With only a couple of days to go to get to level 10 I just wanted to write down my experience with WaniKani so far.
I started februari 24th, kind of… worried that I might struggle with remembering everything. I’m 49, haven’t studied a new language since I left school so I wasn’t quite sure how hard it would be for me. The mnemonics help a lot though, and I quickly noticed it was more easy to remember stuff than I was afraid of.
What does happen with every big bunch of new lessons (the 90 new lessons after you level up) is that I think I reached the point where it’s becoming too much and I reached the point where I start to make too many mistakes and I can’t remember the new stuff. Sometimes it even frustrates me. But then the next day when I get the same reviews again - I got most of them right to my own surprise. It’s weird how learning stuff and the brain works right?
What is also weird is that I have some leeches which just won’t stick. I wrote them down in paper, made my own stories but somehow I keep confusing them. It’s mostly words with kind of the same meaning. To turn something towards to, to turn toward, to turn something… I write those leeches on a separate paper and check that multiple times per day, just to burn them into my brain.
When I started with WK I also started with both KaniWani and KameSame. It helps a LOT learning the words in reverse order. But when I got to level 9 I got so many reviews that I decided to drop KaniWani and only use KameSame from now on. I figured it’s better to spend the rest of my time on grammar and reading.
So in short so far it’s going great and I’m eager to learn all the new vocab I’m getting, it’s wonderfull when I read articles and see more and more Kanji and vocab that I have learned.
Love the community here btw. So helpfull and supportive!
I keep getting overwhelmed just by WaniKani, and I feel like I never have time to do my kamesame… So I’m inspired that you are able to do both!! How do you make the time?
Thank you I try to do the reviews multiple times per day. When I do a batch of 150 or so in a row and have to do KameSame after that, it’s takes me an hour or so and that does feel like a drag. So I check how many reviews are incoming per hour and spread the reviews out a bit over the day.
I have the advantage that I still can work from home most of the days, that saves me 2 hours driving per day, time I can spend extra on it.
But I can really recommend using KameSame, WK is more easy when you see the Kanji, doing it in reverse is a bit harder but really makes you learn the vocab better imho.
But you’re way ahead of me, I’m not sure how many reviews you are getting daily at that level? If things pile up too much for me when I get to that level I will slow down a bit but I will still keep using KameSame. Personally I feel I only really know the vocab well when I can recall it from English.
I agree with you…I don’t feel that I know it well unless I can think of it, and preferably also picture it in my mind (at least in the ballpark, maybe not with full “I can write the details” recall). I want to really know the words “inside and out”… … But at level WK30, with over 3500 words/kanji above guru (150+ daily reviews), I sometimes wish that I had been doing kanesame all along.
The surf starts getting rough when old ones come back for “Master” “Enlightened” and “Burn” level reviews. But you have a good plan, so I think you’ll do well.
Ah yes, didn’t think of that. I started with KameSame at around level 4 I think and then already I had to a catchup. KameSame also takes more time for me than WK - I make much more mistakes when I have to recall the words from English. Often it takes me several seconds to come up with the right word so most words still are not really burnt into my brain. I’m hoping that with reading books that will come more naturally over time.
I hope you’re not doing them all at once! Even my record lessons in a day hasn’t got to 90 yet…
Please don’t do that - split them up, even wait on doing them entirely if you have to.
The reviews you get a day up here at Level 37 and down there is entirely dependent on the Hell you make for yourself doing lessons.
(That being said, I’ve made a pretty big Hell right now with 214 Apprentice and a queue of 280 reviews with an expected daily of just over 300. There’s no way I’m touching my 50 lessons right now! Watch the former carefully or you’ll end up with the latter.)
P.S. All of us have (or have had) some leeches, this is normal. You can use Extra Study or userscripts like Item Inspector to look them up & act accordingly with your new knowledge.
Ah ha!!! Now I’m remembering why I quit kamasame! There was that ugly cluster of confusingly similar transitive and intransitive Verbs that I could barely clear in WaniKani… Also, on my phone, Kamesame was mechanically slower (to load, etc). Those small inconveniences combined to make me say “Huh uh, no…I can barely do my daily reviews of Duolingo and Wanikani as it is.” And then I quit doing KameSame. …
Plus, I was doing all of the lessons on the first day available…you know, the “he11” that Durtjovah’s witness warns against creating for oneself? I did that… I’m trying to come out of that tailspin now with a still aggressive, but slightly less insane 20 new lessons per day “cap” now.
EDIT: FallynLeaf is just above my WK level (I think like 34 right now) and has been doing both all along, but they set Kamesame for WK burned items only (so it’s already pretty well-known). That is the change I plan to make, if this 20-lessons-per-day plan makes WaniKani more manageable.
Happening the same to me, I’ve done over 200 review at a single time, after like 6 hours came back, and boom over 200 reviews again and most of them were just the same ones I have already reviewed, pretty weird, but so far I am not mistaking anything, the problem is that I am starting to loss my pace, not because motivation or time, but it’s gets boring if your daily basis is do 200 reviews every day and don’t learn anything new (since you need to get 5 points in the kanjis/radicals to unlock new stuff) and damnnnn this take way too long than I’d like it’s like 5 days assuming you get them all right everytime
I don’t know if this will help, but I’ve also found that my brain sometimes doesn’t want to hold onto words with small verbal differences like that… So, if it’s possible, making it physical helps! Like actually doing the action while saying the word. Or watching shows/movies or even reading manga, if you can find the word and then save a picture or a clip to review, that can be good too!
