A little frustrated in the beginning

Hey,
i just started Wanikani (a month ago i think) and slowly, i get a little bit frustrated…

First, i know often the answer for a kanji/vocabulary, but i am not really sure if i type in the on oder kunyomi reading…I know that there is a rule about this but it would be perfect if wanikani tells me with the right answer if i typed on or kunyumi reading or tells me in lessons, every time if i type something in what reading i typed.

Second, the most frustrating part: I know the meaning of 目玉 instantly if i see it…than i have to think for some time about the correct reading. But if someone would ask me, 'Hey, whats eyeball in japanese and how do you write it?", i dont know the answer, even if i think about it. If i look after it, its right clear to me and i asking myself why i didnt know this instantly. So for now i only know the meaning instantly, but cant read it in a text because i dont know the right reading when its not the known vocabulary i learned from wanikani. And if i should write kanji, some are just deleted from my brain for this moment.

Its like, that it only works on wanikani layout but not to activate this knowledge if i am not on wanikani.

I hope you understand my thoughts and my english. Maybe i should use some english-wanikani first (is there one :thinking: )

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I think other people here will have better advice for kun vs on readings

But for the second issue, many people here use KaniWani or KameSame alongside WK to help with recall!
They’re both free, and are synced with your WK level
they’re SRS like WK but work backwards, asking for the Japanese from the English word

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Look into UserScript, they can add a lot of features to Wanikani.
I use the mobile Android App Flaming Durtles and it does the same as some userscripts, two of which solve the issues you mention:

  • one makes that the radical / kanji / vocab is written in a different font each time, chosen randomly, that has really helped me with the problem of “recognizing kanjis only in WK layout”
  • one shows if the on or kun reading are expected. But I also decided not to worry too much about that and now level 10 I can already that I’m grasping the pattern of which one it is without too much effort
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I also experienced the same thing of not recognizing words outside of WaniKani, but eventually that subsided, it’s really just a matter of giving it time. About recognizing meanings, that’s normal and also the vice versa but not the other part. Again, it’s an SRS system you’ll get it wrong and you’ll keep seeing it till it’s drilled in your head.

Not sure what you mean about on and kun because if you type the on when it wants kun it shakes and tells you it wants the other reading.

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There’s no real rule as to whether WK asks for on’yomi or kun’yomi for kanji, aside from that it’s generally the most common one (not necessarily the one used in most words, but the one you’ll encounter most often), which, yeah, doesn’t really help if you don’t know it in the first place lol. If you’re generally doing reviews on a computer, and one that you can install scripts on, I recommend the WK Custom Review Question (KunOn+) userscript, which will have WK specify whether it wants the on’yomi or kun’yomi.

As to not recognizing vocab outside of WK, being able to get from JP>ENG but not ENG>JP, and knowing the meaning but not the reading or vice versa… that just comes with more exposure. Things need time (repeated exposure) to work their way into your long-term memory and your working vocabulary, so you can produce them with little to no prompting rather than only be able to recognize them when you see/hear them. With some words that just happen to click for you, you may be able to get to that point with just WK, but you will eventually need more resources than just this. KameSame, as others have suggested, is good for reinforcing words you’ve learned on here with both JP>ENG review and ENG>JP production, as well as learning non-WK vocab. Reading, once you feel up to it, will also help.

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In my experience the first levels were the hardest… after a while you’ll get a feeling for which reading you need, but mostly you’ll simply have to memorize things. Kamesame helps a lot to learn from English to Japanese, which is a lot harder to do.
I used Kamesame for the first 10 levels or so but then the amount of reviews for Wanikani became too much to also do Kamesame for me. Maybe I’ll do that again after I finished WK.

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Don’t expect Wanikani to be the be-all and end-all in in your journey to kanji and general Japanese literacy. You can’t depend on it alone, you’re going to have to actually engage with Japanese text (and other aspects of the language) in the wild in order to fully make things stick, and possibly supplement your study with other resources too.

Language acquisition is a complicated and messy process, you will notice all kinds of irritating and confusing inconsistencies in your learning process, but do not let this discourage you. Things will almost inevitably work out as long as you keep going.

As far as writing kanji goes, you would have to dedicate time to practicing that specifically. You likely won’t be able to write most of them from memory purely based on your ability of visual recognition.

