How to Learn No-Kanji Vocabulary?

Hi,

I am starting a basic Japanese class now, and have just used WaniKani and BunPro so far. There are a lot of no-kanji vocabulary that is very useful that I also want to learn. I assume the best way to do this is with an anki deck, but there are many options available and I wonder if you guys have any good resources. Your feedback has been extremely useful before, so I want to see if you got some good suggestions before I start using an application.

For reference, the Japanese class uses Genki 1 3rd edition. I have seen apps with ready made anki-decks for Genki, but these decks usually have a lot of stuff I already know. I just want to add my own vocabulary, and use a SRS system. I am level 37 in WaniKani so I do know a bit of kanji vocabulary.

Thank you for your input.

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Many people on here recommend Torii SRS.

It even has a non-WK option, I believe.

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Yup. Torii has a WK mode that will only do vocab outside of WK (and kana version of vocab that you usually see without Kanji). It also goes in WK Kanji order, with 2 kana words and 3 Kanji words per lesson.

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I don’t think Torii lets you pick what vocab you want to learn, though. It’s just the Core 10K. And, iirc, it goes in order of lessons, and you can skip vocabulary as they appear if you don’t want to learn them, but not choose which you want specifically out of the larger list.

I’d also recommend that you check out Kamesame.com! It’s an SRS system based off of WK, and it’s connected to JMDict, so you can basically add any word and use their definitions. Also, there’s a function where you can go through a premade list (like by JLPT level) and choose or skip the words you want to learn.

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I second this. I used tori before not to say it was bad but it is not my favourite. I kinda prefered kamisame more

Can you learn the words with hiragana only on KameSame ?
I remember trying to add a word (which was written using hiraganas only on the JLPT list) but KameSame gave me it’s writing with Kanjis. (except for that, it’s a great website to reinforce what you learn on WaniKani and at the same time do the JLPT lists :))

Thank you for the replies. It looks like Torii got an option for adding your own vocabulary, so I will try that first :slight_smile: I use KaniWani instead of KameSame for learning vocab the other way around by the way.

Yes, you can add about 10 own vocabs for free, but need to subscribe to them if you want to add more. It’s really useful for reinforcing vocabs you encounter in native material.

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No, I don’t think so. If the word is commonly written in kana, then you can learn it that way, but if it isn’t I’m pretty sure you can only get the kanji.

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Okay, thanks. 22$ lifetime is not an issue if the application is good.

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So, you aren’t really even “learning” Kanji vocab on Wanikani. Vocabulary is learned from reading, not dictionaries.

Um. What. You can definitely learn words from a dictionary. That’s what they’re for.

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There is also HouHou, a combination dictionary and SRS application. You can look up vocab and kanji, with an option to add them to an SRS. Whenever I see a vocab word I want to remember I just add it to my HouHou reviews.

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I ended up using HouHou! I like how much you can edit and control yourself, and the vocabulary database is pretty big.

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Oh I’m glad to hear that. I feel like it’s such a great tool if you want to do non-WK vocabulary at your own pace. I recommend hooking up the audio in settings if you haven’t done that yet. You have to do it yourself for legal reasons, but it’s pretty easy. One other piece of advice for using HouHou is don’t feel obligated to learn the kanji for everything. In some cases it might be better to edit the item to use the kana.

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