Anyway, sounds like you’re doing great! Keep up the good work.
That’s actually OK. (Don’t forget levels 1 and 2 were accelerated.) You don’t need to go as fast as theoretically possible - no point in that!
This is about when you discover that your Review queue can get super intense. How many Apprentice items do you have right now? People usually say to keep it between 100-150 at maximum to avoid my situation.
I did that one time, 90 lessons in a day, but it was in one of the earlier levels when things were easier. Now I do about 20 vocab lessons per day, but I do the radicals and Kanji as soon as I unlock them to keep the progress going
Yeah on the phone KameSame is a bit slower, but I find it too cumbersome to type and select Kanji on a phone anyways, I do that much faster on my pc. I use the Flaming Durtles app to do the lessons, but for any big review piles I use my pc.
Hi Mara, that is actually what I did with those ‘turn towards to’ examples Made those movements while constantly saying the words out loud. After several days I can finally memorize/separate them, but I’m already sure i’ll get them wrong in the later stages again.
Sometimes really long/weird words stick immediately while I keep confusing Mukeru, Muku and Mawasu
I actually have KaniWani set just to delay the lessons until they’ve reached guru, but I’ve seen others on this forum only have it set to give you new items after they’ve been burned, and I think there’s solid logic behind that method, and it’s probably the “best” way to do it. Mostly I’m just impatient, haha, and also I’m used to doing it how I’ve been doing it and don’t want to make any large changes now that I’ve passed the halfway point .
KW definitely helps me a lot, though, and I think the time investment has been worth it. However, you really need to aggressively budget your time and lessons if you want to do both KW and WaniKani, I think. Any large increases of workload in WK (like binging 90 lessons) results in an equally large increase of workload in KW (or KameSame). So doing a smaller, consistent number of daily lessons is absolutely the way to go if you don’t want things to balloon out of control in the higher levels.
If you ever do feel like the reviews are getting out of hand, it’s a good idea to either decrease your daily lessons, or temporarily stop doing lessons and just do your reviews until things get back under control. It’s better to slow your pace than burn out entirely, and you’ll want to make sure that your daily workload is at a level where you can complete it even on a bad day when studying is the last thing you feel like doing, because you will have days like that. If you’re feeling some strain already, scaling back a little is probably a good idea.
I have KameSame set to Guru (I’m not even sure if you can change that, like you can in KaniWani). For me that’s the best moment to learn them in reverse - I got the Kanji or word reviewed in Aprentice level 4 times in WaniKani and then it appears in KameSame.
You’d think I would know the kanji and vocab after I got it 4 times right in WaniKani, but then KameSame hits me in the face when I have to do it in reverse Sometimes it’s a bit frustrating when I get so many stuff wrong, but it forces me to memorize the vocab even better, often letting make better mnemonics in my own language so I can remember it better.
So far the Master and upper stages in KaniWani are a breeze now because KameSame forced me to memorize eventhing much better.
The disadvantage as you rightfully say: it costs almost double the time to do them both.
210, I am going to review all of them in oneshot, but as always after a couple hours there will be more 200 to review so yeah, I will try to do a little bit less like 50 reviews every hour so I don’t, yknow, overheat from doing so many reviews, plus I need to learn 49 news lesson so yeah, pretty tough tbh, but not even close to draining my motivation, since I started doing this it was craved in stone that I would finish it all, not only wanikani but Japanese in it’s entirety. Thanks for the advice tho.
I highly recommend reconsidering your approach. You’re only level 6; things are just going to get way, way worse from here. If you’re having hundreds of reviews a day at this level, you’re going to be in for an unimaginable world of hurt once you’re six months in, and your full workload has kicked in. I know you feel very motivated now, but your enthusiasm is unlikely to last an entire year, which is how long it takes to reach level 60, assuming you go as fast as possible. Even if you want to go maximum speed, there are other ways to do it that cause far less strain.
Thank you for this post, it’s encouraging to see other pleasants making good progress and having fun !!! Thank you for the Kamesame recommendation also, that looks like a really good resource ( ´ ▽ ` ) Good luck and happy learning going forward !!!
Not enthusiasm no, but motivation yes, and thanks for your advice, I think I will do 50 per hour but there’s no way I would be able to do 200 every few hours like is happening rn, also I plan to only start doing grammar when I hit level 30 since it’s what jprspereira recommended (My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK 📖 ))
I try to do the reviews multiple times per day. When I do a batch of 150 or so in a row and have to do KameSame after that, it’s takes me an hour or so and that does feel like a drag. So I check how many reviews are incoming per hour and spread the reviews out a bit over the day.
But you have a good plan, so I think you’ll do well.
Made those movements while constantly saying the words out loud. After several days I can finally memorize/separate them, but I’m already sure i’ll get them wrong in the later stages again.
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