Kanji or Vocabulary Focus

[Adi-M]

There is a lot of talk about how fast one completes wanikani as a whole or each level individually. I see a lot of people prioritizing kanji lessons over vocabulary lessons in an attempt to speed their leveling up.
Personally, I’ve been doing wanikani very leisurely. The few levels where I tried prioritizing my kanji lessons almost had me quit, because to me, personally, I was either left with an endless pile of vocabulary lessons I could never get down to 0 before I leveled up and more items became available, or I tried doing more vocabulary lessons each day than I am comfortable with and was left with a huge pile of reviews and low accuracy rates in my answers, because I couldn’t retain all the information I learned.
After doing a few levels like that, I decided to actively slow down, and now when I level up I do up to 5 kanji lessons every day, and as much vocabulary as I feel I will remember well. Usually 9-21 items every day. I feel that my goal with wanikani is mostly reading-focused, so in my opinion learning vocabulary items well is more important than learning kanji and leveling up.

I’m curious about other people’s experience with this and thought I’d ask you guys to share: are you focusing more on your kanji lessons in order to level up quickly, or more vocabulary-driven? Why? Have you tried both ways? Do you feel like your method makes you progress too fast/too slow? Or maybe you’ve find the perfect speed for you? Are you reading in Japanese on a daily basis? Which method do you believe helped you advance your reading skills more?

(not looking for anyone to change my ways, I’ve found my comfort zone, really just curious about other people’s experience)

[Catdq]

I was trying to speed run and ended up resetting several times as I kept getting stuck around the same levels each time so decided to do something different this last time when I got stuck again.

Stopped doing new words and focussed just on getting rid of reviews while trying to increase my recall on the stuck vocab and kanji. Once those were done (which took a while but meant I didn’t reset again), I started limiting how many new words or Kanji I was doing at one time.

First working through the radicals until leveled up then work through whatever vocab and kanji I already know from reading or textbooks etc until those are levelled and then I try to do a few new vocab per session (3-5 at a time). Once I feel those are in my head well enough, I’ll start whittling down the remaining kanji 3-5 each session and continue doing my reviews.

I try to keep my apprentice items around 50-60 unless there are a lot of known vocab and kanji from other sources. If I start struggling to level up again, I slow down and focus on reviews over new items.

It’s slow going but means I don’t have to reset and I’m more likely to keep it going this way than trying to speed run it.

[cezarL]

@Adi-M

low accuracy rates in my answers, because I couldn’t retain all the information I learned.

Heh, I’m like you I think and have a pretty low limit of how much I can intake in one day.
But for me that’s more about new kanji rather than new vocab. Well, as long as it’s WK vocab so based on the kanji already studied - I’m building my own deck (currently on JPDB, but may switch) with vocab not in WK or very high level, and the recognition and retention rates there are much lower.

@Adi-M

now when I level up I do up to 5 kanji lessons every day

Same!
4 or 5 kanji, depending on the total number of items in a level so that completing all items takes exactly 2 weeks. This means 12 lessons/day, excepting the first day in a level which is “radicals only day”.
Some times a few vocab items might run over the next level, or I may have to start vocab from the next level just before finishing the 2 weeks (gonna happen now with L27->L28) but that’s fine, things even out over time.
Since I settled with this “speed” the accuracy has gone up (slowly but surely) and it just doesn’t feel like “pressure” if that makes sense.

I started reading books about two months ago, it’s going pretty slow (painfully so, actually) but one thing I noticed since a few days ago it has become easier to recognize kanji and recalling their readings in new-to-me vocab. It’s a bit of a bummer that I don’t know more of the kanji already, but… some things I just can’t rush, it seems.

