*ekg's leech battle blog - a study log of sorts

So, I wanted to give this study log thing a try and to track my progress here on WK. At the same time, I’m not particularly disciplined when it comes to my Japanese studies. I don’t have scheduled reviews, but rather fit reviewing into my days when I have time and energy to do so. The same goes for lessons, which I just do en masse once they get unlocked. :sweat_smile:

I understand if this approach isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s been working well enough up to this point. I’m now at the half-way point after all.

Still, there is one thing I truly want to work harder on and perhaps get a tiny bit disciplined about: LEECHES!

What to do about them?!

We all have them and try to squash them. Some are worse than roaches. They just refuse to die!!! >_>

So, I’ve decided to try to make them a bit more tangible for me.

Since I like to do all my lessons at once, I figured I might as well try to face all my leeches the same way: all at the same time! Yay! :dizzy_face:

What better way than word-clouds then to make it visual and visceral enough for my lazy brain to realize just who the worst offenders are! (I’m looking at you , you stupid stubborn leech, that just refuse go away :angry:).

In any case, I’ll try to update this log from time to time about how my battle against the leeches is going (who’s winning, me or them?! O-O;).

For now, this is my current leech-situation… (level 31)

Scripts I rely heavily on in my Leech battle!

@prouleau’s Item Inspector

Amazing script that makes leech clouds a reality! Kidding aside, I use it to hard train my biggest leech offenders. :weight_lifting_woman: And the script has only become more useful (Keisei-script support for example! :eyes: Just wow!)

@rosshendry’s Shin WaniKani Leech Trainer (based off @hitechbunny’s Leech Trainer) Link to Greasy Fork Shin WaniKani Leech Trainer

This was the first script I ever installed and it has delivered beautifully! ^>^

It creates a session of 10 failed items and quiz you on it, but also throws similar looking items into the mix to see if you react before you press enter! :fearful: You need 3 correct answers on each item to clear a leech off the list (self-generated)*.

This script is much more time consuming to use than the Self-Study Quiz. But, it’s time well spent as interference, mixing up of similar items, is one of my biggest issues! :sweat:

*It’s worth noting that this self-generated list has a higher threshold of what constitutes a leech compared to the Item Inspector (a script that also gives me control over this, so I can include more items for training). Thus, for the wast majority of leeches it’s the Self-Study Quiz I rely on.

@rfindley’s Self-Study Quiz
This together with the Item Inspector helps me go after leeches with gusto - en masse! Bring 'em on. I regularly go through my leeches and quiz myself until I get every singe one right. :triumph:

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Yay for study blobs! :stuck_out_tongue:

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It has finally happened! ^>^ A blob of my own! :wink:

Well, I’m starting off with exposing my worst leech offenders to the public light in hope that it turns them all into stone.

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I came for the blog.
I’ll stay for the kanji-clouds!

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imagen

With that caption, Pika also seems happy that the leeches are gone. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Now you’re making it all seem sad if I do beat them all! :joy: (btw, this is not me crying - I’m smiling I tell ya! .…crying a bit in my heart…)

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then you can make a kanji cloud of all the leeches you beat!

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Now you’re onto something. :thinking: I guess, I do now have a way of documenting my past leeches. Can’t say the same for the previous ones that I’ve managed to get rid off.

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I’m still meowt of likes, but I’m very glad that @Ekg さん joined us study-loggers (I really should return to doing my log and my reviews too)!

I will be watching this log to, hopefully, give @Ekg さん some meowre meowtivation :cat2:

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well … 張って!

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You always do! <3

fired up anger

頑張るぞおおお!!!
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If I may be the devils advocate …

I have been doing SRS since the 1980’s. Many of the main researchers and proponents of spaced repetition say simply delete the leeches. They aren’t worth the work, and you will learn them some other way.

We can’t delete leeches here on WK, but we can recognize items that cause trouble, then add a default correct answer for all of them.

Now you can just throw me out of here for being a spoil sport. :slight_smile:

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Or, you know, you could actually learn them. :wink:

You would also need scripts to add a correct reading answer anyway.

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I already have a default answer I type for stuff I don’t know. For me, these leeches are nearly always part of some confusion on my part (either meaning or reading). So, they are actually connected to stuff I do know, but which they get mixed up with.

When I read stuff now, I get this sense of uncertainty. So, I wanna put my foot down on this and learn them right. I feel I might as well put in the effort. :woman_shrugging: If not, for my own peace of mind. :slight_smile:

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What about the leeches? Are you doing those at the same time too?

  • Peaches
  • Leaches
  • Leeches
0 voters
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When i used the leech trainer before, I never got a sense of overview of the situation. Leeches came and went. And returned several of them. This time, I wanna approach them as a collective, since several of them are mixed up in my mind. Well, so the theory goes. Who knows if this is effective, but it’s what I’ve decided to give a try. So stay tuned! :wink:

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I understand. I just couldn’t resist.

For my tastes, WK does not have enough repetition for me to get really comfortable with items, so I do things to get more repetition, because I enjoy it and it helps me.

This is almost always the biggest cause of leeches. Supermemo called it interference. When I use Anki, I just add a bunch of related cards to get rid of the interference. Unfortunately, WK does not allow us to do that.

But a leech Anki deck would. Yo can keep adding new cards with images and clues to sort out your interference.

And I didn’t mean to dismiss your plan of battling leeches. すみません.

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Well, I was worried that your quick fix was just overriding all the reviews to get to 60 ASAP - who needs to actually learn Japanese on the way. :man_facepalming:

That’s good to hear that you’ve found a way to deal with your leeches! :wink:

I get your point that it might help to remove leeches from your SRS, but in my opinion, it’s not that great of a habit to start, especially on WK where you can’t actually remove an item, since you might start applying it to more than just long-lasting leeches…

BREAKING NEWS: Experts announce quick fix to your WK review pile - just add “Japanese word” as a synonym to everything! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Really truly though, the experts say that it is acceptable to blow off a few percent of the items that are just too hard to learn!

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I didn’t read your reply like that at all. No worries. Thanks for the tips! :slight_smile:

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