I m not a native speaker is it hard

I m not english native speaker is it hard for me to continue in wanikani.

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It mostly depends on if your English is good enough to navigate the site. There are a lot of non-English natives that do well on WaniKani, but most of them write and understand English very well already. When you get to higher levels you might find some English meanings that you donā€™t know (that happens sometimes to English natives like me too), but you can always add synonyms in your native language.

How have the first 2-3 levels been for you? If they went well I think you can expect WaniKani to continue to work well for you.

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Iā€™d say most of us arenā€™t native speakers, but as Sean said, it depends on whether your English is good enough.

I mostly use this site just to learn kanji, and for that you need to know all the words you want to learn in Japanese, in English. Then thereā€™s reading and understanding the example sentences for vocab.

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Well, Iā€™m not a native English speaker either and I think that if you can understand the replies in this thread - then your English should be good enough for this site. However, only you can decide that. Youā€™ve done the free levels - they give quite a good impression on whatā€™s ahead. If you didnā€™t have too much problems with English on free levels - then you shouldnā€™t have too much problems with the rest levels either. If you did - thenā€¦ Again, itā€™s up to you to decide.
Anyway, I wish you best of luck with your studies!

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I think for non native speakers WK is a bit less helpful but still a great tool.

Thereā€™re some weird english words comming sometime, but those arenā€™t that many. Thereā€™s always the possibility to put a synonym if you see it actually helps with the recall process (if the new word in japanese and the keyword in english are both new to you, porbably youā€™re better replacing that word).

Troublesome part for me was more related to mnemonics and how those are made with english phonetics on mind (sometime even streching that too). Japanese phonemes match perfectly with spanish (my L1) ones, so that gradually made me use mnemonics less and less, as english mnemonics could sometimes make it more confusing.

For example for the phoneme: 恟 (ta). In english, it depends. It doesnā€™t sound like the one in ā€œtakeā€, but it does sound like the one in ā€œTampaā€ (phonetic rules for english are likeā€¦ :man_shrugging:). For spanish ā€œtaā€ sounds the same in every word, so itā€™s super easy. I found myself dodging the english mnemonic quite often because of this.

In any case mnemonics are bound to be used less as you progress. Previous knowledge and new tools hold your learning after a point.

Thereā€™s some element about American culture been refered often in the mnemonics too, but I think those are well known ones and easy to catch up if you are not an american.

All this said, I would still consider WK a good tool for a non native.:+1:

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Are you a native Japanese speaker? That could make it easier.

:tongue:

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The pronunciation might differ depending on the country/region, but in my region Tampa doesnā€™t sound like the Spanish/Japanese 恟 / ta either. Funnily enough, Iā€™d say a word that matches the Spanish/Japanese pronunciation is ā€œtopā€, and that doesnā€™t even have an ā€œaā€ in it. English is so sillyā€¦

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Youā€™re right!! Probably Iā€™ve heard it said by other spanish speakers from Florida mostly, 'cause samples in Forvo indeed donā€™t sound like the spanish ā€œtaā€ at all :sweat_smile:.

Iā€™m thinking everyday how much english massive distribution in media all around the glove helps english language learnersā€¦ as for the rest seems quite an inconsistent language to be explained and made sense out of it :joy:

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Iā€™ve been speaking english for many years, and Iā€™m pretty fluent in oral and written english, but some words do surprise me from time to time. One that stuck with me was 向 ā€œYonderā€. I could remember the meaning and the reading of it, but I couldnā€™t for the life of me remember the word ā€œyonderā€ xD
That being said, I donā€™t conisder that a difficulty at all. It is more of a funny thing tbh

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Indeed thereā€™re so many items to be learned, that the ocasional weird english vocab itā€™s nothing to be scared of for jumping into WK.
Still if there was an spanish version of WK I would have went with it, but since there wasnā€™t, WK fitted the bill quite alright :+1:

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Iā€™m not an English native but I grew up with English speaking media and have been learning since I was young. To be honest there are some words or definitions that I had to first look up in English in order to learn the Japanese for it. This level I learned 菅 which apparently means ā€˜sedgeā€™, first time even seeing this word. Had some issue with 錦ā€™s ā€˜brocadeā€™ as well. It helps learn English too, thatā€™s all Iā€™m saying

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Hey :slight_smile: Iā€™m not English native speaker either.

Still, sometimes WK gives a ā€˜meaningā€™ or a direct translation of a kanji that makes no sense to me because itā€™s simply a word I never use. When this happens, I add a synonym or two choosing words that at easier for me to remember. Et voilĆ !

Same thing with the long answers ā€œperiod of timeā€ (ok) but ā€œtime periodā€ (not ok). Meh One synonym addition later, I get a correct answer to the review and a nice ego boost!

So, no, it wonā€™t be too hard. You just have to adapt WK to your needs. But itā€™s flexible enough for that.

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Glad to know it wasnā€™t just me! lol

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This might help you remember ā€œyonderā€

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The a in Tampa is usually pronounced with a lot of ā€œeā€ in it, like the a in damp, lamp, ramp, stamp, camp, amplifierā€¦ I guess there is some kinda rule in American English whereby if you have an ā€œaā€ followed by ā€œmpā€ it has a weird drawling kind of vocalization

The Japanese style ā€œtaā€ sound is found in American English more often with words spelled with an ā€œoā€ ā€“ like the name Tom, or mom or bomb. ā€“ Tom isnā€™t exactly like ā€œtaā€ but itā€™s close.

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I think ā€œtapā€ could be one of those examples where both the written word and phonetic could match the japanese sound (I checked in Forvo this time :slightly_smiling_face: ).

But yeah, english speakers you have a mess in your hands :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: ā€¦

I didnā€™t know those either. Of course, I donā€™t really know them now either. I just know an approximation or their meanings. In my mind, sedge = plant and brocade = patterned fabric.

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I am not native too. At first WK was a bit difficult, Duolingo helped me a lot.

That is probably true in British English

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The other day I was trying to pronounce ā€œdeuteragonistā€ and I just gave up.

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