My year of daily WK reviews is over. This log serves to document the next phase of my journey studying Japanese. I’m aiming to post updates weekly, to track my progress and keep my motivation alive.
11 Likes
Week 1
- online Genki exercises: completed lvl 2-3. With all the grammar reading I had done in the past year, I thought it would be a breeze. Ha, how wrong I was
! I’m enjoying this resource though. - grammar: Japanese the manga way reached chapt 12.
- Satori reader: at least one episode daily, made it to 明子の日記、UW１part 6.
- Manga: ドラゴンボール just unwrapped the book
- Kanjidamage 1-116. What I like about going through this dictionary after doing WK:
** progressive ordering of items.
** lookalikes table with mnemonics; finally I can stop confusing 忙 and 忘.
** list of synonyms with explanations regarding nuances. Obviously only useful once you’ve learned the other kanjis.
** surprising facts (confirmed through other sources) - kanji drawing practice on a small buddha board, using plain 水 and
I’m very happy to have found sources for grammar, reading and kanji practice in both electronic and physical form 
13 Likes
Week 2
- online Genki exercises: completed lvl 4, workbooks are by far the hardest, but excellent (and sobering) practice
- grammar: Japanese the manga way reached chapt 14.
- Satori reader: at least one episode daily, made it to 明子の日記、UW１part 14. Got distracted by the Yuyu podcasts, a very engaging addition to the usual offerings on Satori. I can’t say I can really follow, would be good to revisit in a few months’ time
- Manga: ドラゴンボール even without getting all the words and going very slowly, it’s a hoot
- Kanjidamage 117-185, with a detour around 440 for about 20 kanjis
got a bit lost digging into the synonyms and following links!
** what’s that for a fabulous progression: 刃 > 忍 the ニン of
!! > 認 same ON and matching mnemonic. The latter was one of my long list of leeches from lvl 21 on WK… and 忍 inexplicably only appears in lvl 44 
** the site has a sulphurous reputation, and some content hasn’t aged well. So far most of it fine and oftentimes truly helpful. Loved the meaning mnemonic for 加 (another leech!): The rapper’s strong mouth ADDed power to the struggling music label
- kanji drawing practice: very soothing after a long hard day
Watched a few YT videos to see how it’s supposed to be done. Err…, I think I’ll continue with my own doodling for now!
7 Likes
Week 3
- online Genki exercises: completed lvl 5. Looks like the reading paid off for adjectives. Best strategy: write down the answers quickly without overthinking it!
- managed a couple of pages from “Japanese the manga way” this week
- Satori: Akiko’s American Foreign Exchange, reached UW Week 3 part 1. Also caught up with the Autumn short series… well, that turned a bit bleak
- Thankfully Akira Toriyama’s zany manga brought some welcome comic relief.
- Kanjidamage 186-253. It’s been surprisingly fun to go back to WK and Jisho.org, and the effort may even pay off
- doodled Kanjis a couple of evenings, should do more of it!
5 Likes
Week 4
Busy work week hindered progress.
- online Genki exercises: completed lvl 6.
- Satori: reached UW week 3 part 4.
- Kanjidamage 254-288. Some laugh out loud moments, always welcome
- had fun wih the Origami challenge!
4 Likes
Week 5
Work still interfered, yet I managed to catch up with Genki later in the week 
- online Genki exercises: completed lvl 7. Still breezing through the kanji part, but the grammar is getting tougher. Struggling with recall (those workbook exercises !) and listening comprehension.
- Satori: Akiko’s American Foreign Exchange, reached UW week 5 part 4. Read also one episode of the Autumn short series and listened to the latest Yuyu podcast.
- ドラゴンボール 其のニ
- Kanjidamage 289-305. Nice mnemonic to differentiate between 招 and 拐.
A visit to the local car museum gave me an unexpected extra opportunity to practice (and get stumped on a WK level 10 word 
)
7 Likes
Week 6. Lots of travel and massive jetlag 
, but had ample opportunities to study on various trains, planes and waiting rooms.
- Genki online: finished lesson 8. This was a slog, but I’m sure learning tons.
- “Japanese the manga way” somehow didn’t get into the suitcase on its own
- Kanji damage 306-328
- Satori: squeezed a couple of episodes every day but one, reached UW, Week 7, Part 4 of Akiko’s diary. I recommend this series if you’ve read Kona’s big adventure.
