I recently finished having a basic level memorization of Kanji in the JLPT N5 category based on an app I use. I learned early on through other sources there’s 2 different ways to say a lot of words, the “On’yomi” & “Kun’yomi” ways. While I panicked at first cause I thought I had to memorize both versions of every word, I learned not to sweat it too much when I found out that most are only used one way. I figured that whatever apps I used to learn, when they introduced a new Kanji and how it would be pronounced through Hiragana, that would be the way I would encounter it most often.
Well I just recently heard about WaniKani and tried it out and when I unlocked my first Kanji, the website told me that the way they taught word pronunciation was how they are most commonly used, just the way I assumed most apps and resources functioned. Well the first kanji unlocked said that 十 was written and pronounced as じゅう. That tracks, but then it said that 人 was にん or じん when I had learned it as ひと? And that 力 was りき when I learned it as ちから? Confused and a little nervous I looked through their level 1 Kanji list and saw that WaniKani was teaching different pronunciations of a lot of words from what I learned.
So now I’m kinda freaking out. I knew there would be words here and there this would happen to but finding out that at a glance like 60% kanji that I have been learning, apparently I’ve been learning the “niche” versions all this time, it makes me feel like I’ve wasted months learning and memorizing. Is it true that 力 is rarely pronounced as ちから and is almost always りき/りょく? Is WaniKani an accurate source of how words are more commonly pronounced?