こにちは! I around the same level and I feel the same way these reviews can be rough sometimes… But we push through!
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Your brain might be tired. I have days like that where I’m just getting things wrong left and right (like yesterday!)
The way I remember 心 is thanks to all the anime, games and manga I consume. こころ shows up in so many songs. So that stuck in my head instantly. しん was a bit trickier to stick until I remembered that it shows up in manga. It’s like the opposite of どき どき, when a characters heart “stops” in fear.
外 and 内 I have no problem remembering がい and ない but I still trip over そと and うち I’ve yet to come up with decent mnemonics for those.
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So I took your advice, took 6 days break from doing any new lessons, definitely feeling refreshed! I know 6 days is a long time, but I kept up my reviews and I am taking the slow scenic route anyway 
. Been spending a lot of time on the forums as you all might have noticed hehe 
the POLL forum is fun!
Made some new friends @trunklayer, @Joeni @patternfinder, @anon3564849 and a few others but I don’t want to spam them all hehe ! 
Finally started my level 4 lessons this morning (it’s 8:45am) I did 10 radicals, and a combination of Kanji / Vocab totalling 25 items in total! not too many it’s over my 20 item limit but because radicals have less information I thought it’s ok.
Just a little up-date since I haven’t posted on this thread in almost a week even though I’ve been around.
I managed to get my apprentice items down to 2, but I strongly suspect some of my level 1 & 2 items will drop down from Guru because I’m struggling to remember some of the vocab by memory (is that normal? I assume it’s just part of SRS).
I also wrote sort of my first sentence this week, not sure if it counts:
“こんにちは！わたしは sober 今日” but I tried! and it’s my first time using 今日 although I did write it as こんにち rather than as きょう but now i’ve started my level 4 lessons I know the difference! 
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Japanese has made me realize a lot about English.
One of the things I was explaining to someone just today is that Japanese made me realize that, in English, we say things like (for example) “I don’t think it is” when what we mean is “I think that it is not.” It’s out of a long-since standardized politeness that we don’t even consider polite anymore, I believe.
Anyway English speakers often try to say 思わない in these situations in Japanese and it just doesn’t track.
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Ooh that’s a good observation, I never considered that one before!
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Not doing too well on my reviews today, but at least they’re above 67% I guess.
Review session numero uno.
Session two:
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Once again my review was a bit poop today:
I am starting to do poorly for older stuff I had learned, I am also - It will be interesting to see SRS in action, I hope I actually can learn and improve them.
I’m only level 4 so this is still quite worrying to me!
I had a few questions for you lovely community members though, when I see Kanji like 氷 I immedietly know it’s “Ice” but I can’t remember how to say it - I go to readings that I know are common “Shou?”
Do you guys know the reading for every Kanji you’ve learned? or is it similar where you can read them, but you forget how to say it (e.g. for 氷 knowing it’s こおり, or just knowing it’s Ice and forgetting how to say it).
I feel like I am remembering Kanji really easily, for “Past” “Say Humbly” “Early” “Ice” but I forget how to write it .
My other question was, even though I’m learning lots of stuff I haven’t actually spoken any Japanese, how are you guys tackling this? Are you just mastering writing for now?
I can say Ookii for big etc, but I feel like if I went to put a sentence together (vocally actually speaking) it would take me forever to recall the words. I can recognise the Kanji straight away though.
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Speaking and writing are different skills from listening and reading, and will take additional effort to learn.
and even for reading, WK only teaches us how to read kanji, not how to use grammar to put all the words together into a sentence. if you follow the recommendations from tofugu, you’ll do ten levels of WK but not be able to put together a sentence. but grammar is the glue which holds the words together, without that, you’re just learning kanji in a void, which makes it very difficult to remember things.
so i recommend starting grammar as soon as you can. it will get you onto a path where you can start putting words together yourself, which will help you advance towards speaking.
grammar is also necessary for reading, and once you can start reading, that’s probably one of the best tools for advancing your language-skill.
personally, i’m not yet working on production (speaking and writing), at least not in any systematic way. instead my main focus (outside of WK) is reading.
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Thank you Mrs_Diss, I always appreciate your thoughtful and in depth responses. In that case I will start grammar before level 10 and be more studeous.
I did think it was seperate skills, I just have no way to gauge how I’m doing.
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Aw dude, I def do get the feeling whenever I keep forgetting what the kanji/vocabulary’s reading and/or meaning as well. I almost always have the problem of it being on the tip of my tongue and it just doesn’t pop up immediately. It’s gonna take time, but you’re making progress, so hurrah for that!
With the kun’yomi (Japanese reading) and on’yomi (Chinese reading), there’s no way I’m able to remember the readings for all the kanji from the get go, especially when I learn the other reading through vocabulary. You’re not alone with the reading struggle! It’s been my main problem when I’m learning new kanji and vocabulary.
