WaniKani Content Update: June 3, 2019

Hey yeah well spotted, now that I’m looking for them,

Bottom row fifth from the left
Top row seventh from the right
Second row ninth from the right

What’s up with those?

1 Like

No, I find 礻 more aesthetically pleasing then the more traditional (?) 示 form.

1 Like

Some kanji were changed in ways that just don’t show up at that scale… either things like a very small change in where two lines meet, or stroke count or something.

Or it could be something that would only show up in a very calligraphy-styled font, like what type of angle brush stroke is used.

EDIT: I found the explanation for that initial one that was noticed. “「曷」の中が「へ」ではなく「人」であることを明確化”

へ and 人 basically could look the same. They essentially just said “it’s officially a 人”

4 Likes

I’m just baffled as why they would revert to the old radical in the first place.

It seems I’m missing something. This is what I understood of the recent history of kanji :

After world war 2, Japan changed a lot of kanji to make they look like more like their handwritten version (新字体 reform). So for example, kanji with a 示 radical were converted to the 礻 radical. (会社 became 会社 etc)

However, this unification was done only for the jouyou kanji list (or equivalent at that time), because only jouyou kanji were authorized in print anyway. So lot of of the kanji outside the jouyou list were not unified and unfortunately remain with the old radicals.

But nowadays kanji outside jouyou are getting back, more and more. So it’s seems just natural that any further reform would try to continue the uniformization… except in this reform apparently they reverted lot of kanji to their old form !?? Why !? :thinking:

1 Like

Yeah, I’m not sure what the thought process was exactly, but I’ve noticed something from watching game shows here… based on the frequency with which questions like this come up, Japanese people do have some amount of difficulty distinguishing shimesu-hen and koromo-hen. Reverting to the old style makes it pretty obvious, so there might be some small benefit to recognition of radical meaning and history.

But yeah, consistency would probably be best, whatever they do.

I’m kinda surprised at how recent that change was. Like, if I’d started studying kanji in high school, I would have been doing so under the old standard.

1 Like

Thanks for the info! - that explains a lot.

Digging a bit further, my Chrome on Win7 is rendering using Meiryo, which supports the JISX0213:2004 updates, so I get the updated (straight line) version everywhere.

When I hop over to Chrome on OSX Mojave, that uses Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro which apparently still follows the 2000 edition, so I get the older (crossed legs) version.

Although, OSX does come with Hiragino Kaku Gothic ProN, which does support the updates - if I force the page to render using Hiragino Kaku Gothic ProN instead, the character twiddles back and forth as expected.
Just… thought that was interesting, that’s all. Carry on! :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Just a note that for these two words, it says “This is a jukugo word that uses the on’yomi readings of the kanji. You should be able to read this on your own.”, however, WK only taught the kunyomi of あたま for 頭 before, not the onyomi.

3 Likes

Oh wow this is quite confusing :anguished:

1 Like

I can fix that!

14 Likes

All I can think of is this guy from Holes

1 Like

It me

6 Likes

Cheers, that was fast! The new additions made me laugh.

1 Like

I wonder if they were thinking of 老人性 (which means “senile”)… that’s offensive in English, too.

The new one is harder to recognize!

… How is that “easier” or “better”?

I saw 匂 in my Bunpro grammar lesson today :-D.

5 Likes

Just wondering, the new vocabulary words audio is done by a single male voice. For the rest of the site do you plan to also have female voice ? (Or even different speakers with different voice style ?)

They have recorded new female audio as well. I believe they are still working out how to present both audio options to users.

2 Likes

Similar to @Jul3’s post, the reading explanation for 嘘吐き says “This is a combination of the kun’yomi readings you already learned.” But we don’t learn つ as a reading for 吐 from the kanji or any vocab. In fact, つ isn’t listed as a reading for the kanji at all (just は.)

Hi! It was talked about 30 posts ago. WK did indeed forget to add the other kun’yomi reading. I’m sure they’re working on it :slight_smile:

1 Like