My roommate made fun of me for learning 艦隊. I pulled up osu about 10 minutes later and saw it in the header for a song. I almost feel stupid for not realizing it was the kantai in kantai collection, but oh well.
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Hm, I guess I have something to look forward to! I got super excited when I got to the level with the kanji for boat. I was like why am I learning how to say “hull” at such an early level. Then I quickly realized that I’m a marine engineer working at a naval shipyard so it’s pretty awesome I got something so niche and relevant to my life so early.
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If you goal is to speak Japanese at an adult level, then basically all the words you know in English are words you need in Japanese. If you see a Japanese translation of a word on WaniKani and don’t know the English (implying your native language is English), then you might argue it is not that important. Possible words like 核分裂 (karyokinesis/ nuclear fission) for example.
I actually had a little while until I realized that too actually.
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Which kanji was that? 
On the other hand I hear 核問題 about once a day on the news.
I don’t remember haha. I think it might have been in this topic?
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Huh. I was just basing it on the idea that I’ve pretty much never heard of karyokinesis outside of more advanced science courses. It’s a pretty specific science term all things considering. Welp, the news is the news ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Well karyokinesis, yes that’s not an every day term, but Nuclear Fission, that’s an every day term when you hear about North Korea every other minute.
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Off topic: Your username… 
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@Syphus, That or the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
@BlueberryPear, I thought it was fitting lol
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I don’t know any native Japanese people that have used WaniKani. Probably not useful for them, as mentioned above.
My girlfriend has Japanese parents but grew up in America. She speaks Japanese really well but doesn’t know kanji very well, so she uses WK and says it’s good for her.
Apparently she showed it to her mom (native Japanese) and her mom said something like “why are you paying monthly for access to a kanji dictionary” 
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So… I read all 534 posts from that thread (c" ತ,_ತ)
It was so long, but I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the screen.
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Haha Glad you got some entertainment out of it at least. 
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The Japanese teachers in our language school have WK accounts, but mostly in order to understand why all the students keep referring to nailbats, butchers, and psychopaths.
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It’s a conspiracy!!!
Honestly though, my college language part-time assistant was really good with this stuff and was familiar with the early Wanikani terminology, and it made it so eeeeeasy to talk about radicals when practicing writing the kanji.
The one I will always remember is “pot lid.” And “the other pot lid.” XD
As others have said, it’s based around English mnemonics and uses an order system that assumes 1) you’re fluent in English and 2) not fluent in Japanese. (So it’ll make connections that are helpful for non-native learners but avoid some that would be helpful/more intuitive for native speakers.)
Just not a usage match. I imagine it’d also be too remedial for most people who have been through a Japanese school system, even if they do want to beef up their kanji. Nearly all of WK is about teaching kanji that not knowing would constitute functional illiteracy, rather than just so-so vocabulary.
Well, I remember 亠, but what is the “other pot lid” of which you speak?
The one with a lip on the ends. Like the pot lid on top of 完.
Ahh…I learned that as helmet, so maybe they changed the mnemonic? Anyways, I thought you were going to make a pot joke, since it was in quotes. So in that vein, may I present the following?
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WK probably taught it as helmet, but they were too similar so they got glossed together in practice.
Also, for the pun: 
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