Visually similar kanji in the lessons?

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#1

Hi everyone!

Was just doing some lessons instead of paying attention in class (haha…) and thought about how great it would be to have a sum up of the visually similar kanjis to the one you are currently learning, while you are doing the lesson.

This would be super useful, at least for my part - I hardly ever think about going to the kanji to compare the ones that looks the same and try to learn the differences (and I don’t think I’m the only one haha). And tbh, my first reaction when I close down a lesson is not to go take a look at the kanjis I’ve learnt to check the ones that look the same, to be sure I’m not mistaking them.

Having them shown to me when I’m learning about a potential new leech could avoid a lot of mistakes imo. The lessons shows you vocabulary that uses the kanji, two different audio readings, etc… so this might just be be useful and convenient too.

I know there’s userscripts for this kind of stuff so this might sound useless to those who uses them, but I feel like not everyone does, or even knows about them. How do you guys feel about this?

Other than that, have a great day!
:two_hearts:

15 Likes
#2

I think that would be a very useful feature too!

3 Likes
#3

Doesn’t semantic-phonetic composition already do this?

#4

That misses any kanji which are visually similar in ways unrelated to the phonetic component, and I think OP’s point is that they want WK to display their visually similar kanji information during lessons - they’re not asking for a script.

I have to say though that if they did this they’d really need to step up their game in terms of identifying visually similar kanji.

5 Likes
#5

I agree, but identifying visually similar kanji is also something that is not 100% scientific. That is, different people will have different opinions about what looks similar. If we cast the net too wide, we’ll potentially get too many visually similar kanji for every item, which is confusing.

2 Likes
#6

Ah, definitely agree there, both that it’s not objective and that you don’t want to go too crazy. But I think most people would concur that currently they ‘identify’ way too few (many have no matches). I almost never find my items of confusion listed.

1 Like
#7

if you got a kanji like 待 and need to tell it apart from 持、特、時 and so on, then having an extra explanation page with the left-side radicals in red helps.

wk doesn’t deliver though. get a script for similar kanji, i know there’s one somewhere.

wk is exceptionally weak in the lesson department anyway, banking on their (rather weak) mnemonics.

1 Like
#8

There’s a script for that: [Userscript] Niai 似合い Visually Similar Kanji

3 Likes
#9

Though I completely agree that finding kanjis similar is 100% subjective, WaniKani already have a system of visually similar kanjis, that is why I thought it’d be logical that it would be featured in the lessons!! On another note, as it would just be a feature you’d have the right to just ignore it if it causes way too much confusion.

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#10

lmfao those are exactly the ones that made me think about the features. good guess!! but yes that’s 100% the idea, and also, yes i’ll probably get a script, i think another user recommended one in the comments!

1 Like
#11

I’m doing my level 58 lessons and just thought the same exact thing. Even if it wouldn’t help me much now I figured I’d go post about it, but it looks like someone did it for me just a few weeks ago!

I’d love to see the Visually Similar Kanji data displayed during lessons. It’s possible the data needs to be given a once-over to make sure it remains logical and constructive instead of maybe being confusing at times, but I have always seen the listing of similar kanji as an underappreciated resource that’s often just as important to the learning process as the peek at the kanji’s corresponding vocab during the lesson.

1 Like
#12

This is something that would really really help.
Sometimes its really annoying and confusing when two or more kanji look almost exactly the same and have very close meaning and the same readings. For example 撤 and 徹 or 堀 and 掘. Another suggestion would be to not have them be within the same lesson and more importantly not put all the vocabulary that has both of them in the same level. Its just insanely confusion.

#13

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