Is there a script to skip kanji (English) meaning after it reaches guru and to skip readings entirely?

WaniKani Requesting Help
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The short:
I’ve done some searching around the forum and I realise this is going to be a potentially unpopular request! Is there a script(s) to reduce/eliminate reviews related to radicals, kanji meaning and reading?

The thing is, I’m trying hard to like Wanikani:

read on my long ramblings

There are a few things that are coming up as deal breakers for me. I already know ~250 kanji and am currently studying Genki II. The way I learn kanji is from vocabulary I already know. It’s great, I just add mnemonics from Kodansha Kanji Learner’s course to vocab I already know, and presto, I learn kanji pretty quickly. What I’m looking for is a way to speed that up with more automated input, since KKLC is pretty manual, and my grammar is getting good enough that I’m reading more, so I think learning kanji more quickly would be helpful.

But, I’m finding having to learn English words for radicals (5x reviews) is a drain. But ok, it’s only 5x, I can accept that. (Edit: oh dear, just realised those are reviewed until burned, too?! Is there a script to remove these reviews after they reach guru?)

Then, I have to learn English words for kanji (are those in the review stack until burned?? eeek). That is something I would just about tolerate 5 reviews for before I consider it a huge waste of time once I know associated vocab. After I know vocab for a kanji, I do not want to waste brain power on it’s artificial English meaning. I know myself - these will become leeches. Is there a script to remove this after it reaches guru?

Then, I have to learn a reading for a kanji. So far, I’ve started learning my first 10 kanji on Wanikani, and 3 of the readings are not intuitive at all for me. And I know several words with these kanji already, which include the readings Wanikani wants me to enter. It strikes me as a big waste of time to create an extra category in my mind - memorise the reading Wanikani wants me to know for this kanji. Is there a script so I can skip this entirely?

Without the above scripts I want, I’m starting to realise, it will actually be faster for me to go through kanji manually with KKLC and create my own anki cards, because I do not create cards for the radical, English meanings, and readings. I just do vocab - JP->EN and EN->JP, and I only pass the cards if I produce the kanji (strokes, and know the reading of the vocab). In my dream world, Wanikani works together with KKLC to make a branched product with the KKLC method + Wanikani tech and positivity.

I realise kanji get more complex, etc, but this has worked for me so far, including for more difficult kanji with very similar ones (KKLC has a method for dealing with look-alikes). I don’t see any reason I need to add radical, English meanings, and readings, if that wasn’t necessary for me already. (on top of having to go through kanji I already know). I’ve been reading on the forums and trying to get an idea of why others thnk I need these, but so far I’m not convinced. I’m willing to be convinced, though, I’m just letting you know I’m already trying to find something to convince me to change my mind and am not finding it! I’m also going to continue with reviews and lessons until I get through to a kanji I don’t know, just to see if the experience gets better.

I can see why Wanikani and the reviews I don’t want to see would be great for someone studying Japanese from level zero, without the previous vocab and kanji knowledge that is making this annoying for me personally. So, I’m just wondering, if there is some way to make Wanikani work for someone who is getting close to the intermediate level of Japanese - the level where artificial English meanings and readings without vocab are more of a hindrance than a help.

What I like about Wanikani is the stellar community - there’s a super positive vibe here that I’d like to be part of :slight_smile:

Edit after trying out the advice here

In WK, there is a requirement to memorise English words for radicals and kanji, and readings for kanji, before getting to vocabulary. I prefer to have a vocabulary led approach that associates the mnemonic for the radical and kanji meanings just before a direct association with vocabulary (not days apart). I like the word use and sentence examples in WK, but as they don’t have an option to toggle furigana, it takes extra work to look that up to read them carefully. They aren’t always easy to look up - even in Level 1 there were some tricky ones that weren’t covered or going to be covered in WK. I don’t have an objection to having to look stuff up, but it defeats the purpose of what I was hoping to pay for (save time self-organising kanji learning).

