I use the mnemonics extensively, however I think that Wanikani’s mnemonics are the second worst aspect of Wanikani (after the concept of “burning” items that doesn’t make any sense from the scientific point of view). I use wanikani because it’s an extremely high quality and polished product from the interface point of view, it wants me to type and not to press random buttons to self-assess how well I know something, and forces me to keep a pace that is not too fast, but the gamification aspect encourages me not to be too slow either.
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I like that items get burnt. At some point your time is better spent reading and keeping kanji in your memory through exposure rather than SRS, and I like that the WK team aren’t so mad about getting your money that they’re prioritising longer subscription periods over an effective approach to learning Japanese.
It gives you something to aim for and limits how crazy your reviews can get.
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I understand why some people like it and I’m not saying the option shouldn’t exist. I am just saying that other people would prefer different approach and there should be that option too. Everyone should be free to use it according to their preferences. Reading native material doesn’t guarantee that you will retain all kanjis, and with a sufficiently long time before next review (3 years for example) the daily workload wouldn’t be excessive. Also, you say that in this way wanikani is not being greedy asking people to have longer subscriptions. I see it differently: if you think ‘burning’ is a good idea you could still do it and stop your subscription, whereas now lifetime members are not being offered great value because if thy finish wanikani in less than two years there isn’t much else being offered to them.
Well it’s different if you think there should be options - I was just saying why I do like that it burns items (although with the number of options people would like to see I think it would soon start to lose it’s nice ‘plug and go’ aesthetic).
I completely agree that reading doesn’t guarantee you will retain them all, but I think the point is that that doesn’t matter; you’ll remember the ones that you encounter and therefore need. If you’re still investing time in reviewing the same old kanji five years down the road I think that’s an inefficient use of time, and they want to encourage people to stop using WK and get out there!
You can always resurrect items or reset if you think you’re forgetting a lot. Lifetime seems like good value to me even if I do burn everything within two years (which seems very unlikely!).
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I don’t really use them either. If I do though, I usually forget them after the second time I review the item.
When Wanikani mnemonics are too ridiculous, I go to Kamji Damage.
When the Kanji Damage mnemonics are disgusting, I go to Kanji Koohii.
When Kanji Koohii mnemonics make no sense, I make up my own or just look at the item until I’ve memorised it.
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