Advice for us low-levels?

WaniKani Tips & Tricks
#118

There is a forum category called “pleasant” for members in levels 1-10. I can’t see it, obviously. I once heard that it has a topic thread for helping the new members get better acquainted with WaniKani. It seems to me that some of the issues being raised (e.g. Reorder script, over ride script, leech management) should be addressed in that thread so that people don’t come back asking the same questions over and over.

Most members are happy to help. I can’t help thinking that we are sharing the same info every day.

#119

Talking about forum category, come join us in Death soon :smiling_imp:

#120

I see this quite often, people getting overwhelmed and such, and I’m wondering if there’s a ballpark level where this can start to happen - WK isn’t blocked at work, and the mobile app is really handy, so I’m honestly always waiting for more content (impatiently).

I’m only level 4, but I feel like I’ve been level 4 for ages. I only have about 75 reviews a day, unless I get lessons (in groups of ~12 usually). Plus, I feel like I’m learning a lot faster than I was before, and can definitely handle more content.

1 Like
#121

For me, things started to get serious for the first time around level 13. I think there was a graph somewhere in the forum that it’s the level most people quit WK.

Then I got used to it for a bit before things started to feel a bit hard again around level 21 or so.

Now that I’ve finally started to burn stuff it gets better again :slight_smile:

Save your stamina, it’s a looong journey of ups and downs.

And of course, whenever there’s some down time between reviews, run to grammar learning! And start reading as soon as possible :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#122

Any recommendations on where to practice grammar/reading?

#123

You’ll know when you try and able to keep a habit :smile:

Reading:
I recommend some progressively difficult materials, that is, not too hard. But, do read some real and perhaps difficult materials once in a while too.

2 Likes
#124

+1,000,000,000,000! (factorial, not an exclamation mark!)

#125

Well I had most my basic grammar from Human Japanese & Human Japanese intermediate, then Genki. For free resources I find Maggie Sensei’s website not bad, although I only use it as a supplementary resource.

Reading is a bit trickier if you’re a total beginner. At around level 10-ish I started to be able to get through NHK Web easy with rather great difficulty. Other than that, Satori Reader :slight_smile: And Chokochoko Library & Yomimaru – both have N5 reading materials.

They’re all probably listed in the Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List topic :slight_smile:

1 Like
#126

Didn’t expected to see a Drag Race gif in a forum about learning Japanese lol

1 Like
#127

Level 9 and the same for me, had like 8 reviews today. 64 items in apprentice queue.

#128

Oh. All you people who have a lot of time can start Kaniwani. It’s the reverse of Wanikani that syncs to the WK account, if you don’t already know. By reverse I mean it asks you to give Japanese words from their English translations. Some people only review burned words there, but I did it for all vocab until recently. It definitely takes a lot of time, especially as you’ll learn more and more vocab + it takes longer time to recall Japanese words from English than vice versa.

It was taking more time for me than WK that I am currently on KW break for my master’s thesis (now done yay!) and JLPT (almost).

I feel KW gives my head pain whenever I see 100-300 reviews, because it’s way harder to recall Japanese words from their English counterparts. D: But I find it really helpful to reinforce my memory both ways (English-Japanese/Japanese-English). A necessary evil.

3 Likes
#129

Same here! Sometimes I dread Kaniwani because it’s a lot more difficult.

It’s a lot more difficult, yeah, because English–>Japanese is a lot harder but also it’s easier to parse the word from the Kanji. Kaniwani gives you no help.

It’s also hard because synonyms are sooo freaking hard to distinguish on Kaniwani (right now “neighborhood, near, previously, last, and best” synonyms are hitting me so hard.) I have a whole lot more leeches on Kaniwani than Wanikani because of all the synonyms.

I write them down and ask my Japanese coworker about the difference and the first thing he says is “They’re the same, it doesn’t matter. No one cares.” I have to keep telling him that it does to Kaniwani haha.

1 Like
#130

Thanks. I levelled up four days ago but I have not started my lessons yet. Hopefully, I will enter Death before you leave!

#131

Youre in for a real treat aha

#132

Oddly enough, I was the same, but over time I now find KW generally much easier and faster - though possibly because it’s set to Burned Only. I dread my WK reviews much more.

#133

I think it’s because of that, sure. The first KW reviews (of new items) are always the most painful :smiling_imp: then it got better. Sure, we have to add synonyms pretty liberally here and there to make it work, but it’s definitely good for reinforcing memory.

Even for WK, the first 2 reviews were usually quite a headache. After the 4 hour and the 8 hour reviews things get better ^^

unless they’re leeches…:

:sob:

#134

It’s not more difficult. I only get about 50 to 70 reviews a day, compared to WK where I get between 150 to 200 a day. Also, KW only asks you for the reading, whereas WK asks you for reading and meaning (except for radicals). So 150 WK reviews is equivalent to about 300 KW reviews.

I’m starting to burn my WK level 23 items now so the KW reviews are getting more difficult because the kanji I draw with stylus on my IME have grown from 5 strokes to 16 strokes. But you get used to it.

1 Like
#135

Yeah I understand that you do more work with WK than KW but I’m not doing burned only so sometimes I unlock the vocabulary and right away I have to remember it for KW. And the synonyms…all the synonyms…

WK is more work but it’s easier for me.

#136

Any reason why not? More difficult does not always mean better.

#137

Because I have no burned items yet and I live in Japan so it’s more necessary for me to remember the vocab from English to Japanese for daily life.

1 Like