At level 12 I’m reading Death Note and I understand many of the panels without dictionary lookups. But it doesn’t take just kanji, you also need to study grammar, otherwise nothing will make sense.
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Really? I guess I’ll give it a shot, then. I’ve got a little bit of the grammar down, but I’ve decided to wait until I have more vocab before I start focusing on it. Something the Tofugu guide seems to agree with, since it says to get to Level 10 before working on grammar.
I’d start learning grammar earlier, personally. It will take a few months to reach level 10 and you can definitely learn some basic grammar before then.
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Not even 30, we have book clubs on the forums for absolute beginners, mostly with N5 to low N4 levels, and you can reach that fairly quickly.
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Like I said, I do know some grammar. I use Renshuu for vocab and grammar, though, and the current lesson is about ichidan/godan verbs, which are a bit difficult when you don’t know the words that they’re based off of. Figure it’s better to just pause my grammar studies for a while, rather than guessing which one of the answers is correct in multiple choice questions.
That’s good to know. Guess I can start earlier than planned.
Um… okay, so:
I started with a daily schedule along the lines of “lessons AM → 4h review AM → 8h review PM” - the AM review is quick (only from the new lessons) and the PM review gets the bulk of all reviews (and is arguably the most important).
Now I’d kinda like to switch the daily schedule to “bulk reviews AM → new lessons → quick reviews PM” because I may for whatever reason skip a day of new lessons, yet I want to keep on doing the regular bulk reviews every day - and in the mornings I’ll always be able to do that, in the evenings it could be complicated.
Question is:
Is there a way to shift the whole SRS schedule of all items in my queue by say… 10h?
Otherwise I suppose I’d have to skip doing the usual evening reviews for a long(ish) period of time and temporarily do lessons+review1 earlier in the day so review1 doesn’t get mixed up with the older items.
No. You can’t make manual adjustments. You could just wait until the morning to do your reviews, though.
Thought as much, thanks!
Yeah, I’ll put up with the “full manual” method 
And just when I got used to the current schedule! It’ll be difficult the next few afternoons/evenings not to click that “Reviews pending” card 
Hello everyone! I am a newbie and completed my first lesson on Wanikani today and having fun learning the radicals!
Cheers
JL
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Welcome The people here are super nice and knowledgeable if you have questions.
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Thanks Izabelle,
I am hoping that learning the language in this community helps me adjust to living and working in Japan. How long have you been studying Japanese?
John
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I’ve been attempting to learn off and on for years, but I never really got serious about it until this past January. I learnt a lot of vocabulary from Wanikani and other sources, but I never really could study grammar. I tried using the Genki textbooks among others, and I would get frustrated because the grammar explanations never seemed clear to me. Recently, I started using the みんなの日本語 series. I avoided it before because all of the textbooks are entirely in Japanese except the grammar and translation guide. I read that it would be very difficult without an instructor to guide you. I have found this to be very far from the truth for me. I find the grammar explanations clear, and appreciate the complete immersion of the textbooks. I also read a ton, mostly free Tadoku graded readers right now. My writing and speaking are still really weak, but I’m here to learn. Be sure to check out all of threads with different challenges and bookclubs
Thank you very much for your kind reply.
What is this series
“みんなの日本語” that you found helpful and where can I find it?
Peace,
John
I actually ordered the books from Amazon Japan because it works out to cost way less than ordering it in Canada. If you’re in Japan already, maybe they’re in book shops? I’m not sure how it works there. Anyways, if you are interested, I would just start with the main textbook and translation guide first. If you like it, you can order the other supplementary ones. I find them helpful, but your workload goes way up. I need a lot of repetition, but you may be fine with just the main textbooks. The translation guide is also available in multiple languages if English isn’t your first language. A lot of people use Genki, or other free resources, so it’s worth checking out on the New People Questions link above. I’m new to everything myself, these are just the text books that are working for me.
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
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Okay so… between WaniKani, Bunpro (vocab and grammar) and two Genki lessons per week, it’s getting a bit much…
I think having one day “off” weekly might be a good idea. Just from SRS and Genki really, I may still listen to or watch something in Japanese
So I’m considering the “vacation mode” feature for Sundays, both with WaniKani and Bunpro.
But I’m wondering what the risks/downsides are, if any?
The Ultimate Guide really covers only “proper” vacation time for extended durations.
And if I were to enable+disable vacation mode, when would I do that?
My current schedule is 6AM reviews → 7AM new lessons → 11AM new reviews and any leftovers from 6AM → 7PM evening reviews.
Do I:
a) enable vacation mode 8PM Saturday after finishing the evening batch of reviews, disable it on Sunday at 8PM
b) enable vacation mode 6AM Sunday before doing the morning batch of reviews, disable it on Monday at 6AM
c) some other combination?
Thanks much! 
a) works if you don’t mind the extra bit of work.
You could also game the system a bit by not doing lessons on Thur/Fri/Sat. That would reduce the accuracy impact of an extra day off to your Apprentice 3 and Apprentice 4 items.
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Thank you!
Ugh I admit I had not thought of potential accuracy hits because of messing with the SRS interval 
On the other hand, not doing lessons three days sounds… unpleasant (easy to say when one’s at such a low level on the journey, I suppose)
There’s also Bunpro to consider regarding pauses in lessons: I’m going very fast through their Genki path with grammar+vocab - for two textbook lessons a week I must study ~20/day, 6 days/week.
It’s unusual for a complete beginner at Japanese, I know. But I want to get Genki 1+2 done quickly (more to get the general idea of basic grammar and some ‘core’ vocab outside of WK) so I can get to the good stuff (reading) soon.
I think I’ll try a) for a week or three and see how that goes, especially around accuracy after the day off. Right now I’m doing fine… I think : ~98% here, ~90% Bunpro.
Thanks again!
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I’m just starting Wanikani, but I’ve noticed that I often have trouble remembering readings for single kanji vocab. Most of the time, my mind just goes straight to the kanji reading that I learned. And even when I do remember the correct reading, it takes me a while, because my mind is still set on the other mnemonic. So, my question is, is this normal? And what can I do to avoid this confusion between the reading I learn with the kanji, and the reading I learn when that kanji is a vocab word?
To be more clear, I don’t have as much of a problem with kanji that can have different readings within a word with hiragana/other kanji, it’s really mostly those single kanji words that I keep messing up.
Time will solve that, alongside practice of course. And until then, WK should do a shake for you whenever you enter the wrong reading. Unless I’m mistaken of course
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