I began using wanikani approximately 3 weeks ago, and I just began my 2nd year of studying 日本語 in university.
As we began translating some texts(always linked to the vocabulary we’ve learned{we’re at minna no nihongo book 2}) I thought wanikani would be a really good way to better my kanji reading skills on the side.
So I wondered: was there some level you reached that made you realise you could read parts of an unknown text or article? Did you feel a direct progress of using wanikani (as well as another grammar source) in your reading skills?
I feel like the vocabulary per lessons is somehow very random and mixed(even though i think the review system works great!) And wanted to know the P.O.V. of more advanced people.
Definitely. For years I’ve just skipped over the stuff I see written in kanji and kind of gave into the fact that I’ll never be able to read it… But these days I find myself actually reading and understanding quite a bit. I still have a looooong way to go but it’s been quite surprising really.
For me personally, levels 20-40 ended up having a lot of vocab that I was encountering. That fun feeling of learning new WK vocab, and encountering it the day after while reading.
Absolutely! I was doing little to no supplementing with outside vocab sources, but I managed to start reading with just the WK vocab (after grammar work, of course, as you mention). With plenty of holes requiring look-ups or guess-work, sure, but at least the grammar and vocab could be put into practice.
Probably because WK builds up from kanji with few radicals, to kanji with many radicals, and the vocab is there just to reinforce the on’yomi taught, and to teach common kun’yomi associated with those kanji. Many sources go by frequency, or JLPT level.
I would say this is the sweet spot too. It takes a while to build up enough of a knowledge base with kanji to notice a difference and it will still take time to work out sentences but it becomes much more doable and less overwhelming.
Thank you for all your answers! It really motivates me to keep on using the app, I’m at this point where I’m obsessed with my reviews, opening my phone every 2 minutes to see if there are new ones haha
See you at level 20 then!
For me it was around level 30. Reading actual Japanese novels became much more easy than before. It still was a lot of work but the small revards (aka encountering a lot of kanji that you know) helped along the way.
