As you can see I am new to wanikani, and was just wondering about, for example:
人
I am looking at the lesson for this kanji, and the only readings given are
じん and にん
However, when moving over to the ‘examples’ tab, it has:
ひと(which is the one that I am already familiar with)
ふたり（二人）
ひとり（一人）.
Now I understand that these are the different readings, but it seems as if this is just confusing for someone new to kanji, as it doesn’t try to explain a link between the readings and the examples in any way. In fact the given examples don’t seem to contribute anything to the rest of that lesson.
Maybe a better way to word it is to say that it seems strange to say to someone:
“You can say this word like A or B. For example: C, D, E.” (where C, D, E do not contain A or B, so I fail to see how that is an example of A and B in use).
I guess my question is, does this get cleared up later in the course, e.g. in the vocabulary stage, or am I expected to research these kind of differences myself?
Examples are for the general usage of kanji in different words, not usage of a single kanji reading.
You will get other readings when you unlock related vocab.
Your learning of readings is not over once you’ve learned the 1 on’yomi on the lesson page, that is just the basis.
Once you have learned all radicals and kanji of the first level you will unlock the level 1 vocabulary, where you will encounter either kun’yomi or on’yomi readings.
Here is a snapshot of two examples how the word 人 is used with different readings.
人= person
人口= population
As you can see Wanikani explains why kun’yomi or on’yomi reading is used, which of the two you have learned previously and introduces you to the new reading that you haven’t learned until then.
So don’t worry, it will all become clearer with time!. Hope this was helpful
I think your mistake might be in equating the kanji to words. The kanji 人 can be a word, and in that context it has one specific reading ひと, but when new kanji are introduced to you you’re never going to learn all the readings and meanings in one gulp. You just happened to pick one of the most common (and this multi-faceted) kanji in the whole language for your example of the vocab words not including the specific readings that come in the lesson. You’ll see no shortage of にん and じん words.
Thanks for that explanation Leebo - just seems like it could confuse someone who would expect to see the readings tha they just learnt in a lesson in the examples of the lesson, but I suppose you are right because as JanaWolf suggests, at this stage we are more concerned with meaning rather than reading so the different readings shouldn’t matter
Maybe if you posted grammatically correct Japanese with English translations for the newbs, that would be one thing. It seems like you’re trying to overwhelm them or something.
You’ve managed to make it to level 60 on WK, so you have some drive in you. Go crack open Genki 1.
I didn’t want to put it in feedback, as I assumed there would probably be a reasonable explanation for my concern, so not so much feedback as just asking for some clarification (I am extremely new to learning Japanese so I am easily confused).
