Go back in time! (I'm NEW)

WaniKani
1

I just got to level 4. If you could go back in time and give Level 4 You some advice, what would it be?

18 Likes
2

Power through the first 20 levels but slow down after that. As soon as you can read anything, reading is a powerful learning tool even if you don’t look up words at all. WK has diminishing returns.
Don’t wait for level 10-15 to start learning grammar. You won’t be able to understand a thing without it, and N5 grammar is pretty easy. You don’t need to know a lot of vocabulary words to start conjugating verbs.
Always keep your goals in mind. If you want to watch shows without subs, play games and read books, don’t be too harsh on yourself when your spoken Japanese feels mushy.
Take breaks. You won’t remember taking a week off in January but it will prevent you from burning out.
Come back to material that used to be hard to read, you’d be surprised. Try finding manga that is both readable and interesting. You don’t have much choice when you’re a beginner but around N4 a lot of options open up. Sometimes it’s better to read an N2 novel than an N4 manga that you understand easily but don’t have a lot of motivation to read.
Never give up. It won’t feel like you’re making much progress after a while but you are.

Upd: and a quote from a youtube video that I’ll steal: Learning a language will never be as hard as it is for you today. You are making progress if you stick to it.

32 Likes
3

  1. Use WK to aid your study, don’t make it the core.

    • It’s a common mistake to put an adjunct tool at the center of learning, don’t do that.

  2. Read graded readers.

    • There are free ones, it’ll be hard work, stop when you can’t concentrate properly. The audio is important - listen, read along, read along out loud.

  3. Listen to beginner podcasts like Nihongo Con Teppei.

    • Don’t expect to understand very much at first, listen out common words / phrases.

  4. Watch anime with Japanese subtitles.

    • As with listening, don’t expect much to begin with. This can be surprisingly tiring.

  5. Once you can sort of understand Teppei, try shadowing as an introduction to speaking.

    • There are youtube shadowing videos, paid courses, or you can put your own together, or use audio books or whatever.

  6. If you’ve got the time, but are too tired to do reading / listening / etc, watch youtube videos about Japanese, there are some quite good ones.

    • This can help clear up hazy understandings, introduce you to new things, etc.
14 Likes
4
  • Don’t wait so long to start reading! You can read things like graded readers, or the ABBC sooner than you think!
  • Don’t neglect listening practice! There are some really simple playlists on YouTube aimed at total beginners.
  • Enjoy the slowness of Wanikani in the beginning. Before long you’ll have 100+ reviews per day, and will miss the slow times. Don’t waste time with the self-study script.
  • Start Kamesame sooner. Then practice writing sentences, then go onto prompts, and make them longer and longer.
  • Do all the exercises in Genki! Don’t skip a single one! And don’t forget about the reading practice in the back!
  • Handwrite important notes. Handwriting is important for memory, so write out new things, or things you’re struggling with.
  • Put pictures on your Anki flashcards.
  • Book clubs are a lot more fun than you think they are.
  • Don’t ignore troubled grammar hoping they’ll work themselves out eventually. They won’t. Break them down into their smaller grammar points and figure out why they mean what they mean. When you know the reason behind something, you’re much more likely to remember it.
  • Start a study log. It keeps you organized, and talking with people is fun!
  • Learn how to handwrite (including stroke order) similar kanji that you keep mistaking for each other. Once you know how to write them, you never mix them up again.
  • Most important: Wanikani is not as important as you think it is. Speedrunning to level 60 means nothing if you can’t even read a single manga volume or say that you like ice cream. Go fairly quickly until level 20, then slow down. At that point you can start learning kanji and vocab through immersion, which is a lot more fun than flashcards.
15 Likes
5
  • There’s levels of understanding from not knowing any grammar/vocab to knowing half of a sentence to knowing 80-90% to knowing everything and not learning anything. If you know absolutely nothing about a sentence and have to look up everything it gets really frustrating really quickly. But the other end of the spectrum is also bad - you don’t want to only go over material you’ve seen a dozen times without moving on to new material because that isn’t learning anymore. It actually feels really nice if you know all the words in a sentence except for one, or all the grammar in a sentence except some small string of kana.
  • You can start early grammar now. Picking one that works for you is a bit of a struggle, but there’s lots of resources out there (and this forum is a great place to ask for help). For example Genki has entire youtube videos from Tokini Andy to supplement it and there’s github pages with extra exercises so you don’t need a teacher to grade them.
  • You can take the words you’ve learned up until now and try making sentences out of them. Mistakes (in reviews, and in writing, and in speaking, and in listening, and in reading
) are all normal and part of the learning process. ć±±ăŻć€§ăă„ă€‚This is a short youtube series of stories in Japanese based on Wanikani level.
  • Once you get some grammar in you, then you can start reading. Tadoku has a ton of free graded readers which are nice in the beginning that are designed so you don’t have to look up a bunch of words - but they can get boring quickly.
  • If you want more substance to your stories, the Absolute Beginner Book Club on here is great, and you can look at past book picks to see how the clubs work. It’s a lot of work in the beginning. But that work means you’re learning a lot too.
  • Wanikani actually doesn’t teach you every vocab word you need to know. There’s also some kanji that aren’t on here too. You can use scripts to add words if you really like the way Wanikani structures SRS, or you can use other apps like Anki or something.
  • There’s
a lot of userscripts. An undo button, a way to speak context sentences, a way to add your own items, a study script to quiz on items you persistently fail or items you’ve already burned, ways to reorder your reviews so you level up faster, fancy UI things if you want more visual representations of how much you’ve learned, etc. Some people like them, and some people think they’re too cheaty, and some people want to do a bunch of reviews on their phone and want to use an app instead of their phone browser with a bunch of scripts. I like scripts personally.
  • Check out a thread like The BookWalker Freebies Thread - they have a few hundred volumes of manga/LNs/etc for free at any one point in time and can have some insane sales. But even browsing free previews of intros to books can teach you something. Or just help you find series you like. You don’t have to give them a credit card to buy something that costs 0憆
  • Being active on the forums has helped me push myself to try harder things. Read other people’s study logs, join one of the study groups or accountability or level up threads. Try the 0/0 Streak Challenge. I tend to learn things just by spending time here. I started my own study log to encourage myself to come back to the forums more often and to keep track of the ever growing list of things I want to do with more
  • If you feel lost or stuck or have a burning question, ask someone. This community is nice and would help point you in the right direction if you’re in the wrong thread. There’s people here with a ton of knowledge. Or search the forums for an answer first. A lot of emotions related to studying are really common.
  • Remember that in general Japanese is a marathon - it’s meant to be done over months/years and not days/weeks. Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t fast enough or you can’t do X enough or there aren’t enough hours in the day to devote to everything, etc.
12 Likes
6

