is there any way to stop renshuu from forcing me to learn Kanji readings which I'll might encounter well into future or at all? (e.g. readings not part of any JLPT levels, etc.)
It's quite demoralizing getting quizzed such readings. To make it even worse: the "related vocabulary" section for those doesn't show anything related to that reading as well...
Here is an example:
This could tie into an improvement: I quite like the tabs for the kanji readings in the dictionary, why not use those there as well? at the very least, please show atleast one example using the reading you are getting quizzed, ideally limited to user-definable lists (like known words, common words, JLPT levels, etc.)
If there are any kanji readings you don't want to be quizzed on, you can tap on it and uncheck the "I know this reading" box. This will prevent that reading from showing up in quiz questions. (Or you can just block whole kanji from being studied if you don't think they're useful to you yet.) It also looks like you have a word filter on, since 川 is the only related vocabulary showing up for that kanji (Renshuu DOES usually show you vocabulary based on the readings you mark known, so 河川/かせん SHOULD be showing up there too)... if you want to see more related vocab you have to reset the word filter when you look up a kanji in the dictionary.
As a general aside about readings, in the beginning stages it can be very difficult to understand and remember readings for kanji that you haven't seen in any vocabulary, so if that's something you struggle with, it might be more helpful to focus on meaning-related vectors until you have more vocabulary studied. However, even readings that don't appear in any of your known vocabulary are still valuable to learn, as many kanji have phonetic components that will aid you in remembering the readings of future kanji you study.
First of all, thank you for your quick and thorough reply.
I will test manually disabling the currently unwanted readings, thanks. Also, you were right - I had a word filter on and did not know it would be used there as well.
So far, I have been learning new vocabulary (written in kanji) and then kanji meaning etc., not the other way around. I think it's easier to learn for me this way. I guess I try limiting my kanji learning to meanings for now
1. I'll consider the tabs in the quiz, although generally speaking, I feel that an important goal is to keep data elements in the quiz area to a minimum relative to the other data-rich areas of renshuu. I could and might add a setting allow you to turn that on, but I find myself growing more and more careful about adding new settings given just how many already exist, and complexity being by far the most significant drawback that users talk about.
2. Generally speaking, renshuu should not be dumping all the readings at you - it typically only allows ones into the quizzes (by default) that a Japanese person would learn during their general education.
What I wanted to confirm with you is if you are referring to the actual question including those readings, or if you are talking about the visual presence of them in the result box.
1. Thanks for considering it, but clicking on the kanji and scrolling through the dictionary a bit is not big deal :)
2. I was refering to the actual quiz questing, not just the result box. I am guessing that renshuu is only using readings of a kanji in a quiz which are not greyed out. However, I don't understand how they change from greyed out to active. For example here:
The ジツ reading is inactive, but it is also taught in elementary school. If I recall correctly, most of them start inactive and turn active at some unknown time. When initially shown, they are like that and not part of the quiz, but at a later point in time you just get suprised by new potentially unknown readings and wonder if you just can't remember or have not learned them yet because they were inactive beforehand. For my learning method it would be absolutely awesome to be able to tie the active readings to those used in known vocabulary. You mentioned something regarding default behavior, is there an option which I have overlooked?
To be honest, a better link between how and when readings are introduced is absolutely vital for renshuu to become as good as it needs to be, and it IS something that I need to work on and clarify within the site. There are some ...black-box areas when it comes to this, but I do keep track of all readings that you learn through words, so the data is there.
I hope that you'll be willing to deal with the manually toggling of some readings on and off as appropriate, and while I am buried alive at the moment with Kao Garden and an upcoming (huge) new set of beginner grammar, this is definitely something I want to work on before year's end.
I absolutely love this app. I do sometimes have similar experiences, though. Is there a way to toggle the types of readings? For example, i find i get quizzed on the onyomi reading of kanji a lot, when the words ive learned the character for use the kunyomi reading. I realize I'll eventually need to know both types, but it can be a bit demoralizing when a slew of onyomi questions just crush your test results lol
I absolutely love this app. I do sometimes have similar experiences, though. Is there a way to toggle the types of readings? For example, i find i get quizzed on the onyomi reading of kanji a lot, when the words ive learned the character for use the kunyomi reading. I realize I'll eventually need to know both types, but it can be a bit demoralizing when a slew of onyomi questions just crush your test results lol
In your schedule settings you can remove the onyomi vector if you don't want to be quizzed on onyomi at all. If there are just individual onyomi readings that you don't want to be quizzed on, you can tap on them and uncheck the "I know this reading" box, which will prevent that reading from showing up in quiz questions.
More specifically, tap the settings icon next to the study/learn button, then you should see a "Currently studying" at the top - you can change that to adjust the reading types that are studied.
