Hey! as you can see I am new to WaniKani and i have heard of 3rd party apps like KaniWani and KameSame
and (a paid subscription one but i would rather not have any other subscriptions rn) but I am unsure how to use either of them effectively, if you have any knowledge please share this with me! Thanks!
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Well I guess one thing to keep in mind if youre new is that not using them is very much an option and something I would personally recommend.
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I havenāt used KaniWani or KameSame but I used another SRS app which is Anki simultaneously with WaniKani.
My advice is to wait until you are around level 15+ to decide whether or not you want to use another SRS app because right now you probably have a lot of time, but down the line, the higher your WK level the more reviews that you have to do and that could overwhelm you very quickly.
I stopped using Anki when Iām level 18 because Iām getting overwhelmed by the number of reviews each day and decide to focus on WaniKani and do a lot of immersion (reading and listening) instead.
Also this, KW and KS use WK API to connect your WK level so you donāt have much content to work with anyway if you decide to use them (at least for now).
Speaking only from my own experienceā¦ I used Kaniwani for a while (maybe until level 8). And I found it useful (apart from the irritation you will discover, of not being able to produce the answer it wants when there are many similar words for āgirlā).
But then I found to try and do two SRS at once - I just didnāt have the time and couldnāt keep up. Too many reviews, and it was WK that I wanted to prioritise. So KW went out the window.
Obviously being able to produce the Japanese from the English, that would be important if I wanted to speak Japanese. But realistically, I just want to be able to read a bit of Japanese / understand it when I hear it on a programme.
I wish I had more time - I should be reading and listening more. But I work full time and I need time to relax too. So I just have to be pleased with myself that Iām keeping up with WK every day and not beat myself up.
For me, if I had extra time, I would spend it on āreal japaneseā and not another SRS. Iād need a lot of extra time for that.
Donāt know if that is helpful! But you could always give it a go, and not feel bad if you decide to ditch it later for other things. (There is an element of Must Keep Going about SRS isnāt there).
good luck!!
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I can't answer your question
I started kaneSame around level 12, because I wanted to know things āinside and outā, but it was too much SRS for me (plus the annoying problem Epona mentioned about getting āwrongā for a correct one of multiple possible answers; you can add in notes to tell you which one). I just want to be done and know everything!!
But now that Iām up around level 27, I can see that the less well-known items are getting fuzzy in my headā¦ So Iām thinking again about pushing through kaneSame.
Am alternative that Iām doing right now is that when I have time, Iām really really thinking about the WaniKani kanji review, and then going and trying to write it out from memory on Google translate handwriting input mode to see how well Iām actually recalling details (or if Iām giving myself a āpassā on recognition). As I advanced and have more and more similar kanji with only small differences in details, appreciating the tiny differences gets more important. I can see why so many people āresetā at such a point.
Soā¦ If you want to cautiously advance slowly with super-good knowledge this way and that, I would probably (once it starts to feel like ātoo muchā) (follow everyone elseās advice that I never personally follow and) decrease the daily number of lessons so that the total number of daily WaniKani reviews is smooth and even. (I always do all of everything when it comes up, and some days it takes me 4 hours!! just for WaniKani). If you have a smooth WaniKani flow, Kanisame can stick with that pace. So then, perhaps, a sane human could do bothā¦
I kind of wish that Is gone through both (with a few levels of lag for that ālater quiz/reviewā, so it wouldnāt be so overwhelming now that Iām only on Level 3 with KaneSame and 8 months further along on WaniKaniā¦
āI just canāt do itā.
But Iām seriously considering halting new lessons in WaniKani to shift focus to drilling on KaneSameā¦ (Nah! Must get to WK60 ASAP!!!)
Iām really trying to read native material for at least 30 minutes a day (usually longer)
And doing Duolingo (must finish ASAP!)
And listening to native material at least 30 minutes a day. So it all gets overwhelming super-fast.
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I too did KaniWani for a bit and eventually got overwhelmed with the reviews, especially given that Iām trying to do WaniKani at the fastest speed. Thatās on top of doing grammar, reading and sometimes writing short compositions in Japanese almost everyday. Thatās why I decided to just focus on WaniKani and BunPro as my SRS, although I sometimes also do Memrise, and leave KaniWani for later. Eventually I will come back to it, once Iām done with WaniKani.
Right now, at your level, you have TONS of time to do other things. But, as was mentioned earlier, this will not be the case once you get to the higher levels. Perhaps when you get to level 10 you can more or less gauge how WaniKani will be for you. However, things get even more hectic later on, so even that is not the full story. The WaniKani team have named levels very appropriately. Pay attention to them! lol
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Ahhh Anki i do relate with that. However, i have used anki for studying japanese for 9 months prior to this so the āoverwhelmingā part is normal for me now
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I personally use kamesame for burned WK items. In a sense itās like a second go at it, but then from a producing side. I find it helpful, because of how Japanese IME works I will have to find a quick way of typing a kanji. So you keep associating kanji with certain words.
