Hello All.
Sorry if I miss something obvious. I have searched in the forum and could not find an answer.
Whenever I type kanji in the response, I have the “Please use Hiragana or Katakana!” message. Using a Japanese keyboard setting, the kanji are automatically selected. On top of that, it seems natural to learn writing with the proper kanji when you actually write japanese.
Is there as setting (I could not find one) to allow using kanji in answer?
Thanks in advance,
Sebastien
There’s no setting to change to Kanji response. I believe the developers decided that it would allow for “cheating” given that your keyboard would auto select the correct answer and not allow you to remember it instead….something to that effect. Hopefully one of the devs can give you a better answer than mine 
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I’m not sure if this was the developers’ reasoning, but I always assumed this was done on purpose because some grammatical structures trigger a different reading of the kanji. By only allowing kana, it double-checks that you actually know that as well as the overall structure.
That was my guess as well, kanji like 御 or 何 for instance can have several readings and picking the right one is important.
It may also make implementing the answer validation a bit simpler since you don’t have to account for all possible kanji variations.
As @simias said, it’s a validation/logic-simplification thing.
It especially made sense for grammar (kanji generally is less important here), but now for Vocab and the new Cloze question types, we think about adding Kanji support. Not sure.
Thanks all for your answers.
The short answer:
After writing most of the email below I found the simple solution: if I switch to a US keyboard and type the answer, then Bunpro is transforming what I type in hiragana… it was not obvious to me. I think it solves my problem well enough. If the error message was different it might have hinted me at the solution. Maybe something like “Please use only Hiragana or Katakana in your answer. If you use a japanese keyboard, try switching to an Azerty or Qwerty keyboard and let Bunpro convert as you type in hiragana automatically.”
The long answer:
For reference, I am using the Japanese keyboard on mac. Maybe stuffs looks different on iOS or Windows, or Android. As mentioned in the “short answer” above I was using as japanese keyboard by default. All what is bellow is about supporting better typing with a native japanese keyboard setting in Bunpro.
I don’t know what would be best for vocabulary, or kanji practice, but at least for grammar I think that allowing submitting answers with Kanjis should be allowed, at least as an option.
There are many cases where there are actually kanji in the grammar. The problem that I had was with things like 上に, 上で, に限る, に違いない, etc. Looking at the list of grammar points, it is easy to see that there are many cases where the usual form of the grammar is using kanjis. When I type them with the Japanese keyboard, the kanji versions are automatically selected by default on the mac.
Also, in some ways, having to write the right kanji can be actually harder, since you have not just to remember the proper hiragana, but also selecting the right kanji in the list.
There is definitely cases where validation is going to be tricky. Some grammar form do have version in kanji that are not much used. Should it be allowed at all? with a warning? I have in mind things like にもかからわず that is actually written にも拘わらず and not にも関わらず.
Forcing to select the hiragana version in the list after I type with a japanese keyboard is not only slow, but since the system seems to remember that I prefer the hiragana writing like うえで, then I need to correct it again when I write a mail in Japanese with the same form.
All being said, I’d love to have this option and I am ready to help for it if needed, but I can understand that you might have a long list of more urgent feature to build.
Regards
I think allowing kanji allows for “cheating” which would have to policed by the user. The autocomplete is a dead giveaway and equally if you put in the wrong answer and the correct kanji doesn’t come up on the predictions then you know you got the yomikata wrong and have been spoiled. Bunpro also won’t know what yomikata you’ve used to write a kanji so you could be repeating the same incorrect yomikata and not necessarily know.
My personal opinion is that one should be learning about kanji somewhere else and, equally, the commonly used kanji in grammar points at any given level should be trivial for someone who is actually at that level. I’m reticent to say that since I know some people really have a hard time with kanji but in general it should hold true.
Switching to an English keyboard takes a single key press on a Japanese layout keyboard and like two/three on an English layout keyboard so it isn’t a massive bother.
As I understand it, there was an attempt by the developers to incorporate kanji answers even earlier this year, but I’m not sure where that went.
I’d have to agree with CursedKitsune here, though. I’m partway into N2 and there are a bunch of similar grammar points involving 上 but the reading depends on the context. There’s one pesky grammar point where you’d think the reading would be うえ but is actually じょう. It’s best to practice consciously thinking about the kana. Isolated 音読み are a real pain to pick out by listening. Bunpro is good practice for getting used to that.