Lately I've regreted my alliance with D. O. R. C

I was on the good path, the righteous path… In October of last year got serious about wanikani, got out of my durtles-block and embarked on a journey that would not be stopped, not by anything.

That’s what I thought at least…

The issue wasn’t the stress of my job or even my wife and kids, everyone supported me and understood why I needed 3 hours a day to study both reading and writing Kanji. There were times when I felt burnt out but my consistency got me through it each time. From level 4 I kept going all the way to level 12 but right as I started that level wanikani did its overhaul. I liked the changes and fixes to the readings, it got me excited but the new radical names kind of scared me. Relearn the old ones? After all I’m only level 12 maybe it won’t be so bad for me.

And… For a while… It wasn’t.

I added the radicals to my queues small batches here and there, making sure to give it the same love and attention as any other lesson. But the most challenging thing for me was the mnemonics. During reviews, I kept thinking of the old mnemonics and getting them confused with the new radicals. Was this the one with Charlie sheen in the ninja clan, or the pelican with a ray gun? No no no, it was the… (overexaggerated example). My mind became a mess, I lost just about all confidence in my mind mapping and the process of learning the Kanji stopped being pleasurably challenging and began being over-the-top frustrating. This was not like the previous burn outs I felt, I legitimately felt like I had lost all of my progress.

I’m stuck. Should I start back at level 1, forever abandoning the old radicals and mnemonics? Should I stay and just relearn everything while my review pile continues to grow (850+ currently)? I’m not even done using the relearning tool for the other changes radicals, so there’s that to consider… It’s there anyway to go back to the way things were?

Edit: As I mentioned below, I gave myself some much needed (and maybe excessive) time off. After giving it a lot of thought I decided to wipe and start back at level 1. Although this will be the 2nd time starting over again, each time I get back into it I learn the kanji deeper, get further in levels and maintain better confidence. Now, with the new radicals and enough forgetfulness, I can focus on the new mnemonics and not have to worry about the old mnemonics staging a coup inside my head. I think I made the best choice for my situation!

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FYI, vacation mode is a thing to avoid reviews piling up like this.

Yes and no. In settings you can select to display both old and new mnemonics (in the order you prefer). But this will not undo all changes, so it’s hit or miss. Also, this setting will only exist for a couple years. And if you reset back to level 1, you will permanently lose access to the old mnemonics immediately.

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Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center?

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If you’re set on using the provided mnemonics I dunno how to help you, but I did not change the set mnemonics I used for readings ie when a kanji is read し I am using charlie sheen, when it’s せい I’m using hard gay. Those are so ingrained now and shared across so many hundreds of kanji that I have no inclination to change that. But that requires you making your own mnemonics.

On the same vein having two definitions for some radicals has been a huge boon because sometimes “spirit” doesn’t make for a compelling mnemonic where a ridiculous story instantly springs to mind if I use “pelican”, or vice versa. I still occasionally use mullet over canopy, or snake instead of oneself. It’s given me a bit more breadth to be creative because I recall and use both.

So maybe think about that as a possibility. I thought the overhaul would be crippling at my level but it’s actually given me more options.

Also, what level do you usually find you abandon mnemonics? I sort of drift away from them at about guru 1, unless it’s a particularly awkward leap of logic (ie 精度 - spirit + degree = precision, yikes). Do you need mnemonics for a lot of your review queue at this stage?

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I think it was less for the Kanji I already knew and it was more for the newest kanji that used radicals that now had new names and was less effective for me. Overall it was just very frustrating trying to decide which kanji would use the old-school mnemonics and which ones would use the new ones, I had a good system going in my head lol.

As an update, I gave myself some much needed (and maybe excessive) time off. After giving it a lot of thought I decided to wipe and start back at level 1. Although this will be the 2nd time starting over again, each time I get back into it I learn the kanji deeper, get further in levels and maintain better confidence. Now, with the new radicals and enough forgetfulness, I can focus on the new mnemonics and not have to worry about the old mnemonics staging a coup inside my head. I think I made the best choice for my situation!

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You could copy and paste the old mnemonics into your “notes” section which will allow you to keep them forever.

What is D.O.R.C.?

Wanikani used to have different names for some of the radicals, which got changed in December '18/January '19 along with some other much needed corrections to readings and tasteful improvements to some mnemonics. The process they used to help WK’ers “relearn” the new radicals was humorously called D.O.R.C. (short for “Department of Radical Conformity”)

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