- ドラゴンボール Still having a blast even though I am no longer trying to understand every word . It’s going to be more fun reading it again later and discovering everything I’ve missed the first time.
2 Likes
がんばれ！ It’s good you’re still finding time to study while travelling and that you’re enjoying Dragon Ball in Japanese
3 Likes
Week 7. More travel and jetlag
- Genki online: finished lesson 9, just about. I think I need to go back to reading some more grammar to understand the answers to a few of the exercises.
- Kanji damage 329-335, got sidetracked by lists of synonyms. Pondering whether to start a little Anki deck… with a more relaxed SRS routine than WK?
- Satori: reached Summer vacation , Part 3 of Akiko’s diary. Lots of twists and turns kept me wanting to read more. It was fun learning about the story behind the Satori app.
4 Likes
Week 8
- Genki online: finished lesson 10. This was an easy one, except for the listening quizz; times and dates whizzed passed one ear and out the other without stopping at my brain
- Kanji damage 336-354. Finally made my little Anki subdeck from the official KD deck. The setup process was way easier than I expected, which was a nice surprise . Not doing anything fancy, let’s see if I can get a few more kanjis to stick!
- Satori: finished Akiko’s diary, going dutifully through all the grammar explanations
. Now what story to pick up next? - ドラゴンボール: finished the sea turtle episode. Seriously, what’s up with the パンツ obsession?
What a typical card from my subdeck looks like on ankiweb:
4 Likes
Week 9
- Genki online: finished lesson 11. I wish I could combine this with “Japanese the manga way”, but it seems my brain has equated Japanese grammar with system shutdown
. Best to keep feeding it homeopathic doses?! - Kanji damage 355-375. Wondering whether to stop reading new entries until I’ve caught up with my Anki subdeck So far my reviews cover selected kanjis within the first 100 entries. With a limit of at most 5 new items per day, it’s going to take a while to catch up , but I’m quite happy to go at a
pace after the WK marathon. - Satori: caught up with the Yuyu podcast episodes (still understand zylch of what he says, but at least I can practice reading!), and started The Obon Society.
How to improve my listening comprehension? Nihongo con teppei continues to stump me, so I went on Youtube. The choice is a bit overwhelming, but a few folks on this forum recommended the “Speak Japanese naturally” channel, so I gave it a shot… nice! The Japanese surtitles (not autogenerated!) are a great help.
5 Likes
Week 10
- Genki online: finished lesson 12. That was a tricky one
. I had to look for examples in my grammar book and online before I could even start some of the exercises. The Game Gengo channel was surprisingly helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFFa2nFi1Is - Kanji damage custom anki deck. So it looks like I completely misunderstood the purpose of subdecks and filtered decks ! I was wondering why those decks weren’t showing any more reviews or new items the day after I finished a session . Well, now I know that I simply have to create a new deck out of an existing one if I want to pick a subset of cards to study with SRS. The ‘subdeck’ and ‘filtered deck’ serve the same purpose as WK’s extra review section!
- Satori: more Yuyu podcast (story seems a bit repetitive…), Reached episode 7 of Obon Society. What a sobering reminder of the evils of war: everyone loses one way or another.
- Read some news stories on the Todaii app, it’s a bit glitchy but I bought a (suspiciously cheap) lifelong subscription during a sale, so might as well use it. I like that it lets me drill sentences down to single kanjis, and each story includes a simple quiz to test comprehension.
3 Likes
Week 11
- Genki online: finished lesson 13. New strategy: each time a new topic is introduced , I read explanations from various sources, e.g. grammar book, tofugu, etc… then do the practice exercises and follow immediately with the corresponding workbook. This helps cement what I’ve just learned and makes going through the workbook way more enjoyable
- Kanji damage anki deck: current recall is about 70% with 50 daily reviews. As with WK my nemesis is remembering the ON. Ah well… at least most kanjis are new to me, from WK levels 40 and upwards, though others I recognise as old leeches
- Satori: finished Obon Society and listened to Yuyu. Reading podcast episodes as I was doing last week is definitely not as fun as listening!
- ドラゴンボール read one more chapter, with the shape-shifting ウーロン. Wild
2 Likes
Week 12
- Genki online: finished lesson 14. One of the exercises referred to a picture in the book. I decided to apply the grammar patterns randomly, and then checked against the actual answers. Must have been my lucky day Found more great grammar resources online; Kaname Naito has a great channel and a quirky sense of humour. Good stuff.