I’ve noticed it’s easier for me to recognize what the kanji/vocabulary means as well. The biggest thing for me is mnemonics. I’ll use the mnemonics that WK provide, but I will build on their mnemonics with
my own whack mnemonics if I’m still struggling with the reading/meaning.
patternfinder provides an example of their brain shenanigan
I blanked out on the vocabulary word, 代わる recently. I just sat there and stared at it for a couple minutes. I remembered the kanji 代 means substitute, and then I remembered the on’ reading だい/ダイ because the substitute leader wore the wrong color and now we gotta dye it again. I knew it wasn’t this reading because of the hiragana. It had to be the kun’ reading. More minutes passed as I kept typing, but all of it didn’t sound right when I said it out loud—until I typed in かわる and said it out loud! か! That means we got to replace the broken car before the substitute leader can drive off and die in a car accident!
As for speaking, I’ve been reading out loud along with native speakers or parroting them whenever a recording is available. I do this on WK and Jisho. It’s like a game for me to see how is this kanji/vocabulary gonna stick when I read it out (I have straight up sang melodies to see if it would stick lmao). Eventually, I would like to practice having conversations but that require better grammar I’m still refreshing and learning from Genki 1 and other resources. 
Btw, takes me a million years to type because I’m on my phone and not an actual computer/laptop so that’s a double oop for me haha
@Lewby I will clack away with my tiny paws fingers
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That’s ok! I wasn’t being critical of you! I was just wondering if you were typing or if my page was bugging out haha
Thanks for the reply! the tip of the tongue thing is so annoying, and I can relate with breaking down the vocab into components too, it can be annoying when the reading is something completely new or irregular though!
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Oh no worries, never crossed my mind as you ever being critical! I realize a lot of people clack really fast and then I’ve been having lots of people @me as I’m clacking too. I just laugh every time it happens tbh 
No probs, I consider you a good friend as well so it’s always nice seeing you pop in the forums wherever the heck you wound up! Like every person who has encounter 日 and 人’s multiple readings… this kills a patternfinderさん
I kept hecking up the reading for six things and six days ‘cuz I kept thinking ろく instead for a hot second before noon became my all-time leech enemy for a while
edit: a lot of my first time badges are finally popping up thanks to you lmao, feel the honor. be the honor
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yeah りつ vs ろく got me for a while too because I didn’t realise the Kanji for stand and six looked so different, Also I’m currently struggling with 氷 I just find it hard to see ice as こおり for some reason
Also 用いる to use, I keep forgetting it’s もちいる! so annoying
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I got’cha my dude
Hmmm, for 氷 I remember the mnemonic being some random person named Corey and then I add on top of that that they’re eating ice and they’re saying, “I’m very cold. I’m cooldy as ice brrrrr…”
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I’ve struggled with similar things too. That is why I love having it set to say the word out-loud when answering. It really should be default as I believe I had to turn it on. There have been times where hearing it over and over (when I’m getting it wrong) that it helps me remember the answer. For example, there have been times where I was struggling with counters or にん vs じん but I was able to get the correct answer just because I knew the other option didn’t sound right.
Also regarding accuracy I see other people post and they get great accuracy but don’t feel bad. I do well remember kanji meanings and the radicals, but my accuracy hasn’t been to good as of late for vocab readings. I just remind myself that this isn’t a race and try and brush up on the ones that are causing me trouble.
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Oh yeah for sure, I appreciate that feature as someone who uses sounds besides movement to remember thing. That’s how I was able to differentiate between 上がる and 下がる after getting it wrong many times and rehearing it many times
The kindest thing I’m doing to myself is not
compare my progress to other people and make it feel like a race as you said. The whole point of this is to encourage mistakes. As my 7th grade gym teacher once told me, “Practices makes permanency.”
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Maybe I’m a bit late at the party, but someone may find this helpful.
I’m learning Japanese as my third language (Italian is my mother tongue and I’m learning English in school). What I noticed that happened with English is this: at first, like 2/3 years ago, when I was reading some english text I was internally translating every thing in Italian, it was waaaayy easier this way to understand something.
Now, when I read something, I recall the concept of what is written, for example, if I read “apple” I know that we are talking about the fruit that is apple and I no more try to translate it to “mela” in Italian.
So, I thought: “what about learning the kanjis meaning using concepts?” so I tried it for a bit and it became easier remembering them.
For the readings, I simply memorize them and without having to remember the English meaning of a kanji it became easier to remember the reading.
It may be also useful to try to guess the reading of a new vocab before WaniKani teaches you. An example of a vocab that I learnt today: 花見 means “Sakura (or cherry blossom) viewing”, when I was on the page that listed all the kanjis that composed that word I simply guessed the reading, はな for 花 (flower) and み from 見 (see), put them together and you’ll get はなみ
TL;DR: try to remember the concept of the kanji (not the meaning) so remembering the reading will be easier and when you encounter a new vocab try to guess the reading of it.
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What do you mean exactly by “Learn using concepts”
So for hana did you not learn it as flower? or I’m confused, I type on an english keyboard so I need to remember that はな is “hana” if that makes sense? or like I guess I don’t really understand how to learn the concept without learning the english meaning
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