Probably not the first time a topic like this arises but I really love Wanikani’s way. That is why I would love for them to add all the Joyo/N1 remaining kanji so that I don t have to learn them “the old” (and inefficient) way.
I said 5 levels in the title but it can be anything. Post here to support this idea!
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Uh, but having just done 60 levels-full of Wanikani’s way, you don’t think you’d then be more than capable of making up some mnemonics on your own and basically doing the same thing in your head?
I mean, I’m not crapping on your idea, just most level 60 people say they don’t need or want the hand-holding anymore by that time.
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Yeah, I also would like them to add more levels. Well yes I have to do some for now, but yeah would be nice, if you could learn all the kanji with wanikani.
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Can’t say I support the idea. Training wheels have to come off at one point, no need to add to the experience IMHO. But, of course, everyone is free to have their opinion. Good luck.
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@ctmf You are probably right. We should be able to do it on our own. I just think it would be cool and easier if the kanjis were already there ^^
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I can just say that I was glad to be done with WaniKani upon reaching level 60. Sure, there are many kanji you don’t learn with WaniKani, but honestly, at that point the kanji either appear often enough that you can memorize them anyway or they are so rare that drilling them through all the SRS stages seems a bit pointless
I’d guess most people who reach level 60 would be able to learn more kanji without the hand holding as it was said here already
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Lol, you’re not wrong. I just see way more “Good god, I just want it to be over” from level 60s, and “I wish there was more” from lower-level people (who change their minds later) 
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Yeah, I’m lower level, and I think this would be a really cool idea. Sad to see so much antipathy to it, but maybe I’ll feel differently once I’m at a higher level…
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How many Joyo are not on WK? (I lazily ask even though I could easily look it up, exact number doesn’t matter)
I don’t think inserting one or two per level scattered throughout would be a terrible idea. I’m sure the people who are nearly done wouldn’t care to go back and do kanji they’ve already picked up through reading, etc., but the rest of us could relatively painlessly get the rest before they’re already old news.
I’m just thinking, I don’t know many level 60s who would say, oh, 61-65 now? That’s a good use of my time. Especially if they’re paying by subscription and not lifetime.
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that would be some 50’000 kanji to learn.
wanikani eventually reaches a point of diminishing returns. for some sooner, for others later. at that point we are better of using our knowledge to read and write in the language we are learning, and we learn more and better that way.
how soon that happens depends a lot on how much exposure we give ourselves. but i’m minded to believe our senpais who have already reached level 60 that by that time it’s enough ^^
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I wouldn’t mind a few more. I’ll be here for the rest of my life anyway!
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About 250 I think. so about 4-5 kanji per level but it would not be as simple as to jus insert them I think. These are rather rare kanji so they should be in higher levels that is why adding a few more levels seemed easier to me. Anyway that would do the job as well.
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around 150 iirc
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Please, no.
Exactly my sentiment. Technically I could stop at any level, but that golden badge is calling me…
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lol i know that completionist feeling ^^
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Yep sorry about 250 is N1 kanji and 150 Joyo kanji not on the list.
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I went through the joyou kanji afterwards for that sense of “completeness”. The problem is that a lot of joyou kanji are really arcane. I regularly see hyougai kanji more often than the remainder of the joyou kanji.
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I’ll grant that Level 60 isn’t perhaps equivalent to a native’s kanji knowledge level, but let me just say this: there’s a more efficient way to learn than SRS, and it becomes a lot easier to access once you have a lot of kanji knowledge. You just have to find ways to make new kanji extremely meaningful to you, possibly by making links between components that you already know, or by linking them to words you already know in Japanese (because some rare and advanced kanji are used for words commonly written in kana, or for words that are combinations of things you already know). I’m a native Chinese speaker, and when I learn new kanji now, if I manage to make them meaningful, I can study each one exactly once and retain them for months and months, if not permanently. Maybe creating the mnemonic will take a while, but even if it takes an hour, I think that’s a ton of time saved over an SRS given that I remember the kanji/word for longer than most (or all) of the longest SRS intervals, and I can often use the knowledge immediately. An example from my mnemonics thread:
魘される（うなされる） : to have a nightmare and moan in one’s sleep because of it (I took a while to write all the mnemonics in that post out, but I remembered the kanji permanently because the upper half is the traditional version of something I know, with the extra bit being a part of a loved one’s name, and the lower half is a kanji I know well. I was uncertain of the reading exactly once about 3 months after learning it. After revising, it stuck.)
You can look at other examples in that thread if you want. Still, just to assure you that not all mnemonics will take a long time, here’s something I created in 30 seconds (I’m not exaggerating). Typing it took longer, of course, but all the mental images formed within 30 seconds. Even if I am subconsciously exaggerating, I know for certain that I had the idea within less than five minutes:
靡く（なびく） – flutter, bend (in the wind, because of the flow of water)
Even if not everyone’s memory works exactly this way, I know that quite a few people at Level 60 say that new kanji they come across stick very quickly. The level of familiarity with kanji you’re likely to acquire will allow you to do without an SRS, so long as you make the effort to actually use Japanese, and not use WK in a vacuum (because using your Japanese knowledge in real life increases meaningful exposure and helps cement what you’ve learnt on WK).
I’m not saying that your idea is bad, but I’m suggesting that you might one day find that you really don’t need WK anymore to learn kanji. It’ll come naturally because your brain will have built a habit of tackling them in a certain way, and you’ll have past kanji knowledge to help you.
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Just for the meme, I would advocate for 9 additional levels.
That would make for around 27-28 kanji per level, assuming they add all 250 remaining N1 kanji.
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I don’t care either way. While reading I encounter kanji not on wanikani now and then. But I’m sure regardless how many more kanji they add, I will still encounter kanji not on wanikani.
What I want to say is, from some point on you should get used to looking up kanji on your own.
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