- KD anki deck: hello leech 憧. KD lists it after 童 and the mnemonic can now reinforce that kanji too I checked Wanikani, and sure enough, 憧 comes 15(!) levels after 童.
- Satori: started Fujiki consulting services. This seems easier to parse than Obon Society and opening is intriguing enough… looking forward to reading more!
- ドラゴンボール one more chapter under the belt, this time we’ve added a
to our group of heroes I’m getting why this manga is such a hit.
3 Likes
Week 13. Chaotic end of the week, thankfully got out for a hike on Sunday.
- Genki online: lesson 15 done. Fairly easy one but incredibly useful. The exercises “using sentences to qualify nouns” are so helpful for reading, I wish I had done them earlier!
- KD anki deck: one month in, about 200 kanjis reviewed. Unsurprisingly, the hardest ones are new to me, either from later levels or not on wk. New leech: 叶. So simple, yet so tricky to remember either meaning or kun.
- Satori: reached episode 8 of Fujiki and not much is happening. What’s with the 猫?! Caught up with a new episode of Winter, a nice and easy serie. I’m enjoying the voicing of the old deer.
- random news articles on Todaii, mostly about excessive 雪 in some provinces. Wish those were the only news worth reporting.
3 Likes
Week 14. Tough week. Still in the grand scheme of things, I am one lucky b*****d, so might as well enjoy some kanji while we can.
- Genki online: got through lesson 16. Barely. That one was tough. Dug into multiple sources to study the material and still was left scratching my head.
- KD anki deck: I like the lack of stress of this system. My reviews are capped at 50max per day, and I can do them at any time. Retention is low in the evening, but so what? I just fail the items and move on.
- Satori reader: reached episode 12 of Fujiki and caught up with Winter. The Fujiki story is getting more interesting as it tips into the surreal. Looking forward to reading more! Read a few blog posts on nihongoteacher.co.uk for practice and to escape the news.
2 Likes
Week 15. Japanese studies had to go a bit on the back burner this week.
- Genki online: finished lesson 17, this one felt fairly straightforward.
- KD deck: some items are reaching ‘master’ level, though a few leeches are creeping up
- Satori: reached episode 17 of Fujiki after 1 day of binge reading
. Enjoying the sound effects and voice acting!
3 Likes
Week 16. Finally easing back into a more sustainable routine.
- Genki online: completed lesson 18, with help from Tokini Andy. This was another relatively easy one, though still with a big jump in difficulty between the practice and the workbook exercises. I had been skipping the listening comprehension bits to revisit later in one swoop, but decided to give it a go this time. I’ve been listening to nihongo con teppei and Satori, and was hoping for something to click: err… oh well
- KD deck: short term recall is about 80%, medium term drops to 65%. I think I finally squashed my worst leech 叶, after 49 reviews 夢が叶う
- Satori: reached episode 24 of Fujiki, caught up with Winter, and read a few articles on Todaii. Onwards!
4 Likes
Week 17. Routine gone thrown off by external factors, this week looks hectic too. Japanese studies will have to take a back seat. Aiming to keep up with my minimal schedule.
- Genki online: completed lesson 19. That one was wild, why would you wish to introduce even more ambiguity by using the same form いらっしゃる for 3 different verbs 行く、来る、いる? Baffling.
- KD anki deck: missed one day of review and was delighted to not be flooded the next day. The lack of stress of this system means I truly look forward to my daily anki review, and am less hesitant to fail items.
- Satori reader: squeezed in some reading almost every day and reached episode 32.
2 Likes
Week18. Made it through the madness at work without losing too many feathers. It feels good to be on the other side. Looking forward to resuming normal Japanese operations this week 
- Genki online: completed 3/4 of lesson 20. Workbook still a slog. Looking back at all the rules for honorific, humble, extra humble, down-on-your-knees-and-head-buried expressions, it makes me wonder whether I’m learning antiquated feudal speech or a living 21st century language
? Confusing and fascinating for sure. - KD anki deck: the anchor of my Japanese studies. Overall accuracy tanked as review time was only available in the evenings, but the clever algorithm seems to be helping with my long term retention. The lack of stress of that system appears also to help with squashing old leeches. Nice.
- Satori: reached the final episode of Fujiki Consulting Services, what a ride. The penultimate episode happened to include kanji that I finally retained this week with Anki, like 記憶. Never had a problem with 記, but it took me something like 47 fails to memorize 憶, and I had previously learned it on WK… go figure
3 Likes