Alternative to KaniWani

WaniKani
#1

Please… for the love of god… does anyone have an alternative to KaniWani?

I decided to add another different learning method next to my WaniKani studies in order for it to be more complete and better for learning.

So I started using KaniWani which is similar to WaniKani but you get the name of the thing and need to write it in, instead of the kanji for it.

Im sure many people here know it.

However im absolutely furious with the app, I can’t keep using it because its plain ridicilous.

You get a word which can be woman and the correct answer can be anything from onna to onnanoko, to joshi to … and I know all of these things yet im making alot of mistakes with many of these questions simply because I don’t know which the app freaking wants from me.

Is there another better alternative to this? That actually tells you that it wants another one for this word instead of just putting ur answer as wrong since its obviously not wrong???

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#2

The only alternative I know of is Kamesame. It is a little different because you type in the kanji. I think there are still times where it will say the answer is wrong when it is technically correct but I’m not sure, I haven’t used the application in a while.

1 Like
#3

This is just one person’s opinion, but I say tackle one flashcard system at a time. If you really want to do more SRS before you feel comfortable reading, try Anki. There’s plenty of decks to choose from, and you get to decide for yourself whether you got it right or wrong.

4 Likes
#4

It’ll let you try again if you type in a synonym.

Also recently I have been kind of using it as writing practice. I installed handwriting input.

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#5

Basically, consider this…

This post is here to link to the official thread.

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#6

Kaniwani lets you add synonyms for these words. There is a ‘add synonym’ button below the red (or green) bar when it validates your answer. Once you define the synonym it will accept both answers. You may define as many synonyms as you want.

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#7

I suggest not using this kind of addition to Wanikani at all. I think there is no value in doing ENG > J translation of lone flashcards. It’s a recipe for rapid burnout.

It’s important to do production of the language you’re learning, but that means talking in sentences to another human being. KaniWani is not production, it’s a long unpaid miserable job as a data entry worker.

If you want a supplement to WK, especially if you’re new to Japanese, something like Torii is a good SRS that can fill in gaps in your vocab. Someone else mentioned KameSame, which looks like it does a billion things, too much for me. My goal is to do more Japanese far away from the computer.

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#8

I’ve been using KaniWani for about eight months now and I consider it a great help in my japanese journey so far. Learning what the kanji or japanese vocab means in english is very different from taking english to japanese. I often have to create a whole other set of mnemonics for vocab. BUT, it will make you crazy until you learn to add synonyms in. Using the add synonym function, as suggested by prouleau above can be a pain, but does make the experience much more tolerable.

I think the point about SRS burnout is valid as well. I have been able to stick with it, but some days, between WK and KW, there are a ton of reviews. I sometimes wonder if my time would be better spent doing other things (like grammar), but for me, I’m in no hurry, so I have decided to focus on acquiring vocab for the rest of this year. Grammar, reading, speaking, etc is going slower now, but I’ll get to it eventually.

#9

I found that it helps to set the setting ‘Do not review vocab below WK Rank’ to Guru. Then I remember most of the vocab from the get go. It greatly reduces the number of reviews because most KW vocab doesn’t stay in Apprentice very long.

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#10

Just a note that 女の子 won’t ever mean just “woman.”

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#11

I think they were trying to talk about how many words there are for “girl” but messed up…

#12

Or they meant 女の人

1 Like
#13

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