Hello! I’ve slowed down a lot on my WaniKani lessons as I catch up on my grammar. One thing hasn’t changed since a year or so ago: my listening ability is way behind my reading ability. That is, I understand more while reading than listening because with listening, I’m trying to figure out what some vocab IS (because several use the same furigana), if I even hear it right/completely, to be able to figure out the meaning. So once my brain tries to work out a few words, the audio has continued on to the next sentence and I’m just lost.
I attribute this mainly to being able to recognize kanji because of how great WK has been. However, as others have realized, the opposite direction isn’t at the same level - e.g. my recall of the kanji (its meaning) upon hearing the word or just seeing the furigana is not as quick.
My question is, can or will the developers of WaniKani create a Listening Review mode where all we hear is the audio and we’d have to guess the meaning? If I’m imagining what this would look like, it would be:
Hear the audio for the kanji
Have the option to play the audio for a sentence using the kanji
Type in the meaning.
Accuracy of the answer could be as strict as the same Meaning here on WK or just a Pass/Fail option the user selects.
I think a lot of WK users would find this useful and this is not the first time this has been requested or described. I just feel embarrassed that I can use/read “high level” kanji but am just totally lost when someone speaks to me.
Have you tried the audio function of Self Study Quiz. It might not do all that you request but it does ask for vocabulary by playing the audio. You need to setup the settings for this though.
Thanks! I think I’ve got it working though it seems like I have to refresh the browser after I log in to see it from the WK menu.
Now, how to filter from a certain WK Level? I can’t find the thread that had the Filter scripts to download though I’m also not sure if those are the scripts I need. I think I only want to quiz: Kanji and Vocab that I’ve Burned for now but only from a certain WK Level onward (one level at a time?).
This is pretty normal, I think, if you’ve been focusing on reading more than listening. The solution is to do more listening
I’m not sure about specifically testing “audio to word” for WK vocab, because of two things:
WK vocab selection is designed to teach you kanji and kanji readings, so it is going to have more words that are most likely to be encountered in reading and less likely to come up in conversation
The homonym problem: with on-yomi compounds there are lots of words that are pronounced the same, and which in listening you figure out from contexts. In an SRS setup you either don’t get the context or else you have to listen to a long example sentence and probably end up memorizing based off the start of the example
On the subject: does anybody see kanji while they listen? I certainly don’t – I just hear the words and understand the meaning. There’s no intermediate step (sound to kanji to meaning), just a direct sound to meaning hop.
EDIT: I tried the quiz for Burned Items, Audio only and I think it’s adequate for now. It is giving me ‘harder’ words today (compared to yesterday where one answer was 6). So I’ll just do a few items at a time, whatever random words it throws at me and then re-quiz the ones I didn’t get. On the one hand, and as I expected, having no context is hard for some items but on the other, I am glad I do remember a lot, mostly nouns, and on some verbs, I just didn’t enter the exact matching meaning but had the right kanji in mind. It’s a good way for me to review my Burned items too. Thanks so much for all your help.
Agree with this 100%. I would LOVE to hear something and know the meaning right away based on context. I wrote ‘see’ kanji because it was just the only way I could describe why my reading is better than my listening.. Technically (I use that word loosely here), my comprehension on both should be the same. But because my WK reviews are always visual first, the audio never got practised. So I am just trying to narrow that gap.
I tried to get into reading about 2 years ago and had a hard time. Back then it was because I was so behind on grammar. I’ve caught up a bit now and can understand kids’ books better. So now I’m trying to improve my listening and it is disappointing whenever I don’t understand something only to realize it’s a kanji I already learned. Listening more isn’t helping because it just frustrates me. This also isn’t the only solution I’m seeking. I’m just hoping the quiz style helps anyway.
With Minna no Nihongo’s intermediate textbook, you need to listen to a dialogue and fill in omitted information. Unless it’s something really common like 見ます､ I can’t transform the sounds into kanji easily. When I’m writing, there’s more thinking time, so it’s easier, but I often need to look up kanji to make sure I write them accurately. I think both are pretty common.
そうですね。As for me, what would take me 3-5 minutes to write in English takes me 1.5 hours in Japanese. And then more time to rewrite some sentences to use grammar I’ve just learned. BUT, it is progress compared to how I did before.
There is no need to install the filters I recommended. They are built-in filters. You only need to click the checkbox to enable those you need. Leave those you don’t need unchecked or they will interfere with the intended result.
Yeah, for writing not being able to remember how to write the kanji is super common (for that one I think mnemonics which specifically consider what you need to remember to write the character are the way to go); but I think that’s a separate skill from listening comprehension.
LOL. Turns out I COULD turn on those filters. I just assumed the checkboxes were locked because they were greyed out. Should have followed your great detailed list of steps one by one. Thanks again!
One thing that is helping me see kanji in my head while listening is watching a lot of Japanese content with Japanese subtitles. Netflix is good for that. Then later when I flip to something on Crunchyroll, where there are never Japanese subtitles, I’ve found my mind increasingly hearing the kanji.
fwiw, I can guess at words, given enough context, when listening based on (what I assume is) their kanji. Sometimes I’m wrong though.
With enough kanji knowledge and a strong enough listening skill, I think it just comes eventually. It’s probably not a problem if you can’t do it, unless you want or need to have that ability…
Definitely don’t need to but want that ability - to just listen and understand. I just watched an hour+ youtube video of Japanese With Shun’s conversation with another Japanese teacher. He labeled the video N3-N2 and he showed translations for harder words only. I had the Japanese subtitles on and could follow along but I’m sure I would be 100% lost if I didn’t. So I would like to listen and understand.
My recommendation is actually to listen to easier things without subs. If you’re listening to N3/2 with subs, go back to N5/4 without. It will be hard and you won’t understand everything at first, but you’re most likely using subs as a crutch and it will probably delay your ability to understand without them.
Makes sense. I find N5/N4 content to be too easy now, without subtitles. Though possibly it was the type of content - walkabouts. Conversation between 2 people seems more interesting and less repetitive. I will try to find N4/N3 instead. Thanks.
Also just watched this video. Her 3 tips might be useful to others here:
And then more time to rewrite some sentences to use grammar I’ve just learned. BUT, it is progress compared to how I did before.
