How do I make sure not to forget Kanji and Vocab?

[ZGoten]

Hello everyone,

I’m new to this site (currently at level 2) and I think it’s a really effective learning tool. However I worry that I will eventually lose much of the knowledge I gain here. Does Wanikani ever review items from already completed lessons? I feel like I should maybe make an account on another spacial repetition website and at least enter the passed vocabulary items there to be able to always review them. Do you think that’s a good idea, or is that not necessary? How do people farther along the process make sure they don’t forget stuff eventually?

[Leebo]

Just trying to make sure I understand what you mean. You reached level 2, so you’re aware that reviews come back at longer and longer intervals. Are you aware that they continue to do that until the longest interval of 4 months? Is that what you’re worried about, things that won’t come back again after that 4 month gap (this is called “burned” status)?

At that point, you should be consuming content regularly, so you’ll be encountering the words in the wild. That’s how you remember them.

[IgorTheGreat]

After beating level 2 you will still get reviews from items for level 2. To pass a level you only need to reach guru in all the kanji and radicals, but to completely finish a kanji, radical, or vocab, you have to burn these items. This takes months to do, and whenever you get a kanji, radical, or vocab wrong it will adjusts your status so you get the reviews more often to help cement it into your brain further.

[seanblue]

I’d recommend reading the FAQ. Hopefully these three pages in particular will answer your questions.

What is WaniKani?

SRS: Spaced Repetition System

WaniKani’s SRS Stages

[ZGoten]

I see. Thank you. I wasn’t aware that there are higher levels after just completing an item. That’s good to know, that they are reviewed long after that as well. I think this means that I should be fine with just Wanikani as an SRS.

To what Leebo wrote: encountering vocab in the wild is of course ideal, but at this point my vocabulary is still rather slim. However, as it increases I figure I will stumble across more kanji and words that I actually know. I somehow have to make sure to better immerse myself in the Japanese language, though.

Recently I’ve started pausing videos and trying to read some of the writing on signs in Japanese towns. But most of the time the only thing I can decipher is whatever’s written in Katakana. I can technically read out the hiragana as well, but most of the time, I won’t know what it means. Oh well, I guess I’ll eventually get there.

Thanks for the replies.