I like houhou a lot better
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My problem with Houhou is that it doesn’t allow for EN => JP. For anyone thinking that’s not essential, just try KaniWani.
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I was looking at your Core 10K deck the other day and realized that any verb that is only shown as with する on WK isn’t marked as a WK verb, cause I tried to suspend all of them.
I can empathize with this post anyway, it’s not about liking Anki so much as there’s just too much going on sometimes.
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Thank you for all the suggestions!! I really appreciate everybody’s input 
Not gonna lie, I never would’ve touched anki if it weren’t for your Wanikani-esque decks.
I haven’t used anki since the first time I tried your deck. It was fun while it lasted.
These are amazing! Thank You! Wow! Wish it filled in the ん though. The links are amazing! I just tried this: https://kanji.koohii.com Not sure how good it is yet but it’s kind of fun when users add their mnemonic stories and you get to pick. But your work is truly great!
I hate it too, that’s why I pay for Wanikani every month
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Im glad im not the only one. My main issues with anki are that it’s hard to use out of the box, its horrible to use on the phone and the self evaluation i dont get on with that well.
Although I think if i sat at a computer and really tried to set it up id get on better, the truth is i just have no desire to do that. I sit at a computer all day already.
I believe hou hou is desktop only too right?
I might try tinycards instead
I used to hate Anki even before i studied Japanese (we’re encouraged to use it at university), so I very much understand where you’re coming from.
The thing why Anki is so great is that it’s not only SRS, but it also let’s you fit the SRS-System exactly to your needs. Want 90% accuracy? Easy, just take a few weeks to tweak your intervalls. Want to pre-study new cards before they show up in x-hours again? Easy, just set “Lern ahead limit” to 60 minutes and add 15 30 45 60 intervalls in your options to make sure you actually know your new cards.
Figure out why you hate Anki. Think the cards are ugly? Add a style you like. Wanna type in answers? Add an input. Dont like deciding on Easy-Good-Hard? Dont. You dont have to use it if you dont want to.
Chances are you can fix whatever you dont like about Anki.
My point being:
Anki will grow on you once you’ve made it suite your needs, and it’s the biggest time saver you’ll come across when self-studying in any field. Putting in a few hours to get familiar is nothing compared to the time it’ll save you.
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My problem with Anki is it’s super expensive for iOS (cheaper than WaniKani, yes, but way more expensive than other SRS tools like Memrise) and couldn’t find any standardized quality decks that work for me. However, I still think it’s an amazing tool if one spends time to learn how to use it! Hope this helps?
Have you tried Memrise yet? Memrise is awesome for vocabulary. I don’t like ANKI either. :')
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I have a three and a half hour commute every weekday. Anki allows me to make this time productive, by studying… pretty much anything : university courses, the vocabulary and grammar of three different languages, music theory, guitar chords, vim commands…
Add to top it all, it’s completely free on Android, and it runs on Linux. So yeah, I think it’s an amazing tool. But like every powerful tool, you gotta learn to use it, and understand its limitations.
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you can fix whatever you dont like about Anki.
You can’t fix the ugly-ass, unintuitive interface, the unbelievably backwards way of adding plugins, or the complete lack of an in-app tutorial or even tooltips. Anki is a UX nightmare, because the developer doesn’t understand that normal people don’t want to program and fiddle with hacky solutions, they just want to get shit done. When people say “Anki can do anything if you set it up right!” I think “Wow so can a C compiler!!!”
People say “It’s free, you can’t complain”, but I have every reason and every right to be immensely frustrated with how far below its potential Anki is, and how hard it is to recommend to people, all because of bad design decisions.
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Not a fan of ANKI either, but… what alternatives are there for learning the Core 6k for example? iKnow.jp maybe? Or Memrise? How did you guys learn your vocabulary?
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I use Anki for writing practice [Version 1.05 | 2016-01-31] Anki deck for kanji writing practice
This deck really helps; I highly recommend it.
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I have been using iKnow for a while (Core 2k, started 3k), but switched to Anki recently. The problem I had with iKnow were the synonyms. Really similar, often interchangeable words, but of course iKnow only accepts one. Also, there’s three English translations at best, whereas with Anki you can have as many as you like, which of course can be overwhelming, but also helps grasp nuances in contrast to similar words.
I do miss the example sentences of iKnow, though. They were really helpful and whenever I study an iKnow word with Anki I still hear the sentence echoing in the back of my head
Of course there’s decks with audio and stuff, but I couldn’t be bothered to set that up with my decks yet.
Specifically for JLPT vocab, before Anki I used an app called StickyStudy which had premade JLPT Kanji / Vocab decks. But I didn’t like the way they handled the SRS, so I imported those decks into Anki. I also added more card fields for annotations and example sentences/expressions if I have difficulty grasping the meaning of a word.
Apart from JLPT, I use it to practice writing kanji too. I use the Basic Kanji Book 500 and just add all the vocab they have in there, JP->EN and EN->JP. Before revealing the answer, I write down the kanji on paper (haven’t tried this Anki whiteboard thing yet, and the paper thing works pretty well so far). I’m considering adding the kanji I learn with WaniKani, but haven’t gotten around doing that yet.
Yup, the biggest flaw with Anki is the unbelievably unintuitive interface, and I did struggle with it for a while. But by limiting myself to minimal changes and not really any fancy stuff (my cards look really plain and boring), I can get around it. And the main part is still the reviewing and not creating decks.
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I think the difference is in your expectation - I agree that you have every right to be frustrated with an application that you don’t like, particularly if you feel it has potential. I think when people say “you can’t really complain if it’s free” the idea is that you shouldn’t expect anything. You can certainly criticize / say why you don’t like something or suggest ways it could be better, and wish for a better version to exist.
I used to see this a lot when I watched a lot of youtube, for instance - people demanding that content be different in some way (upload videos more frequently, more regularly, make them better quality!), and it’s just like “dude, they’re not charging you anything, and you are free to not watch the damn videos. You have no right to demand anything.”
But anyway, yes, sorry for the spiel, go forth and complain about ANKI!
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A flashcard app seems like a fairly simple thing to get right and be effective but it seems like anki is the most popular option.
Is there room for yet another flashcard app? would a japanese specific one have different features to a generic one?
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If WK ever made a vocab companion app I would throw all of my money at them.
Though really I want “WK but I can add my own items” for once I finish WK. Which will definitely happen. Some day 
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I truly appreciate all of these responses! Thank you for the solidarity from others who don’t like Anki either and thank you so much for the encouragement, advice and links for getting familiar with Anki and making it work for me. I guess I will have another go at it today and see if I can make it work for me.
ありがとうございます！( ◠‿◠ )
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