Why is 串's on'yomi marked wrong? Is it useless?

I learned this Kanji yesterday. The Phonetic-Semantic Composition script lists the reading as せん and that’s what I ended up remembering. Usually, I’d get a shaky screen for that, but not here. WK doesn’t accept any on’yomi for 串. Jisho lists かん, けん, and せん, but doesn’t give any example of words with those readings, so I’m wondering if those on’yomi are ever used at all.

Because it’s not part of the list of readings in the system.

None of the onyomi for 串 are jouyou readings.

https://www.kanjipedia.jp/kanji/0001697700

They might add them if you ask, but not adding them also seems fine.

8 Likes

Until I find any way they could be useful, I’d rather just forget about them :sweat_smile:

4 Likes

This is a problem outside this one kanji. For example, じゅ is the on’yomi of 需. It is the phonetic component of 濡, but answering じゅ for 濡 is marked as wrong. It is completely normal to think of the on’yomi when presented with the pink kanji screen, and the nature of phono-semantically constructed kanji means the on’yomi comes quickly to mind from the shape. Sure, these readings may not be used much (at all?) in modern Japanese, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask that WaniKani gives us a shake and a second chance, rather than dropping down a review stage.

Isn’t the onyomi of 漏 ろう?

Edit: didn’t read carefully enough

As mentioned before, they will usually add it if you ask them to. However…

But yeah… Can’t find any words that use じゅ. So… Calling it the onyomi is kind of theoretical. Yes, you can find it in a kanji dictionary, but if it’s not used in any words, what is the use in teaching it.

It’s kind of a philosophical question I guess… Is a reading actually a reading if it never gets read that way :slight_smile:

2 Likes

It is indeed, but that post is about 濡、not 漏

2 Likes

Ah, right, looked too quickly before leaving for class.

2 Likes

Yes, you can find it in a kanji dictionary, but if it’s not used in any words, what is the use in teaching it.

Oh absolutely, I don’t recommend that WaniKani teaches these readings, but simply that we get a shaking box and a chance at re-entry for a technically correct answer

I think it would be nice if all on’yomi are added for kanji, even if they don’t get used in practice, and evrn if they don’t get taught in the kanji lesson, or on WK at all.

They could perhaps be added as hidden ‘white-listed’ readings which at least give you a shake. That way you don’t get marked wrong, but you also do get prompted to learn something actually useful.

I’d email them at hello@wanikani.com

3 Likes

Well, the shaky shake already prompts you to actually learn something useful. Sometimes I like to check if I know the on’yomi on kanji that teach kun’yomi first, by triggering the shaky shake on purpose.

? The problem at the moment is that these readings don’t cause a shake, I thought?

I just meant they don’t have to be on a secret whitelist. I would love to see them added to the official readings. But I guess people would then start to demand vocab for them too

Oh I see, sorry. I was just proposing the hidden whitelist because some people make the effort to specifically learn all the readings of a particular kanji or wonder why there aren’t any vocabulary for a listed reading, and it seems like some of the readings really aren’t worth learning unless you have a particular interest.

Basically in response to Leebo’s comment:

I wouldn’t propose this for words that have a more ‘legitimate’ on’yomi which either simply doesn’t get taught as “the kanji reading” in WaniKani, or happens to not have any associated vocab in WaniKani but is actually used.

2 Likes

Is this one like the Kanji like 丼 that did not come from China or is obsolete and lo longer used?

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.