How much kanji should I use with learning vocab in Genki 1 while doing WaniKani?

[Ikiga1]

I’m going to start Genki I (second edition) soon and after looking through various Anki decks for learning the Genki vocab and being somewhat overwhelmed with different resources I decided to just try the relatively cut and dry decks that can be made with Ankigen. My question is whether or not I would be safe to set it to where all vocab terms use kanji when applicable. Obviously being on level 6 I am expecting there to be many new kanji but will most of the kanji in the Genki I vocab be something I learn in WaniKani relatively soon or do many of them occur in later levels? Or Would I be better of setting the kanji used in the vocab only up to N4 or N3? Thanks and have a nice day!

[ChristopherFritz]

This would take a little bit of setup, but my recommendation would be something like this:

For the word on the front of the card, include furigana over the kanji, but set it to not display until you click/tap on the word on the front of the card. The process would be like this:

1. View front of card with kanji. Try to recall reading.
2. If you cannot recall reading, click/tap on word to see the reading.
3. Try to recall the meaning.
4. View back of the card.
5. Rate yourself if you got the meaning right. (Don’t worry about whether you got the reading right.)
   • Fail to recall? Select “Again”.
   • Successful recall? Select “Good”.

This method lets you take your time on learning kanji later, while learning the words themselves now.

[Ikiga1]

This seems like a good method! I believe there is an addon for furigana, do you by any chance know if this something I could add to premade decks like the ones from Ankigen? Thanks!

[ChristopherFritz]

I think you don’t need a furigana add-on if you have a recent version of Anki.

You would want to manually edit cards. This can be an exercise you do at the start of each chapter to help initially familiarize yourself with these new words.

Updating the Card Template

First, go into “Tools”, “Manage Note Types”.

Locate the note type being used for the Ankigen deck.

For me, it lists as “Basic-e263e” (for whatever reason).

Select the “Cards” button on the right-hand side (below the Fields button).

You’ll want to update the front template.

Before:

After:

Next, select the “Styling” and add the styling shown below.

Before:

After:

ruby rt {visibility:hidden;}
ruby:hover rt {visibility:visible;}
ruby rt {font-size:20px;}

Select the “Save” button. From the note types window, select the “Close” button.

Updating the Cards

Select “Browse” to see your cards. Edit them as shown below:

Before:

After:

Here is how it looks when reviewing:

(The reason the letters are spaced out is because of the hidden furigana. That can be adjusted by changing the furigana size smaller in the styling, or adding a style to make the vocabulary word larger.)

Hovering the mouse over the word, or tapping on a smartphone, reviews the furigana:

Here are more examples of words with furigana added:

間違[まちが]っています

手[て]すう料[りょう)]

Let me know if you have any questions!