Unclear Radical Names

I understand that there are some problems with naming the radicals in a way that is easy to memorize, but the difference between the radical “spoon” and the radical “ladle” just don’t make sense to me. The radical they claim to be spoon looks so much more like a ladle than the actual radical they named ladle.

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This sounds more like a bit of momentary frustration than an actually usefully crafted complaint. If you want to complain about the meanings that Japan associated with the kanji or their original Chinese meanings, there are places for that, but not in the feedback section for WaniKani. If you are trying to make some feedback, then try putting a bit more thought into why things are the way they are and then offering a suggestion that might be better.

For the record, [spoon] is technically a kanji/word, meaning spoon. And [ladle] is also a kanji/word, for which my guess is they saw its kanji meanings “Big Dipper” and “sake dipper” and tried to make it something more generic. Also, one of the Japanese dictionaries (明鏡国語辞典) I use lists 柄のついたひしゃく as a definition.

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I mean, WaniKani can be pretty arbitrary when it comes up with radical names, so it’s a fair complaint. This just happens to be not one of those instances. :slightly_smiling_face:

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The motivation behind the complaint might be, but I wouldn’t agree that it itself is fair; at least, that’s why I phrased my post to say “usefully crafted”. Though, rereading it, I can see how my train of thought might not get followed and it appear overly mean.

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I will admit that it felt you came here to attack me rather than give an actually useful crafted complaint towards what I said. My frustration comes from their use of the word ladle for a separate radical, which does not translate to ladle, which makes me think of it when I see a radical that looks like a ladle. I feel WaniKani could have been more accurate with their naming of the ladle radical to cause less confusion on other radicals. And, for reference, I am someone who has passed the N3 and come to WaniKani beyond the start of my studies. Trying to forcefully power through easy content to get to my correct level is a lot more frustrating when you recognize a radical because you’ve seen it for a long time, but can’t remember the inaccurate name that WaniKani uses to describe it.

Knowing this now, I can picture how exasperated you might be at this point. Have you tried using Anki instead? Or, in your case, putting user synonyms for the radicals you already know might be an absolutely appropriate decision.

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Etymologically, 斗 started off looking like this:

斗-oracle.svg

which is basically one of these:

mgohnoya_08-20-100

It’s just that over time, 斗 came to look like how it does today, but still references the same object. WaniKani could have called it “dipper” rather than “ladle”, perhaps, but “dipper” isn’t really all that prevalent in modern US English.

Meanwhile, the spoon that 匕 looks like is probably one of these:

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