learning (srs approx. meaning/reading)… and some sample sentences don’t match the meaning of the term the app forces you to type.
Hard disagree, at least if your short term objective is to be able to read Japanese instead of producing it. As your examples show it’s trivial to distinguish these meanings in context while it can be tricky to remember them in isolation.
I think it’s absolutely fine to memorize “close enough” translation on WK and then use real world Japanese to get a more precise understanding of how the word is used in practice and its nuances.
I mean in the end memorizing translations is a temporary crutch, eventually we all want to graduate to understanding the Japanese word without having to go through English.
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The Kametsuru app has been a godsend. Thank you to everyone who recommended it. I have been inconsistent with Wanikani from the time that I first started it–depended on what was going on in my life. But I’m very focused now. I leveled up this morning. And I think being able to look at things now and read them has really inspired me. Also I understand people so much better. I don’t even know why I understand them. It’s like you need a critical mass of a certain level of vocabulary and then everything changes.
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