I admit it: I abuse the Override script ("ignore" button)

WaniKani
#1

I abuse it big time. In fact, I get virtually nothing wrong because whenever I get it wrong, I click the button and give myself another shot. If there were a script to automatically mark it “ignore” and display the correct answer when I get it wrong, I’d use it.

I eventually learn the ones that I initially get wrong. I know this is not how the WK creators intended, but I’m currently level 11 and I feel pretty good about how things are going. Am I going to be screwed going into the deeper levels? Maybe.

Does anyone else do this too? I have to imagine that there is a lot of abuse of the “ignore” button.

6 Likes
I Wrote Another Article - Its A Messy One
#2

I have the same script installed. I came back to WK after a long break and did a reset to level 4. I probably used the script a few more times than I should have in the beginning. After a couple levels of getting back into the groove, I went back to using the script as intended.

3 Likes
#3

Replace that “maybe” with a “definitely”, and with your personality, I’d uninstall the script ASAP.
You will screw yourself, and you’ll learn it the hard way, because you won’t believe me.

Mark my words, come back in a few months.

41 Likes
#4

I mentioned this in a thread on this topic in the past. There was a busy / stressful / difficult period where I was using Anki mode quite a bit. I didn’t feel like I was being unreasonable. “Okay, different transitivity in the meaning.” “I would have remembered that rendaku in a second.” “I always confuse those two kanji, so later I’ll know that if it’s not one, it’s the other!”

Then it came time to actually read. To actually do the thing that we even bother starting WK for, and it kicked me in the teeth.

Every single kanji and vocab that I knew I had encountered in WK, but blanked on completely were from that lenient anki mode script period. I would now say that I’m very harsh with myself about it. No overriding what is a mistake on my part. Not good enough is not good enough. A red screen is good. It’s telling me what I struggle with and will make the actual use of Japanese easier and faster in the long run.

Override abuse is good for getting a golden WK badge, but then you put a minimum of a year into getting a golden badge. I’d rather spend time on something useful: learning Japanese in a way that I can use it comfortably, and without wasting time on looking up or painfully dredging up stuff I could have just learned right the first time around.

70 Likes
#5

Yes. I used to abuse the script, and then after a little while my retention started going down. Now I use it responsibly and I’m doing better with reviews. Accuracy isn’t everything. The SRS is built to show you the things you got wrong sooner rather than later. If you mark an item correct, the SRS assumes you know it better than you actually do, and you’ll just get it wrong again later. If you keep marking it correct, it’ll eventually be “burned”, but you won’t actually know it.

12 Likes
#6

Whoa how did you get in my head? So exact…

17 Likes
#7

With all the gamification, it’s easy to forget that wk is not a game. It’s a SRS flashcard program designed to teach you to read Japanese.

36 Likes
#8

If the rest of your experiences will be like mine, you’ll later want to build a time machine. Not for the noble purposes of stopping past atrocities, but just so that you can give your past self a smack upside the head. :wink:

Save yourself!

14 Likes
#9

That’s a shared experience of many wanikanians. Kind of a tribal attunement ritual over several months.

8 Likes
#10

It’s true, haha.

I think the gamification that you mentioned has a lot to do with it. If you’re mostly doing WK, and you’re not yet to the point of engaging with native reading, it feels like “me vs WK! Gotta get them level-ups!”

But when you actually read, you realise that it’s you vs Japanese, and WK is a helpful ally - just one that will point out everything you do wrong until you improve. We all need a harsh teacher every now and again that forces us to do it right.

36 Likes
#11

In my case, I’d been studying Japanese for an eternity, been living in Japan forever, been working and conducting my life in the language, so all I needed was proper Kanji studies… so I thought I’d go fast, skipped what I thought I’d had down pat, then got punished* by all those flawed assumptions later.
When I understood what caused my problems and reset, I still had a 750er stack of recurring reviews in my system, drifted away… and now I’m back, working my way up from just past the point where WK spams you with terrible stuff like counters.

No Override for me. I do have Double-Check, but I’m strict with myself.

*edited

12 Likes
#12

Good thing that i only use my phone. And not pc or laptop. I guess it is hard to not use scripts if a lot of people use it.

1 Like
#13

Hi - Thanks for your replies. I have an open-mind about them.

I’m not sprinting to get WK done, but my feeling is that I’d rather get WK done a little sooner, getting back more time to read and engaged with Japanese. As much as we learn with WK, the bulk of our learning comes through engaging with native materials, right?

Imagine 2 people: One does WK with liberal use of the ignore button, taking 400 days to lvl 60, and the other does it properly, taking 700 days. The first user just got back a bunch of time to immerse in Japanese. At the end of 700 days, who is going to be better off?

Someone mentioned that I would have burned items without truly learning them. I don’t really think so, because I would have gotten a lot of exposure to that item by the time it’s burned, and whenever I get it wrong I make an extra effort to learn it. Maybe I do learn it slightly less, but I think I make that up with the time I get back engaging with Japanese in other ways.

I think WK is designed well, but I don’t have to be beholden to everything that was intended. I think it’s OK to tweak things how I want to make it more enjoyable for me.

2 Likes
#14

For me, I don’t really care if others are using it or not. I would be using this regardless.

#15

If you think it is ok. But from what i heard from people replying to you. That is not recommended. And will hurt in the long run. I agree to that even though i have been here from 1 month or so

1 Like
#16

I do engage with reading materials intended for natives, so I’m not in for a surprise. Reading is still a struggle (for context, I just took the N3), just as it was before I started WK, though WK has definitely helped.

WK isn’t a religion - it’s a tool to use to help. People seem to be saying that if you use the ignore button, you are condemning yourself to never learning that particular kanji. I don’t think that’s the case at all.

1 Like
#17

I think what people aren’t considering is that, yes, all things being equal, it’s best to not use the ignore button. But my feeling is that I learn the items pretty much just as well if I use the ignore button. I pay extra special attention to that item if I have to use the button so that I get it right the next time. And then since I don’t send it back to the queue, delaying the time I level up, I go through the entire WK course quicker, being more quickly exposed to items that I’m ready to see.

1 Like
#18

My personality? That’s kind of a weird thing to say considering that you don’t know me at all beyond what you think you know from this post.

If I come back in a few months and report that everything is hunky dory, will you reconsider your opinion? With your personality, I’d imagine you’d just double-down. :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t think it’s a crime to make it a bit more enjoyable by using the Ignore button however I want. Remember, WK is not a religion. It’s just a tool (a great tool, but a tool nonetheless). It’s to supplement actually reading and engaging in Japanese, right?

BTW, my accuracy is pretty damn good even without the ignore button! Most of the reason I use it is for genuine typos, but I def use it when I can’t remember too.

#19

I have a bad habit of ignoring my gut feeling and going with my 2nd or 3rd choice answer, which is often wrong, so I use the ignore button and put in what I originally thought (without looking at the answer) and often get it right. I don’t think it’s too bad to give myself a second chance sometimes. The real world isn’t a test, you can always look up the answer if you get stuck. If I genuinely can’t remember it though then I don’t give myself the pass. I think it’s important to follow the system as well.

4 Likes
#20

Personally I use the ignore-button mostly for typos and those weird brainfarts when I type the japanese reading even though it is asking for meaning (and don’t realize that it is alphabet and not hiragana that appears on screen…).

I also admit to using ignore every now and then for things that are on apprentice 1&2 level. But anything above them I will readily accept as being wrong.

Dunno what kind of repercussions using ignore gives, but I would refrain on using it with high-tiered items at least.

2 Likes