I also like to learn EN->JP and the writing helps me a lot to remember the kanji for reading later. I could add KW, but I prefer having fewer resources. WK’s SRS has a lumpy future workflow compared to Anki, and depends on multiple sessions in a day to get through new material. For SRS, then, using my current system with a central SRS (Anki) that I use for vocab anyway wins because it’s in one place with less distraction and can be achieved in one session per day.

I came to WK hoping it would eliminate the time I currently spend looking up vocab/sentences for the kanji I learn and creating Anki cards. Interestingly, I found on WK I spent just as much time going through the radical and kanji lessons (for kanji I already know!) as it takes me to learn new ones with KKLC and create my own new cards. I have a better appreciation for the method I was previously using and will stick with it.

FWIW I found it helpful to have prior grammar knowledge before starting so the WK example sentences are accessible.

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Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but aren’t you just looking for… well, not WaniKani?

It’s perfectly fine if that’s the case, but building kanji off radicals, then learning the meanings and readings for kanji and cementing those readings and meanings (as well as learning some more of them) with associated vocab is how WaniKani works. That’s all it does. Take that out of the equation and you’re left with vocab flashcards but worse. If a vocab learning platform is more what you’re looking for, maybe you could benefit more from something like Torii?

I’m also not entirely sure what you mean by “artificial English meanings” - sure, translations are by no means perfect, but it’s not as if WaniKani made the meanings for kanji up on the spot. Learning them can help you reason about what a word might mean even if you don’t know it yet. Similarly for learning the readings, that’s to help you reason about how a word might be read if you don’t know it yet. They’re not completely detached things invented for beginner language learners.

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It sounds like you want a script to cut out about 75% of what WK is. At that point, it doesn’t make much sense to pay for the product.

As for whether such a thing exists, there are no scripts, to my knowledge, that will totally eliminate content from your review process.

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As has already been stated, it sounds like you’re better off using other kanji learning resources. That’s no reason not to be part of the wanikani community tho:) You’re more than welcome to participate in the forum (book clubs, study logs, POLL, etc) without paying for a product you don’t have a use for.

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While already a solid start, in the grande scheme of things it’s not that many. That’s the amount of not even 10 Wanikani levels and lots of people have reset levels that far back (and more) and done it all again. If you spend the rest of your time with grammar, reading, listening, speaking and, well, life it’s honestly not that big of a deal imho.

Looks way more tedious than it is. The SRS intervals get pretty long and by the time the familiar items come back to be burned you’ll have so many new ones in your review queue that you actually might appreciate some easy ones in between.

I think i’ve never seen anyone past Level 10 complain that Wanikani is too slow. Unless you have a deadline to adhere to speed should not be a major deciding factor.

So it teaches you new stuff you didn’t know before. Isn’t that a good thing?

When and where to put which reading becomes second nature in no time but it takes some getting used to, yes.

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yes maybe you’re right! I guess I thought doing radical/meaning light without the readings would be good, but actually it’s just stripping out Wanikani’s method without adding a different one back in.

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that’s really sweet, thank you!

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It sounded like you were trying to force yourself to use the wanikani method even though you felt most of it was irrelevant to you, because otherwise you couldn’t be part of the forum culture? But that’s not a requirement:)

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If active use of the platform were a requirement I don’t think I’d have much business being here :joy: I think I’ve done ten reviews over the past three months

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thanks for the thoughtful response!

Looks way more tedious than it is. The SRS intervals get pretty long and by the time the familiar items come back to be burned you’ll have so many new ones in your review queue that you actually might appreciate some easy ones in between.

I’ll keep at it longer and see, that’s a good point.

I think i’ve never seen anyone past Level 10 complain that Wanikani is too slow. Unless you have a deadline to adhere to speed should not be a major deciding factor.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t mean too slow, like, getting x number done in x time, but just, for the time I would have spent on my old method, I guess I would spend the same time on Wanikani. One of the attractions for Wanikani was spending less time organising my studies. But I think the time spent on radical/meaning/reading review that I’m not currently doing will take about as much time as when I review that information in my current method before putting the kanji vocab into anki. I was trying to think of how to compare the methods, but it’s really possible or worth the time, I guess. I think I’ll just do a few levels, and compare my progress and motivation to using my other method.

