Yeah, I just grabbed that to show there was a basis for it and that’s why they were trying to determine the mechanism for it. There are plenty of studies on this, but do you really need a study to know that you learn more in a relaxed state? What does your experience tell you?
The fact is, allowing yourself to make mistakes enhances learning, so it’s probably good to become comfortable with doing so.
I do allow myself to make mistakes. And then I fix them Unless I’m working on a browser that doesn’t have my extensions or I press enter too quickly, which happens some times.
People are getting pretty deep in the weeds on this. It really, really doesn’t matter! My approach is just slightly different than everyone else’s. I am still going to be fully literate in Japanese - I am well on my way.
I can promise you that the difference in my proficiency and the proficiency of other WK users is not going to come down to the Ignore button. It’s going to be depend on who is immersed in native material and is more committed to their literacy. This is such a small thing that makes WK more enjoyable for me. Don’t spend your time obsessing over optimization - just enjoy the process and you’ll get there.
If it doesn’t matter, then why does this thread exist?
Just to highlight what I’m doing and to ask if others are doing the same (I think there are probably people who do but would rather not admit it). It’s just a little thread for a little light conversation, like many threads here.
Can’t say I share your experience entirely, but for a great part I do. I skipped rendaku for a very long time, but eventually i got used to them and managed to learnt them even when overriding a missed rendaku. Now im experienced with them enough, that when I miss them, I know i got em wrong.
But transitive and intransitive were a sligh pain and “close enough” defenetly came back to me more than once.
Sometimes I wish I never discovered the script, but then I fat finger an い when i want to write こう and would be so pissed if I didn’t have it.
For the record. I’m also a liberal user of ignore. I started 10/2018 and in the meantime did all the kanji. Still feel like it works for me and my circumstances. I can agree with many of the points you make.
So you are “only” at 11 reading daily? How do you do that? Contents? Tools?
Beyond fat-fingering, it can be frustrating when you know a kanji quite well, but your English definition is just different than WK’s definition (maybe just phrased slightly differently).
So you are “only” at 11 reading daily? How do you do that? Contents? Tools?
I’m not exactly reading Kant in Japanese, but I do try to do some reading. I’ve never read a full book intended for adult native readers, though I do read parts of books. It’s slow-going. I’m sure I’ll read a book cover-to-cover within the next few months. I’ve been trying samples on my kindle at Amazon.co.jp. I like non-fiction.
I didn’t start WK at zero. I lived in Japan for a year back in 2001 and did a 9-month program Japnese studies program at the time. I came into WK knowing a good deal of kanji - I’m surprised at how much I remember (I hesitate to say how many kanji I know because often times I would only know one particular reading and such). So that has certainly helped make my WK easier than someone who starts from zero. There will be times I know all of the kanji in a particular lesson.
I have not been studying for most of the time since 2001, but I completely regained my motivation about 8 months ago. Since then, I’ve been listening podcasts intended for natives and watching shows and Youtube vids without subtitles. And I read…sometimes. I’m a fan of some aspects of AJATT, so that has informed my approach. AJATT folks tend not to like WK because they’re all about Remembering the Kanji, but I like WK a lot.
Now it makes more sense. You already have a certain kanji foundation. Which I try to get by setting my priorities on kanji.
Concerning Kant the most important for me is “der kategorische Imperativ”. I also have “Kritik der reinen Vernunft” on my bookshelf. But no plans to study it even in German
If you like you also can have a look at my thread My Kanji Journey of 376 days
Yeah, I’ve heard that “I only use it for typos” thing a lot. You’ll find out whether you cheat yourself in time.
I don’t think so black and white like that. Just because I do something a bit differently doesn’t mean I’m cheating myself. Just because you’re not reading a Japanese book right now, or maybe you don’t make use of tools like KaniWani or whatever, doesn’t mean you’re cheating yourself. The road to Japanese fluency is a pathless land - everyone has their own journey. My effort and consistency is high so I feel good about it.
What level did you get to before you reset? Seems like you are being really hard on yourself about your initial approach.
i reset twice. once from 24 to 20, then from 31 to 12.
my case is a little different though - i only used override the first time around, then took a long break due to being busy. second run went smoothly, but i’d have to add that i hold the n1 and have been studying japanese for over 9 years now, 6 of which have been in japan.
the thing with using override whenever you think you “totally knew” the answer is, it’s too easy to step into the trap of thinking you knew something when you really didn’t. add to that that the review content comes in the very waves you did the lessons in, you got some meta-info about which of multiple look-alikes it may be wk asks you about, which further reduces the value.
if you go by “throw kanji at the wall and see what sticks”, you’ll need several rounds of wk to learn enough to read, because in a script system, not knowing one character can mean botched comprehension for the whole sentence.
I got to level 60 more or less doing the same thing and it didn’t screw me, plus I guess it also gave me some motivation to keep going, I guess.
Funny you gave that example, that more or less sums up how I did it. I also read a lot of native material while doing WK and I can confirm that the retention was pretty good.
Nice! People here may tell you you’re doing it wrong, but the point of WK is to help you reach your goals of fluency, so that’s the only measuring stick I care about.
i reset twice. once from 24 to 20, then from 31 to 12.
my case is a little different though - i only used override the first time around, then took a long break due to being busy. second run went smoothly, but i’d have to add that i hold the n1 and have been studying japanese for over 9 years now, 6 of which have been in japan.
Thanks for the context. I am genuinely surprised because it seems like, at this point, your time would be much better spent taking the WK training wheels off and spending all your time in native content (with maybe a little study time with advanced resources). You’re obviously pretty competent if you’ve passed N1. I know WK isn’t a huge time suck, but it still is quite a commitment.
if you go by “throw kanji at the wall and see what sticks”, you’ll need several rounds of wk to learn enough to read, because in a script system, not knowing one character can mean botched comprehension for the whole sentence.
Why go all the way back to level 12, spending time typing in English meanings and reviewing words you know super well? It seems like it’d be much more effective and efficient to spend all that time in Japanese, encountering words in context and getting the myriad other benefits that come with reading the language as opposed to drilling the language.
This is not a criticism - I’m just curious. It seems like you’re an WK completitionist, but that doesn’t seem like it would serve you at this point. I don’t think you could ever get to native-like literacy with just WaniKani, no matter how many times you do it, but you could with just reading Japanese.
I also abuse the ignore script but in a different way.
I always ignore errors except for enlightened items. This let me reach lvl60 in under 2 years (because it massively slows down review frequency) while making sure I know items I’m burning. Admittedly that means I just need to make a lucky guess once but in practice it doesn’t happen that often.
I’m not claiming it’s the best method but that’s what I did.
That said I can’t imagine using WK without the ability to override the decision. There’s so many cases of items that accept one meaning but not a synonym that I would very likely rage quit at some point if it wasn’t for the script.
I always ignore errors except for enlightened items. This let me reach lvl60 in under 2 years (because it massively slows down review frequency) while making sure I know items I’m burning. Admittedly that means I just need to make a lucky guess once but in practice it doesn’t happen that often.
I’m not claiming it’s the best method but that’s what I did.
I can totally see me doing the same because I’m not going to burn an item if I don’t know it. At level 12, I have not yet burned a single item - I think my first burn is scheduled to come up in January or February.
i’m doing this to repeat kanji, get the ones i don’t see often enough, and to learn any i might have missed (which amounts to a lot, if you include readings, and “ah, it’s in that word, too”).
wk isn’t a drag for me, because i won’t let it. i’m thorough, but i’m also slow, and at my pace, i rarely have too much to do.
Unless I’m working on a browser that doesn’t have my extensions or I press enter too quickly, which happens some times.