Cut your review time in half!

Aha! I see :wink: Thanks for the explanation.

If I understand you correctly, you compare your abbreviation method to shorthand writing and your argument is that you won’t forget a kanji/vocab meaning because people using shorthand also do not forget the connection btw the abbreviation they used and the original word. Let’s assume for a moment this is correct in this case as well, I still have two major concerns:
-the more you advance in Wanikani the more kanji/vocab you will encounter that you have to abbreviate with the same term, e.g. “ebe”. Thus, at higher levels there will be unavoidable situations where you would need to use the same or slightly odd abbreviations to avoid having multiple identical abbreviations for completely different kanji/vocab!
-even if you save typing time in the end by your method, you actually load your memory with much more information (the association with the kanji& meaning and additionally the abbreviation)! I think most users will rather have difficulties with the “brain memory space” than with half a second time it takes to type the full meaning instead of the added abbreviation.
These two points (plus all the other concerns discussed so far) make me at best very sceptical towards your method and I would not recommend anyone to use this! That said we are all free to make our own choices in life, so to anyone sticking through with this method until level 60: let us know how it goes please :wink:
Also, Fin21’s accuracy might be low in comparison to an 98% accuracy, but I think with his >90% he seems still higher than (several?) other users that have posted their accuracies. Sure, the higher the better in this case, but you should improve it anyways outside Wanikani with additional Japanese material according to your abilities :wink:
Sorry this ended up so long :sweat_smile:

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I really recommend using rfindley’s lightning mode script. It cuts out the extra clicks/key presses and makes it much easier to just focus on answering the prompts.There are a lot of awesome scripts for the site, but this is probably the single best script I’ve used for improving my review speeds.

Also, if you’re okay with 1x1 mode I’d recommend pairing this with a reorder script. I don’t put much weight on the benefits of interleaving so with the two scripts combined reviews become much, much faster. It’s very convenient knowing being able to anticipate the responses for two items at a time and you don’t have to worry about getting interrupted or disconnected without using the wrap up button.

Edit: Also, I don’t see how 90% is anything but good. If went through 3k terms in half a year and only managed to remember 2k I’d still be ecstatic over the progress. I think people care about both accuracy and leeches waaaaaaay too much without actually looking at the bigger picture. There is so much more to learning Japanese than worrying about some minor setbacks on WK.

The phrase “less haste more speed” springs to mind. Not going to get into the moral issues of your time saving method (plenty of other people have done that for me) but from my own experience ‘cutting your review time in half’ does not always benefit you in the long run.

When I first did Wanikani (so was a new user as you describe) I used to hate doing reviews on phone and always preferred using desktop because it allowed me to finish my review queues way quicker. However around about level 6 or so I found my level up time increased sharply. After analyzing my results I realised that in my haste to quickly type in answers my accuracy had decreased rapidly so all that I was doing was failing something and have it drop down a level and thereby rejoin my apprentice queue. I should add that I touch type so can very quickly type out an answer. Nonetheless after typing I’ve gotten into the habit of pausing after each one before hitting return to give myself time to reflect and double check that my answer is right. Not only does taking my time to (think through my answer) help in the long run, it means I usually avoid the forehead slapping moment (which happeneed all to often before) of hastily typing in a answer and hitting return a split second before realising that I’ve made a mistake but Ooops! Too late I hastily hit return already.

Anyway just my two cents.

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I would have to agree with @polv. Just get better at typing faster. It’s a really useful life skill to have.

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The keystrokes in this instance just qualify as a physical mnemonic. They are harmless. You might have to remember a story for some kanji to recall the meaning in WK, but it falls away naturally after a while. You don’t then turn around and say WK harms your learning because you have to, at first, remember the story mnemonic. The physical mnemonic works the exact same way. Physical mnemonics have been used in math for thousands of years.

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You can see the real meaning anyway by pressing F when you got the answer wrong. So Anki mode or not, you’re going to see it if you want to.

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Hahha, you’re a bit of a jerk, but you’re my kind of jerk :wink:

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That’s pretty interesting, I wouldn’t have thought of trying that. It doesn’t seem without flaw but it would certainly make things faster.

Maybe using some sort of autocomplete could help you save time without compromising specific meanings…

I think the ignore answer script is fine, but I wouldn’t personally use this method because I would be afraid of only creating associations with letters and not words, or mixing up words that start with the same letter. Also some words translate to whole phrases in English, idk where to start with that.

I hope it works for you in the long run.

Best of luck!

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I used an Anki deck and Ankidroid, and forced myself to draw them on screen for a while to make sure I knew them and wasn’t just keyboarding them.

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As a self-assessed N1, I made “t” a synonym for everything, and look where I am now!

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You know, I was being an asshole when I wrote that. And I don’t mind being an asshole. However, the more I think of it, the more I want to do this!

So I’m thinking of getting to level 60 and burning everything first. Then I’ll use @rfindley 's Burn Manager script and resurrect all the vocabs from level 1 (and only vocabs, not radical or kanji). Now when I do the reviews, I’ll add a user synonym in a language I’m learning (haven’t made a decision yet, it’s a tossup between Italian and Swedish).

Then about a week later I’ll resurrect vocabs from level 2 and do the same to them. And from there I’ll move on to the rest of the levels. The user synonyms I’ll have to look up in a Japanese-Italian or Japanese-Swedish dictionary. But there are many of those online.

Boy I really love lifetime membership xD

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Well, not exactly. When I saw the kana I just instantly knew which fingers I had to move, because I’ve done it so often (I did several sessions with 1000+ items). I did think the sound in my had, but it happended simultaneously while I was typen and when I encountered kana in the wild, the only thing that came up in my mind were the fingers I had to move to type the kana at first.

That’s really interesting, I never thought about it that way. I was actually worried while using realkana that I only learn the keystrokes to get the right answer. That’s why I supplemented my studies with the kanji study app.

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I do exactly the same thing. I even have a practise book for stroke orders and what not; one of those cute little ones Japanese grade-schoolers use when they are learning to write.

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I am over 100wpm on a keyboard, so I used to prefer that input method for reviews, but that’s not practical on the go with a smartphone. I always hated hunt and peck on smartphones and tablets so I never considered them viable for large volume typing, but my buddy introduced me to Swype, and I’ve attained similar speeds effortlessly on a phone with just thumb sliding. It only speeds up the English and you still need to hunt and peck Japanese but my speed and impatience even for that are better after 30 levels, I enjoy typing on a smartphone now, extra WaniKani typing effort earned me a skill beyond Japanese.

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Google’s keyboard is really good for that style of typing too. The only annoying part is trying multiple times to get it to put the word you want if you go too quickly.

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I still use dictation, but I find it slows me down on the computer (running v. 10.10 or so). On my phone, on the other, hand, dictation is a real life saver! Given I’m not riding the bus or something.

Are you sure they removed that feature? It can be activated via System Preferences or from the application menu (in firefox and textedit, Edit>Start Dictation). It doesn’t make sense that they would remove an accessibility feature like that.

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I just had to search sedge… so thanks for the pre-warning he he

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I’m only a few weeks into WK and in the last several days have been contemplating taking notes w pen & paper, so it’s good to learn I’m not being needlessly old school and that it really will help. Cheers!

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