They say hindsight is 20/20
but is difficult to say with certain that choosing a different path would have led to a better outcome. Today I decided to abandon WK after 3 years of using it and 100 days in level 51. The progress I’m getting from it versus the time I’m putting is just not worth it anymore. If I were again in level 4, I would tell myself to quit after reaching level 30 and better spend my time with the 2k/6k deck in Anki plus watching and reading content. Most of the burned items are easily forgotten if not read in real content with context.

9 Likes
7
  • Expect that it takes time get real, in reading and listening and stuff. Not just one or two years. Maybe 3 or 5 or more.
  • I haven’t changed my mind on trying to see some results in 3 months or so. Maybe something small. For WaniKani, I advocate going fast, maybe the first 20 levels or so.
  • Realizing vocabularies in context is more important than in SRS. Embracing unexpected meanings and interpretations, and so grammar and actual reading may do better than SRS. Immersion may do better than focused reading sometimes, not to mention occasional sporadic reading.
  • Decreasing the intensity of learning is an option. Even requiring many years, it is possible to tone down and give time to other languages or other activities.
  • Returning to the study is possible, but be prepared to pay the tax of like 6 months.
  • Skills you want to have need dedicated practice, not denying there are some knowledge crossover between skills. Even saying that, each dedicated skill takes time. Expect to take a long time to be well functional.
10 Likes
8

I remember it was taking 14 days to level up in the beginning, which was fast longer than necessary. So I’d say this:

  • Lesson and review timing matters. You’re going slow because you are mismanaging the review schedule. Make sure to do the lessons and then review the new items soon after, so that you don’t waste a day.
  • Try doing lessons before breakfast and reviews during a lunch break and once again before going to bed.
  • Learn items in this priority order: radicals, kanji, vocabulary. Going fast requires you to unlock the second half of the level asap, for that you need to guru this level’s radicals. Learn all the radicals as soon as possible after unlocking a level. Then learn all second half kanji (unlocked by the radicals) as soon as possible.
  • Don’t bother with the mnemonics if they don’t click. Learn vocab and remember kanji readings through vocab.
  • When doing reviews focus and do them efficiently. If you don’t know - fail an item and move on. Then after finishing the session review item info on the ones you got wrong. Might help to write the by hand, check vocabulary of is a kanji.
  • You’ve got it, keep doing lessons and reviews. If you are extra busy on a particular day, skip lessons but find time to do the reviews. Doing some reviews is better than no reviews.
5 Likes
9

Use the vacation mode to have days off now and then to do fun things rather than killing yourself trying to do your lessons and reviews every day without fail.