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Same here :sweat_smile:

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You only ever REALLY know the words once you encounter them. Wanikani in a vacuum won’t help you all that much (it just gives you a very good headstart).

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If it is a single Kanji then a pink background means its onyomi and a purple background means its Kunyomi. I think. I honestly can’t remember ever having that trouble. But that’s the explanation that popped up in my mind without thinking about it.

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I also felt confused in the beginning but soon I learned what kun and on were and when it was the correct answer.

People usually say to follow the colors in the background, but dont stick to it too much since in the wild you wont see those colors as a hint. :grin:

Pink just means it’s a kanji and purple means it’s vocab.
I think when you get multiple kanji in a vocab it’ll use on’yomi and when you get a kanji + hiragana it’ll be kun’yomi, but there’s probably also a lot of exceptions

What fonts are you using for the randomised fonts?

First, i know often the answer for a kanji/vocabulary, but i am not really sure if i type in the on oder kunyomi reading…I know that there is a rule about this but it would be perfect if wanikani tells me with the right answer if i typed on or kunyumi reading or tells me in lessons, every time if i type something in what reading i typed.

Like others have said, the first levels are somewhat tough because you have so many new concepts tossed at you. On’yomi? Kun’yomi? It is this way sometimes, that way another?! Stick with it for a few levels and each time you see a kanji / vocab, think about the reading a bit and how it connects to the other readings. By level 10 or so, you will likely have a good understanding of the On/Kun concept and will probably be able to predict the pronounciation of many new vocab words!

Second, the most frustrating part: I know the meaning of 目玉 instantly if i see it…than i have to think for some time about the correct reading. But if someone would ask me, 'Hey, whats eyeball in japanese and how do you write it?", i dont know the answer, even if i think about it. If i look after it, its right clear to me and i asking myself why i didnt know this instantly. So for now i only know the meaning instantly, but cant read it in a text because i dont know the right reading when its not the known vocabulary i learned from wanikani. And if i should write kanji, some are just deleted from my brain for this moment.

I struggled with this feeling, probably still do to some extent. I have gotten a lot better at reading things, but man… speaking… I would be a total trainwreck. But why? Well, I see language as a set of skills I suppose; reading, writing, speaking, listening. Whatever you practice, you get a lot better at! In this case, WK really emphasizes reading. So I think if you only stick with WK, it is reasonable to expect that you would not be very good at the other skills because it isn’t practicing those. Personally, now that I have a decent baseline for kanji and have spent time reviewing grammar, etc… I have been trying to do a lot more listening practice. Just keep at it every day and you will be amazed at your progress.

Okay, now for a word of advice… Don’t worry about this too much for now. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself and burnout. Focus on WK for now, maybe do a little basic grammar, but take everything in stride. Once you get comfortable and have a good routine, then consider supplementing additional things if you feel you can handle it. Eventually you want to get to real material to practice with, but you have to walk before you can run!

All except the last one

Cool, I’ll try that too!

Well you have only been doing this for a month so it sounds like you are still getting used to it which is common in the beginning. Also are you using their mnemonics or making up your own? Are you reading the context sentences on WK for the vocabulary. Are you using the Extra Study features of when you make mistakes you review over and over again.

As others have already said, this is mostly about just spending more time with it.
If you want to improve your ENG->JP vocab then I would recommend getting an Anki deck for core vocab with cards that go both ways. This will also be helpful for expanding your vocab in general as the vocab on WK has been selected to teach you the kanji, and not because the words are necessarily useful or common. Also just reading material out “in the wild” is great for recognition.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with following the colors, and on WK it’s usually the only way to tell what they want whenever they present a single kanji on screen. In the wild, this doesn’t happen, as the kanji will be surrounded by other kanji or kana.

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It’s not all that helpful to know what’s onyomi and what’s kunyomi. It IS helpful to know how to read vocabulary words.

WK has you memorize the most common reading of an individual kanji character first. Whether it’s on or kun doesn’t really matter.

Later you will learn other readings as they introduce vocabulary words using that character.

Re: your second question: output (writing and speaking) is a different skill than input (reading and listening). WK only focuses on input.

Output also needs to be practiced in order to improve.

The first step toward getting better at output, though, is massive amounts of input.

You can’t recall a word if it isn’t in your head already. Also, the more input you study, the more connections your brain forms to that content, making it easier to recall.

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