Hi, I have studied for a good few years but on and off, mainly learning form my Japanese friends, talking to people in Japan, kanjidamage, and various other, one might say “organic”, sources.
I am considering purchasing WK subscription for a year in the hopes of learning more 熟語, vocab and perhaps some grammar structures, which I’m still not great at, making up complex sentences as I speak is probably the hardest thing for me.
My question is, will WK allow me to selectively jump to a particular level that I feel is challenging enough for me? From what I can see so far, I have to start with basic radicals that have mnemonics that are different to what I studied originally. So in order to avoid re-learning what I already know, Is there a way to study things out of order on WK?
Sadly not. You do have to go through all levels in order.
That being said, I am in a similar situation, but I really like their system, so I don’t mind too much going through stuff I already know.
You have three levels to get a better idea. If you are still on the fence after that, I can also tell you that I started enjoying WK way more from level 5, so you may consider trying a one month subscription as well.
WK does not teach grammar. I guess you could figure some stuff out from reading the example sentences, but I wouldn’t rely on it. In any case you will have to find other resources for that.
I wouldn’t mind going over the first few levels to get up to the challenging level, but I think it’ll take me a bit longer than that, so just clicking through quizzes might be not very productive.
Regarding the grammar, thanks okay, I’m sure I can find other sources to study it.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Nope, not possible. I know how you feel, as it was similar for me when I started. However it’s good to do some repetition on older vocab anyway and another reason for not being able to skip is learning the radicals and mnemonics which you probably didn’t learn before in the same way. Advanced kanji will still use many of these radicals. It’ll definitely be excruciatingly slow in the beginning, but for me it was absolutely worth it.
You could skip the review/SRS part and just look the kanji/vocab content pages, the organization of the content and the mnemonics are worthwhile on their own.
Other than that, it depends how many kanji you know. If it’s more than 1,000 there are better resources to fill the gaps faster, if you know let’s say 500 it’s better to start on a solid foundation and redo some parts.
I have about 200 kanji left on kanjidamage, which brings me over 1k, of course I can’t say that I remember them perfectly. But since I read and listen to Japanese daily, I probably remembered around a thousand.
What other resources would you recommend in terms of tools or study materials?
Thank you everyone for the suggestions, I’ll try to review all the options
Perhaps iKnow or Anki (load other’s decks or type your own) would suit you better as they allow you to conveniently adjust to your current level. It’s a pity that WK does not allow you to mark items as mastered, because it’s a really nice kanji studying tool.
Bear in mind, if you know something already, then you will only be asked about it 8 times. It will be a bit slow at first, but you will be able to advance at the fastest possible pace.
Just discovered the amazing Complete 10k deck. This would be great for expanding vocab. As for going over the kanji I will consider starting afresh with WK in parallel with the 10k deck, but I might finish the kanjidamage deck first before buying into WK. I have accumulated a few decks of my own from conversations with my friends, including slang, less common phrases, 関西 dialects etc. which should serve as a nice addition to the daily study session.
Can I skip ahead or speed things up?
Sorry, not at this time. Since all items rely on the knowledge of previous items, you have to prove you know everything before leveling up. Everyone has to start at level 1, no exceptions.
In terms of grammar, there’s a website that (I believe) is stapled into WK as a third party website called bunpro. It’s basically just Wanikani but for grammar points.
Try Bunpro for grammar, you won’t get any grammar from WaniKani. Also pick up some books for grammar, Genki I and II and then Tobira or similar or Tai Kim if that’s your thing. If just going for JLPT grab Kanzen Master for whatever JLPT you’re aiming for.
Of course you can, if you pay for it. If we think of WK as a comfort woman, which I am paying for, I would like to check if I have an option to skip straight to coitus or foreplay at the very least.