That said Iām not sure if itās very helpful at the start of learning WK. It can get quite overwhelming.
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oh i get it thanks!
Iāve been using Kaniwani since I believe around level 4? And I do think it has been really valuable for me because it helps reinforce my memory of the vocab, and it taught me initially how to use a Japanese keyboard. Personally, I really donāt like the feeling of learning words without being able to reproduce them, so practicing recall has been worthwhile.
I think itās definitely useful to stagger the two, though. I have KW set to only give me lessons after the items have reached guru in WK. Other people use it only for burned items. Using the default settings is fine at the beginning, but it can quickly get overwhelming if youāre struggling to learn the same set of items in two different places at the same time, and the same reviews keep bouncing back again and again.
Itās also very important, I think, if you do KW or KS to keep a consistent, easy schedule with WaniKani. I would not recommend doing KW/KS if youāre trying to go max speed with WK, or if your WK workload ever gets to a point where youāre spending more than like 30 minutes on reviews each day. I spend probably a little over an hour on SRS total each day (including WK, KW, and Anki), and I wouldnāt want to spend much more than that, because thatās time that I could be spending on grammar and immersion and practicing other aspects of the language.
For me personally, this means doing 10-13 lessons a day, every day, and not ever doing more than that (except during the early levels where Iād do the whole initial batch of radicals at once). This means I level up roughly every 12-15 days, and it keeps the stream of reviews consistent for both WK and KW, and makes it way easier to keep up the habit without getting overwhelmed.
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i have swapped from using KW and KS and decided to use Kitsun.io since it has alot more value and it has a WK reversed deck. I am also using Minna No Nihongo 1 with Bunpro to learn the grammar for it and using (again) Kitsun.io to study the vocab in MNN do you think this is a good study schedule?
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I think those are all good resources, but I would be careful with pacing yourself! Three SRS at once can be very punishing. If you havenāt read it yet, I recommend checking out the ultimate guide to WK for tips on pacing yourself with WK. I would definitely not go full speed, but you can follow the same strategy, just with a smaller number of lessons a day. Youāll also want to be as consistent as possible with your pace with both WK and MNN (so, no huge lesson binges) so that youāll have a predictable number of reviews coming in each day.
Aiming for about two weeks a level (about half full speed) works for me, and I try to get one MNN lesson done within that same time frame, and it has been a pretty good pace. However, it requires daily commitment, and at least an hour a day for SRS alone (Bunpro would probably add even more to this, since I donāt SRS grammar, only vocab/kanji. I practice grammar with physical workbooks instead). I usually study 2-3 hours a day, counting textbook exercises and active immersion (though the hour for SRS is my hard minimum, even if Iām extremely busy or ill or otherwise donāt want to study). If you canāt spare this much time, then I would dial back even further on your WK pace, because you donāt want SRS to become the only thing you have time/energy for.
As far as resources go, though, youāve covered most of your bases (kanji, vocab, grammar) with that combo (except for speaking and writing), which is good, because you want to aim for balance. At some point, youāll want to start doing immersion, too, though you definitely donāt have to start on that right away.
The main thing to keep an eye out for, I think, is your WK speed and your speed working through MNN, since WK will determine the amount of reviews youāre getting in WK as well as some in Kitsun, and MNN will determine your Bunpro reviews and the rest of your Kitsun reviews. If it starts to get overwhelming, the way to hit the brakes is to slow down on adding new lessons in WK and/or slow down your progress through the textbook (while continuing to review old material). Definitely be wary of signs of burnout, because usually your SRS review numbers will lag a little behind your lessons, so youāll want to slow down before you get overwhelmed, not after.
The advice I always give with WK is that you want to plan your daily workload around what you can accomplish in less than ideal circumstances, not ideal ones. In WK, because of the way the review intervals work, when you do lessons, youāll still be feeling the effects of those lessons six months from now. If youāre having a great day and decide to do 40 lessons because you have the energy that day, those 40 reviews might resurface six months later when youāre sick or exhausted and donāt want to do a whole bunch of extra work. If that also happens to fall on a day where you added a bunch of textbook vocab to Kitsun, you might completely lose your motivation. Then the next day, a bunch more reviews get added to that pile, and it gets harder and harder to summon the willpower to do them.
But if you planned your workload to be lighter than what you can accomplish when youāre feeling at your best, then on days where it gets hard, youāll really appreciate it, because it will be much easier to put in the work you need to keep going, especially if youāve established a regular daily habit.
I donāt know how helpful all of this is, but this is how Iāve managed to keep going with three SRS (+ textbook study and immersion) every single day and avoid burnout.
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Thanks so much for all the advice if possible can we talk on discord? My tag is ShoVA#4335, I would love to talk more about this since it is something I am really interested in.
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Sure, I added you! I canāt guarantee Iāll have all the answers, but I can try to help!
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