I was considering slowing WK down after L30, but it’s all going much better for me than the custom deck so in the end I’ll likely stick with the current pace.
If it ain’t broken…

[Illiya]

For me personally, it’s not one or the other😅. I immediately do all kanji and vocabulary lessons the moment they become available. This creates batches of like 80-100 items with both included in them.
I then stay on top of all these batches, basically reviewing them the moment I can. Which often makes me spend like 30 minutes reviewing 100 or so items, kanji and vocabulary included. Then the moment the next set of 80-100 lessons becomes available, I immediately do all those.
So while my goal is to complete WaniKani quickly and be on a fast track to learning as much as I can, I’m not necessarily trying to just only do the Kanji to unlock levels quick. I’m just doing everything that is being shown to me the moment it’s available.
Obviously this might not work for everyone and might be a bit crazy, but everyone has their own styles and methods for learning😁.
I think the most important thing is to just find what works and is the most comfortable for you.
I sometimes get the feeling like there is a bit of an “us vs them” mentality when it comes to those that take things slow and steady and those that speed through😅. But ultimately we are just all here making the most of Wanikani’s flexible system to fit our goals and needs😄.

[Angelodmage]

I just recently got out of my pile of reviews. It is a wall which I think everyone hits at some point. Important thing is to slow down and get rid of reviews, than continue. Quitters don’t get past it. You did, so congrats.

are you focusing more on your kanji lessons in order to level up quickly, or more vocabulary-driven?

Vocabulary complements kanji and should be learned shortly after kanji. It helps you remember both better. Getting ahead with kanji only means you will make more mistakes. So try not to have too many vocabulary in lesson queue while learning even more new kanji.

Have you tried both ways?

I tried learning only kanji for one level, than only vocabulary from that level. And I tried mixing them. Nowadys I do few kanji and fill the rest of my daily quota with vocabulary. I think mixing is better for building habit.

Do you feel like your method makes you progress too fast/too slow? Or maybe you’ve find the perfect speed for you?

Whichever method you choose only affects your speed indirectly by affecting your accuracy. If your method works for you, that makes you more accurate, therefore faster. I think I found good balance that works for me. I do 10 lessons per day now. I can do more but I want to avoid hitting another wall in the future.

Are you reading in Japanese on a daily basis?

Calling it reading would be exaggerating. I… “decipher” the code. It is slow, it hurts my brain and I would rather do something else, but it is a necessary step to fluency.

Which method do you believe helped you advance your reading skills more?

Reading skills? Well, this goes beyond WK, but I combine Bunpro and Satori Reader for reading. First, I do grammar lessons every day. I fail the reviews a lot but I am slowly getting better. Than on SR I read few sentences and add whatever I didn’t know into reviews. I also add some of those to Bunpro reviews just to increase exposure. After I feel like I remember those things well enough, I read some more sentences and the cycle continues.

Going from “playing with words” to actual reading is a bit step, mostly because it combines all the elementary things you learn elsewhere. Like when you see a sentence, you need to mentally separate the vocab from grammar. Is that “な” a stem from ない, or なる, some grammar, or something else? The font is different, letters are small, sometimes the kanji are spelled out in hiragana, etc. It is as much a lesson as adding more words to SRS.

You need to bang your head against this wall to break it one day. So good luck, I hope you are as stubborn as I am.

[simias]

@Adi-M

I feel that my goal with wanikani is mostly reading-focused, so in my opinion learning vocabulary items well is more important than learning kanji and leveling up.

You’re of course correct but I see that you’re level 30 and as such I expect that this will start breaking down within the next ten levels or so. The issue is that WaniKani doesn’t let you choose what to learn, you have to do the levels in a predefined order. At first that’s actually a good thing: all basic kanji are worth learning and WaniKani removes the stress of having to decide where to start and in what order to do it.

But as you get into the second half of the course it turns into a liability IMO. Both because the kanji and vocab become more niche and potentially less relevant to your interests but also because at that point you should be reading actual Japanese and use that to orient your studies.

It’s really frustrating when you’re on, say, level 36 and you read something that uses the kanji 惨 (disaster) often but then you look on WaniKani and find out it’s level 53 so you can’t unlock it any time soon. Meanwhile WaniKani insist on teaching you 漬 (pickle) which may be completely irrelevant to your interests at this point.

For this reason I did end up going kanji first towards the end of the course and then catch up with vocab later, not because I wanted to level up for the sake of leveling up but because I wanted to gain access to the kanji I needed.