I m not english native speaker is it hard for me to continue in wanikani.
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 donāt 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.
Iād say most of us arenāt 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 thereās reading and understanding the example sentences for vocab.
Well, Iām 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. Youāve done the free levels - they give quite a good impression on whatās ahead. If you didnāt have too much problems with English on free levels - then you shouldnāt have too much problems with the rest levels either. If you did - thenā¦ Again, itās up to you to decide.
Anyway, I wish you best of luck with your studies!
I think for non native speakers WK is a bit less helpful but still a great tool.
Thereāre some weird english words comming sometime, but those arenāt that many. Thereās 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 youāre 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: ć (ta). In english, it depends. It doesnāt sound like the one in ātakeā, but it does sound like the one in āTampaā (phonetic rules for english are likeā¦ ). For spanish ātaā sounds the same in every word, so itās 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.
Thereās 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.
Are you a native Japanese speaker? That could make it easier.
The pronunciation might differ depending on the country/region, but in my region Tampa doesnāt sound like the Spanish/Japanese ć / ta either. Funnily enough, Iād say a word that matches the Spanish/Japanese pronunciation is ātopā, and that doesnāt even have an āaā in it. English is so sillyā¦
Youāre right!! Probably Iāve heard it said by other spanish speakers from Florida mostly, 'cause samples in Forvo indeed donāt sound like the spanish ātaā at all .
Iām 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
Iāve been speaking english for many years, and Iām pretty fluent in oral and written english, but some words do surprise me from time to time. One that stuck with me was å āYonderā. I could remember the meaning and the reading of it, but I couldnāt for the life of me remember the word āyonderā xD
That being said, I donāt conisder that a difficulty at all. It is more of a funny thing tbh
Indeed thereāre so many items to be learned, that the ocasional weird english vocab itās 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 wasnāt, WK fitted the bill quite alright
Iām 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 č which apparently means āsedgeā, first time even seeing this word. Had some issue with é¦ās ābrocadeā as well. It helps learn English too, thatās all Iām saying
Hey Iām not English native speaker either.
Still, sometimes WK gives a āmeaningā or a direct translation of a kanji that makes no sense to me because itās 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 āperiod of timeā (ok) but ātime periodā (not ok). Meh One synonym addition later, I get a correct answer to the review and a nice ego boost!
So, no, it wonāt be too hard. You just have to adapt WK to your needs. But itās flexible enough for that.
Glad to know it wasnāt just me! lol
The a in Tampa is usually pronounced with a lot of āeā 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 āaā followed by āmpā it has a weird drawling kind of vocalization
The Japanese style ātaā sound is found in American English more often with words spelled with an āoā ā like the name Tom, or mom or bomb. ā Tom isnāt exactly like ātaā but itās close.
I think ātapā could be one of those examples where both the written word and phonetic could match the japanese sound (I checked in Forvo this time ).
But yeah, english speakers you have a mess in your hands ā¦
I didnāt know those either. Of course, I donāt really know them now either. I just know an approximation or their meanings. In my mind, sedge = plant and brocade = patterned fabric.
I am not native too. At first WK was a bit difficult, Duolingo helped me a lot.
That is probably true in British English
The other day I was trying to pronounce ādeuteragonistā and I just gave up.