So it teaches you new stuff you didn’t know before. Isn’t that a good thing?

Well, the reading I knew in the context of other vocabulary. I guess what I mean is for example:
Kanji: 力
I think of this kanji as the vocab word “power” or “strength”, which is pronounced ちから. That means when I see 力 alone, from my perspective it is more correct to identify it as ちから than リキ, which is what wanikani wants. So I have to really force myself to identify it as a kanji and not a word. But the point is to read, right? and if I’m reading, and I see力 alone, I will read it ちから. I don’t think this is a problem for someone who hasn’t started reading before coming to this method, but it’s really unnatural having already become comfortable with seeing that kanji as a word and not a kanji in isolation.

I’ll keep going and see how many kanji that actually applies to, maybe if it’s not too many it’s annoying but ok. I realise there is a long way to go as you say!

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It sounded like you were trying to force yourself to use the wanikani method even though you felt most of it was irrelevant to you, because otherwise you couldn’t be part of the forum culture? But that’s not a requirement:)

This will sound funny, but yeah, I guess I feel really self-conscious about free-wheeling, and/or missing out.

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I get this, and the lessons, reviews, and mnemonics are common touchstones for people here, but you seem serious about learning Japanese so I think you’ll fit in regardless:)

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First three levels are free so hopefully by then you’ll really know whether WK is your thing or not. Please let us know regardless - that’s always interesting i think! And if you continue browsing the forums all the better :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

And that’s where it will become natural quite fast to (mostly) think of the on’yomi reading when a Kanji item with pink background appears as opposed to when the same item appears as a vocab review with purple background. There’s even a script you could install that shows you explicitly whether Kun’yomi or On’yomi is asked. (KunOn+)

With the 力 example the more common On’yomi reading is リョク btw and will get used a lot in subsequent vocabulary → it helps you read those even in the wild if you don’t yet know the meaning.

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With the 力 example the more common On’yomi reading is リョク btw and will get used [a lot] it helps you read those even in the wild if you don’t yet know what it means.

ok, good to know! I’ll keep at it then and report back :slight_smile:

How are you guys so friendly??? There are some friendly people on r/LearnJapanese but most of it is so harsh… WK is like a big virtual hug.

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It’s because your tone was not dismissive of the product right off the bat. We use it because it works, so if you’d come at it with “it’s crap because sit doesn’t do things the way I think would be better, despite the fact that I’m only level 1, and also, I’m a Kanji god because I know 250 Kanji”, you would have been received with the sort of welcome you are more familiar with.

Your ideas are not necessarily bad but I do think the associations you are making will be more detrimental to you in the long run.

Also, as someone above has mentioned, no one above level 10 find WK slow. If anything, it can get way too fast.

Having said that, I’d love a way to automatically mark radicals correct after Guru 2. Probably the same for Kanji readings. By that point there have likely been enough vocab involving the Kanji that the readings will be reinforced by them. The meanings, on the other hand, are useful, because vocab meanings do not necessarily have a clear link to the Kanji meanings. Think of 交通: the readings are standard, but the meaning is not easily devices from the meanings of the Kanji.

I am brainstorming though. In 20 minutes, I might have thought about it more and realized that the current system is better.

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Similar to The Purge we let all the nastiness out in one sarcastic flood, whenever someone comes along and posts about paticles [sic] or quitting because Fugu breaks camels or something.

Your inquiry was honest and polite so ideally that’s what you get in return :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Unless @Syphus gets to the post first. Then it’s a ball for everyone. Shame he’s disappeared.

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Haha! I wondered how we manage to keep things so pleasant on average. Now it makes sense. :joy:

And I suppose we have plenty of ongoing threads where people can stay preoccupied and not become sharks in bloody water. :thinking:

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LOL, this is gold

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