If you're having a hard time getting through WaniKani

WaniKani Tips & Tricks
#21

I’m trying to get away from looking at the stats too much and worrying about my level or progress. There are many here leveling up every 5 days which seems crazy to me but I don’t think everyone can do that.

When I think about it I’m really one the only people I know even trying to learn Japanese while I am going to college and working full time. While I can only read basic sentences and still lacking on verb knowledge I still know far more then the people around me. Most people I know can’t even tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese, also think Japanese is some kind of mysterious language that’s impossible to learn.

So at least I know I am learning stuff and know it’s really not as scary as it seems. A couple months ago I couldn’t even read hiragana and thought it was scary looking now I have no problems reading hiragana and even some kanji’s. My katakana need work though lol

8 Likes
#22

Yeah, looking at stats once in a while is nice but when it turns into obsession, it is not. I even removed the leech trainer userscript, because seeing that huge number in Apprentice/Guru for leeches used to stress me out. Lowering the count to inadvertently increasing it in the next review session used to frustrate me. Removing that counter actually helped a lot.

Also, I used to do all lessons at once till Level 29/30, which used to create huge review sessions. Now, I just do the Radical/Kanji for the first day and 30 each subsequent day. It feels very nice to Guru something nearly every day, compared to Guru-ing all on one.

Most people I know can’t even tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese

Same. Even with korean vs the other two. And I can easily differentiate between the 3 nationalities from their conversation (even if I am not that knowledgeable about the other 2), when it seems all the same to my family and friends.

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#23

I am not so worried about the 2000+, I know it is going to take a long to become proficient, after all Japanese school kids take years to learn it. It’s the frustration of having trouble with what I have already learned. I swear that every time I have a review when there is a word with month in it that Wanaikani flips a coin to decide between getsu and gatsu for that review.

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#24

Just remember: gatsu is ONLY for months of the year (Jan-Dec) and 何月 (なんがつ, what/which month). Anything else is getsu. Don’t overthink it further and you’ll get it right.

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#25

Very true. Some people get through WaniKani very quickly, and thats great, but it doesn’t mean that everyone needs to tackle it at that pace. If you make it to the end of level 60, you’ve learned the same kanji and accomplished just as much as everyone else, regardless of how long it took. :slight_smile:

10 Likes
#26

I’d still choose to go by car than in bicycle to point B from point A even if it’s the same distance

But I get your point

#27

Thanks for the advice!

#28

Good advices! I just leveled up after I got stuck for months in level 11. I had to face a 1400+ pile of reviews. You can do it! :smiley:

#29

Ohhh, I second that one! Often, I’ll miss my answer because I’m not paying attention or going too fast while typing.

On the uphand, just went through two weeks of genre and Asian film festival Fantasia in Montreal, and it was great to recognize a handful of kanji (even in my early stages in WK), like water in a Japanese movie – granted, it was obvious as it was on a water bottle, but the point is that I knew what it meant. :slight_smile:

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#30

The bicycle (or even walking) might be healthier though :wink:

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#31

thank you!!!
it is what i needed to hear (read)

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#32

It’s a race to the :cake: , though, right?

(And sometimes I can get there faster on a :biking_man: than a :red_car: depending on 交通量. Even the :turtle: sometimes gets there faster than the :rabbit2: )

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#33

Don’t underestimate the power of Llamathrust. :slightly_smiling_face:

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#34

Haha, I just missed a burn on 何月 because of this dumb mistake today. Thanks for your rule. I’ll try to keep it in mind. (There’s also 毎月 – まいつき though WK will accept まいげつ).

#35

We’ll always have じつ/にち/ひ/び and にん/じん/ひと/びと to compensate :grin:

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#36

amazing!!!

#37

Good advice. I’ve been a struggling a bit the last week. My reviews have been piling up, and so have my lessons. It’s getting hard to keep up. Just when I thought I was getting control of the situation, I reached Level 9, and dozens of new reviews appeared…

I just have to remember to continue to work at it. I don’t have get back to 0/0 right away. As long as I am doing some reviews or lessons everyday, I am still making progress. I also need to get into the habit of clearing reviews two or three times a day, instead of once a day or once every other day. It’s much easier for me to handle 30-80 reviews then 100-200, and it’s a lot harder for things to get so backed up.

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#38

Llamathrust sounds dirty.

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#39

I’m trying to self teach grammar using Bunpro and reading things it suggests. It’s slow rolling and I get discouraged. I push on ahead though. I have a problem where I will be hard on myself or not really believe that I will succeed at a thing. I make myself push forward anyways because I logically know that, in whatever it may be, I will get better if I keep going even if emotionally I want to be a quitter :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m only level 5 right now, but the other day I learned a new piece of vocabulary and then could read a user’s tattoo! (I do IT support) it was 平気 so I informed him and reassured him it was indeed what he was told it meant

1 Like
#40

Sometimes it’s hard to measure your progress, because it comes gradually. Yesterday, my wife, who’s Japanese, cc’ed me on an email she sent to our 26 year old son in Japanese. It took me quite a while to read through it all (the grammar was harder for me than the vocabulary). Later, she was curious how much I understood, so I read it back to her out loud, stopping along the way for clarifications. For the first time, she realized that I actually am learning something and that my Japanese has improved significantly. I felt proud and happy.

The point of the story is that you have to believe that you’re getting somewhere, even though it’s frustrating and slow at times. When you can actually make use of what you learn here in the real world, you see that it’s all worth it.

15 Likes