no where else do i see it as doll
Youâll find that WaniKani uses a lot of âcustomâ radicals. This is because, as youâll see in a few levels, WaniKani doesnât use âradicalsâ in the sense of the éšéŠ you see on other sites, but instead as kanji components. It happens that many of these components are traditional radicals, and sometimes WaniKani will use the traditional meaning as well.
WaniKani is built upon its mnemonic system, so it creates meanings for its âradicalsâ that work well in mnemonics. Obviously, it âwritingâ as a noun is much less flexible to put into a mnemonic than âdoll,â and someone in Tofugu apparently has seen dolls with disproportionately tiny heads before (I usually see the opposite).
If it bothers or or is difficult to remember, you can visit the radicalâs page outside of lessons or during reviews (although only after you get it right/wrong!) and select Add Synonym to create a word that works for you.
The word âradicalâ has multiple uses. WK is not referring to the radicals that you might see on Wikipediaâs list of Kangxi radicals, etc. These are parts of kanji, not just the referential element that allows you to look it up in a kanji dictionary, and theyâre used for mnemonics.
As such, they can do whatever they want to make the mnemonics they want to make.
It is actually a dowsing rod for detecting boob graves, but that is too hard to remember as a mnemonic.
I mean, the radical for æŹ looks like a girl in a dress to me, which doesnât match the mnemonic at all, but you know. What can you do?
Some mnemonics are weirder or more far-fetched than others, but as long as they get the job done, theyâre okay.
That said, æ does have its roots in human shapes. Take a look at Chinese Etymology ćæș
âPrimitive pictograph æ. Believed to be a man in clothing, orginally with a heart. Meaning culture.â
So not too far off. But yes, WaniKani uses whatever names it wants for its Kanji parts if it helps you remember them. If that doesnât work, you may want to give them your own names.
I think what @nathan9991 means is that they might as well have called the radical âwritingâ. I do get confused sometimes when the kanji and the radical have different name, but in these cases I just put the name of the kanji as a synonym for the radical.
Because they liked doll as a mnemonic tool more than writing apparently.
But I do think he was actually asking âWhy are you calling it something no one else ever calls itâ and not merely why did you choose to call it something different from the kanji meaning that you teach. Because if WK called the radical âsentenceâ or âartâ then it would still be different from âwritingâ but it wouldnât be called something no one else calls it ever.
In that case I hope heâs prepared for âraptor cageâ and its friends.
Yes, raptor cage is a strange one. Never saw a cage in that one. But it does the job of remembering the thing!
Good damn raptor cage. It made so little sense that I no matter how long since I last saw it, I just cannot forget. Even now itâs been a long time - still stuck.
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