Whenever I learn a new kanji, I like to learn the 2 readings wanikani usually has for it(onyomi for compound words, usually kunyomi for verbs), and then anywhere from 1-2 other readings if they’re in useful words or pretty common. when I see the kanji in reviews, I first try and type in all the uncommon readings that I wanted to learn, hit undo(with a plugin), and then type in the ones wanikani wants me to learn.
However, kanji like 塗 have many different readings, most of which AREN’T on wanikani. Wanikani considers these alternate readings to be WRONG, and will mark me wrong for trying to remember any of them. It’s bad enough that most of these readings aren’t covered in any wanikani words(which is unfortunate because there are many words which should probably be on here, and many words on here that are completely useless. I’m looking at you “中佐”, and the other military ranks for which I’ve added “military rank” as a valid synonym), but then I’m marked wrong for trying to type them in.
If more alternate readings could be added with the hint “we’re looking for the (onyomi/kunyomi) reading”, that would be lovely. Not just for this kanji, but for all of them. It would also be pretty helpful if more alternate readings are displayed on the kanji page itself, even if they’re not in any words on wanikani.
Thanks!
For this particular example ぬ and と are both on WaniKani, まぶ is obsolete, and ぬり is not a standard reading of the kanji. You could perhaps make an argument for まみ, but 塗れる is a very uncommon word which is usually written in kana anyway.
I don’t want to go “your example is flawed therefore your whole argument is flawed”, but… the WaniKani gang have put proper thought into which readings someone might expect to encounter most of the time, and those ones are covered.
まぶ is obsolete, sure. Not quite sure what you mean by “standard reading”, dictionaries seem to indicate the ぬり reading by itself is used as a word in the top 15-30k of words by frequency depending on what sources you consult, and jisho says it’s taught in junior high. I don’t see anything about まみ “mostly being written in kana” anywhere on the internet. You may very well be right about both of these, but it’s completely irrelevant to my point. There are plenty of verbs I’ve looked up after having seen them on wanikani, only to discover that they’re pretty much always written in kana anyway, making learning them mostly pointless.
Anyone can list any number of kanji for which wanikani wrongly doesn’t have words taught for certain readings, and you can do the opposite pretty easily too. My point is that the other readings shouldn’t be counted wrong(sure, we can make exceptions for obsolete ones if you really want, not that it matters), and that they should be listed on the page for the kanji. The more readings I can encounter while I’m first learning the kanji, the better.
I can see the frustration. If an alternate reading is legitimate and appears in real vocabulary, marking it completely wrong can feel counterproductive. A prompt explaining which reading type is being requested would make more sense. Showing additional readings on the kanji page could also help learners build a broader understanding without affecting the core review system.