5 Likes
10

Also don’t treat wanikani as a race to get to 60. Treat it as something which might take a few years rather than just one or two years.

7 Likes
11

Don’t just do new lessons when you feel like it. Do a set number of new lessons every day. The first 8 levels took me 1 1/2 years, because I was like “oh yeah I do reviews every day, but new items when I feel like it.” worst mistake ever. Ever since level 9 I’ve been doing new items every day, until I reach a certain number of daily reviews, then stop until that number drops to a managable level, then start up with daily new items again.

It’s still not exactly as fast as possible, I could probably go even faster, but I’m careful about burnout.

8 Likes
12

Congratulations! :tada: There are many great guides on the forum already, but to add one thing I neglected before I reset my WK account is spending decent time and effort on the context sentences, re-reading the Japanese sentences after reading the English translation to work out the structure and the meaning, copying and pasting the Japanese sentences onto jisho again to break down the sentence and phrase structure, pronunciation and so on.

The context sentences are meticulously structured to gradually introduce or help you to remember the previous or next vocabulary and basic grammar. They include the not-so-common uses (and pronunciations) of the kanji WK does not list too.

4 Likes
13

Good point. Increasingly i’ve realised how much i’ve been neglecting the context sentences. I think they are problematic for me because i’m spending 2 or 3 hours every day doing the lessons and reviews so i feel as if i spent more time looking at the context sentences i would be spending less time doing more interesting immersion (i’m reading the first book of Harry Potter). However i do feel if i spent more time with the context sentences my wanikani experience would be more fruitful. I think i need to find a way to fit them in more to my daily routine.

2 Likes
14

Do you mind me asking: what is the daily number of reviews that is your preferred maximum and how long does it take you to do each level on average?

1 Like
15

It depends on your psychology I guess, but the advice I would give myself at level 4.

  • don’t let the reviews accumulate too much, it leads to procrastination due to the intimidating amount of reviews
  • if you use kaniwani configure it only for burned items
  • install and use the undo (double check) plugin for typos, absent synonyms (when you don’t type the exact word, but know what it means) or when you’re too absentminded, but don’t abuse it
  • it’s ok to cheat on kanji (level passing items) up to the guru level, it removes the pressure to get them right, and allows you to be certain you won’t be slowed down (i like to go fast). but still do your best to remember them, re-read the mnemonic every time you get it wrong
  • automatically play the audio. consider installing the pitch info plugin to show pitch
  • lessons: ideally i like to divide the number of vocab lessons evenly between the number of days until the subsequent unlock. If you go at a fast tempo it should take about three days until the next unlock and about 60 vocab items gets unlocked: ~20 lessons a day. This may or may not work for you depending on how much time you have to dedicate to wanikani.
  • (yomichan with) a Japanese only dictionary might help you clarify some vocab or distinguish similar words.
2 Likes
16

I do 90 reviews a day in 3 sets of 30. If I am lower than that I do news lessons, if I am over it I stop doing new lessons until I am under it again. At where I am now, I do about 1 level per month. It’s not the fastest pace, but it’s also no snails pace, like I used to do. If you’re okay with more, do more, I just know myself, and how easily I get overwhelmed and burned out if it’s too much, so I avoid that :'D

5 Likes
17

That sounds like a realistic pace. I’m 59 and am fortunate in that i don’t need to work full time now. I would never be able to do my normal 12 days a level , 200 -300 reviews a day pace if i had to work full time.

3 Likes
18

If you don’t like the mneumonics, make up your own.

Personally, I find the way the mneumonics are written actively interferes with my learning. Having a mneumonic is still useful, but the ones the site provides get in my way. So when I’m having a hard time picking up a new character, I take a moment and dream up a mneumonic that makes sense to me.

3 Likes
19

If you want to learn grammer in flashcard style similar to WK, try Bunpro (website).

20

I never think of fun things like reading the first book of Harry Potter in Japanese! Thank you for that.

And I totally agree with you on how time consuming the lessons get when you do them properly. I simply put the lessons and leveling up on hold when life gets too hectic. And when it’s less hectic, I pick up from where I left off, get caught up on the lessons and only then start studying the radicals and kanji of the new level.

2 Likes