Improving with Critical Items with a watch app, widget or lock screen app?

WaniKani API And Third-Party Apps
#1

I liked the idea of the “wani-watch” or the watch app for the pebble called, “tokei tokei.”

I bought a pebble but couldn’t figure out how to install the Japanese font pack or even get the app to work. So I returned the watch.

The reason for this being is because my critical items under 70% is a long list of over 65 I frequently get wrong. I started to make the list smaller as it was larger than that by emphasizing studying the critical items list more frequently.

Wish there was a working watch app that I can just see on my arm to randomly display critical items throughout the day when I am not learning or reviewing wanikani.

I don’t mind if someone made one for the android wear, apple watch, even the old pebble that is discontinued. I just couldn’t get any of it to work. :confused:

#2

If you get an item wrong, try writing it out. Stick it on your wall. Put it on your bathroom mirror so you can look at it while brushing your teeth. Change your phone unlock code to “Taberu means to eat” or whatever you’re having trouble with. Do something other than wish that there was an app for that.

1 Like
#3

You are very right. I really admire your persistence and dedication to fixing this issue regarding critical items.

I found a website that will display my critical items in a card format. I wish it was printable the way I saw it:
http://shinkoku.dennmart.com/

How do I get these to work?

  1. https://gist.github.com/EddM/76523d14ae2c9d81003adbf8f474f743
    and
  2. https://github.com/caseyscarborough/wanikani-api/blob/master/src/test/resources/critical-items-80.json
#4

Have you considered putting the critical items into an Anki deck and using the Anki app on your smartphone to revise them?

  1. You have to have the Anki app installed on your smartphone (or computer). The Android version (Ankidroid) is free. The ios version costs about US$40 because they were made by different people.
  2. Go to WaniKani to Anki Exporter web site.
  3. Copy/paste your API key, which you can find in your PROFILE / SETTINGS page.
  4. You can adjust the percentage to 70 by clicking on “Additional Options”.
  5. Click on the “download” button below “Critical Items”.
  6. Follow the instructions in the DOCS link.
#5

Wow, thank you so much for these instructions. I did not know all of these helpful resources existed! I will report back to how it went afterwards.

#6

@daidouji, by the way, I should have included a link to the developer’s thread:

WaniKani to Anki Exporter developer’s thread

If you have any questions about using this tool, you should post in that thread so that the developer and other users of the tool will read them.

#7

It saves as a text file. How do I convert it to an apkg file? I tried putting the text file in the Ankidroid directory (I have an android phone) but it didn’t find it. I will try with windows later. Thanks for this resource!

#8

I should have told you to install it on your PC (windows) first. You also need to create an account on the ankiweb site. Here are more detailed steps:

On your Windows PC:

  1. Create an account on ankiweb site
  2. Download the empty Anki deck which I created.
  3. Install Anki on your Windows PC.
  4. Start the Anki application
  5. Follow these instructions OR From the main Anki screen, go to “File”, “Import”, select the empty Anki deck you just downloaded, click on “Open”.
  6. At the bottom of the main Anki screen, click on the “Import File” button.
  7. Select your “critical.txt” file. Import box should appear like this. Click on “Import”.

You can now start reviewing from the deck called Default.

Synchronisation

  1. On the top right corner of the main Anki Screen, there is an icon that looks like two arrows in a circle. This is the synchronise button.
  2. Click on the synchronise button to upload your deck to the ankiweb server.
  3. Synchronisation will prompt you for your ankiweb account name and password.

On android:

  1. Install the Ankidroid app
  2. Somewhere in the settings, you have to put in your ankiweb account name and password
  3. Then the deck will appear in your smartphone.

Good luck.

1 Like
#9

Your post inspired me to find a way to study on Android Wear and I have found the solution!

There is a version of Anki called AnkiWear and it will sync your Anki decks and easily let you study them on your watch!

It requires an Android device though because you have to first download AnkiDroid and sync your decks then download AnkiWear and point it to the folder the decks are stored in (mine defaulted to the proper directory).

The watch app has a really nice interface (not much to the Anki interface anyway), and it makes casual studying a lot easier! I hope this helps

#10

Hey @daidouji, where are you up to with setting up your Anki deck? Is it installed on your computer yet?

#11

Hey @wunderbunny., thanks for following up. I’ve been studying Japanese all day, so I didn’t see this message until now.

Well I did manage to go on a PC but… the fields weren’t right when I imported the text. I only tried once so I don’t know how to use Anki actually. I like the wanikani system better and I was so happy to have discovered it.

I’m working hard studying the critical items. I wish the Wanikani Speed Android App had Critical as the selection… but I tried the speed on the Apprentice Items since probably most critical items would be in apprentice level anyway.

I currently have 227 critical items under 80% according to, http://shinkoku.dennmart.com/ <-- been trying to study my vocab through here, I just cover up the meaning and reading by scrolling down partially to try to recall and study this way. It’s very useful. :slight_smile:

I wish there was a better app for critical items but this one is just enough… maybe we can ask the developer to have a way to hide and unhide the meaning and reading because it would be awesome for studying! I also like how we can just select to display either radical, kanji and vocab, its so useful and organizes it by critical percentages too (lowest to greatest).

#12

@daidouji, it’s great that you found another way to revise your critical items.

I now see a problem with that blank Anki deck I supplied. It has two card types. There should be only one card type. I will fix it up and let you know when a new file is available.

Meanwhile, I am concerned that 227 items could overwhelm you. After we get Anki set up, I suggest lowering that threshhold and getting maybe half of those items securely memorised before moving onto the other half. What do you think?

You have about 200 items in your apprentice queue. I agree that this is probably where the bulk of your critical items are. If you keep getting something wrong, it will end up in apprentice.

Another tool you might consider is @rfindley 's WaniKani Self Study - Quiz Edition userscript. You can use it to revise (drill) vocab one level at a time.