Furigana on the front or not? Thoughts?

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#1

Despite being on kitsun for ages, I’ve only just started really getting into it (along with WK and Bunpro) in the past few months, and I’m finally making my own decks and having a lot of fun.

But I do have a question. A kind person here explained how to make decks, for which I am really grateful, and I went for the simplest option that I could find. However, that shows furigana both front and back. They then explained that if I used the 10K template I could remove the furigana from the front.

However, that got me thinking… perhaps having furigana front and back is no bad thing. Often when I see a load of kanji I get despondent, but having the furigana there gives me the confidence to tackle the sentence. I know I can concentrate on meaning and grammar etc and leave the reading alone, while also getting exposure, right?

I’m also doing WK, so can’t hide forever, but is it such a bad thing to have the training wheels on while here on kitsun, doing my own decks (alongside the N5 and 10K) and using it for exposure and re-enforcement? What do people think?

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#2

I don’t think there are any rules really. Unlike coursed content, Kitsun is your personal study world for your goals, you have to make as engaging as possible (whatever that is). If you find the furigana start to become too easy or overly dependent, you will probably recognize it and it will get boring and time to move forward. Plus it sounds like you have other avenues of earnest kanji study and material to work on.

The marumori.io method sounds great for beginners as you are given reading exposure at a level you are already studying for both vocab/grammar that should be both digestible and challenging to reinforce what you are already learning (sort of the critical balance for learning which can be hard to find at first). And looks like they have a plan route to keep it fun, even better.

I personally like using alot of different study decks with different methods and focus (and difficulty). If I’m doing easy stuff, its only for the review to keep fresh otherwise I just want to keep pushing forward in some way. And if I’m getting stonewalled with difficulty and brute force isn’t working, I have to go back to a foundation to work on to improve that and the cycle starts again.

#3

Thank you so much again @s1212z ! You’ve really helped me a lot here and in the other thread too! Thank you!

Good point! You’ve really settled my mind there, thank you. I guess the time will come when I just think “I don’t really need to type in this furigana, do I?” and that will be that for that kanji at least. Great point. Thank you so much.

As for marumori, I’ve thought and thought and thought about it. But I already have WK, Kitsun, and Bunpro, so I don’t really need another SRS, though like you say, it’s so much more too. And I really can’t justify another big Japanese-study expense. But, yes, for someone starting out it would seem that marumori really is all you need.

Thank you again!

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