I only started last 3 weeks ago and currently at Level 3. I’m really enjoying the Wanikani lessons especially the waiting time and in-order of the words. However… I’m a bit troubled to continue and it’s quite disheartening because I learned Kanas at Tofugu and here I am.
My dream is to become a fan translator that gives a way for the audience whom can’t understand Japanese language. If the learnings are free, then the content will also be free to use/read.
Is there any way other than paying to somehow getting the subscriptions for free? I know this is inappropriate but if there’s no other way, is there any alternatives at least? I’m really open for suggestions.
It is no big secret that all of the content is now open source.
You could make it into your own Anki or other deck. It would take work and effort, but so does WK. I made paper flashcards for my own personal use from the WK data. Nothing prevents you from doing that either.
Or, for the cost of a one year subscription, you could get to level 60. Plenty of people do. It is less than the cost of a single textbook.
But I am aware that is still more than many can afford. I am not trying to be totally cavalier here. Really though, you can look at the level 4 radicals, draw them out on paper and memorize them, then do that for the kanji, then do that for the vocab, then keep going until you get to 60. The resources are there for you, with no legal restrictions for your own use.
This is exactly how I see it. One could make Anki decks or use the data on WK that is open to all to make handwritten flashcards. I personally saw it as paying the WK team to do the heavy lifting (organizing / ordering/ structuring everything) so I could focus on the studying and only the studying.
There is also https://kanji.garden/. I tried it once and found WaniKanis interface just a little bit more user friendly (but I’ve seen people say the opposite) and I think that you can even bulk add the kanji you learned so far (google for a tutorial or blog post on how to use it). As far as I know it’s really the best alternative out there and gives you basically the same package, but for free. It doesn’t teach vocab, but for that you could use forum Anki decks or maybe Torii - SRS learning application for vocabulary (in Torii there are even all the WK vocab included, so you can specifically choose them).
Edit: Usually those free services are hard to get accustomed to and especially Anki has made a name for itself in that regard. But if you watch one or two tutorials you know how to use everything and that little bit of extra “research” time is just the (relatively very) small price you have to pay. So don’t get discouraged when these programs are a bit frustrating in the beginning and try to see it through - if you do that, I think you will get by no problem without having to pay anything.
+1 on torii for vocab. I personally recommend Memerise over Anki and I’m pretty sure you can even find some WaniKani decks that teach you the same kanji so it will be a similar experience although Anki is more customisable and I can see the appeal. I find the WaniKani community to be motivating and is the reason I went for it, although I can understand those who can’t afford the price. As for grammar, there are plenty of decks on memrise as well
