1,200 kanji is quite a lot! I guess my question is what are you looking for in a replacement. I’m at around that same number with WK. At this point I can go to a random article on NHK (regular not easy) and recognize maybe all but two of the kanji, I can usually guess the meaning of all the kanji compounds if I don’t already know them, and can fudge my way through the readings with decent accuracy. If you can also do that right now, then I don’t think you need WK. If it’s say only the readings that trip you up, then it might be better to find a vocab SRS like torii. If NHK is too daunting then it might be better to start from scratch. But if you do WK you will be starting from scratch, WK requires you to go through all of the kanji again. There is no way to skip content you already know.
Hey, this has probably been asked before (so if you could link me to the appropriate reply, I’d appreciate that) but how does burning items work? Are items up for burning locked behind a level progression scale or by a timing one? Is it a little bit of both?
It’s a level progression - see my answer 2 comments up.
Thank you, vro. Appreciated.
I’m a bit confused on lesson unlocks. I’m on Lv4 now and each level so far has been ~80 or so immediate unlocks. I generally do all unlocks as they appear, mostly doing a session in morning and evening. These 80 unlocks take quite some time to get through but when I’m done with those I generally have little to do, just waiting for reviews for day. And there are so few reviews in between levels that I get bored. Is there a smarter way to do this? Am I doing something wrong, should I space out new lessons in some way? My stats about 8h after unlocking Lv 4. I started on 21. 12.
By default, WK should be giving you 15 new lessons per day. I’m assuming you’re using the advanced option to just do all the lessons anyway. That’s not wrong, it’s just probably gonna bite you later. Remember, every review you do now is a review you’ll have to do later. If you do 80 apprentice 4 reviews now and get 100% then that’s 80 reviews your gonna have to do next week and then 80 two weeks after that and so on. If you do all your lessons at once like this then your reviews will always come back in big waves, too little work and then way too much all at once. And these waves can stack on top of each other, you might have enlightened waves, master waves, guru 2 waves, guru 1 waves, and new apprentice items all stacked on top of each other. Dealing with a +400 add to your review stack is really demoralizing.
I’d recommend you use WK’s “Today’s Lessons” feature and do a fixed amount every day. It doesn’t have to be 15, you can bump up the daily amount in the app settings. 20 would be roughly equivelent to your current speed, just smoothing out the waves so they don’t crash down on you later. Although personally, 15 is a pretty good pace. I know it’s hard to convince people to go slower, especially when it seems glacially slow right now but once your in the teen levels you’ll start to understand.
Hello. Im new to the wanikani community forum, so I don’t know if I’m commenting in the right place. I couldn’t find a place that seemed right for asking a beginner question. On the tofugu podcast, on the episode about the difference between on’yomi and kun’yomi, kouichi says that you should choose ONE reading to remember with a kanji. However what ive noticed with wanikani is that it teaches usually like 2 readings with kanji. Am I supposed to remember 2 readings or one?
i remember just one off the top of my head for most but when another reading is used enough in vocabulary it does stick too
the rest of the readings i might only remember in the context of one or more vocabulary words and i think that’s fine
You’re gonna need remember several of them eventually, the point is you should not force try to learn them all at once. But do not worry even if you learn another reading in another place (you often know a kun before learning the on) Wani will not count it as a mistake and just ask you for the reading it want you to know
Hi! I have a noob question- is it really worth it to buy the forever WK or is it possible to complete WK in one year?
It’s possible. But if it hasn’t changed significantly since I did it like 6 years ago (I’ve since reset my account) it’s fairly grueling to go at max pace. I had the advantage of starting WK as an intermediate learner, so the first 20 levels or so were all just refreshers.
If you’re new to the language, it could be pretty overwhelming and occupy a lot of your daily Japanese learning time.
Regardless, I would consider buying monthly at the start. People come and go quite a bit, and it’s possible to decide you want to use a different resource entirely even if you end up sticking with Japanese.
Maybe get a solid routine down for a couple months and then if you still want to continue the speed of that routine should make it clear which is the better value.
Thank You!!
I really like practicing my reading skills with the “Context Sentences” at the bottom of a vocabulary card. However, I have no way of knowing if I read all the kanji correctly. Is there any option to turn on transliteration of the sentences (furigana or whatever) to make sure I got it right?
If you install the user script Advanced Context Sentences 2, it adds an option to play audio of the context sentence (computer generated voice). It will not sound natural, but it will let you hear what the pronunciation is.
You could also add the Yomichan (I believe that recently Yomitan is the active successor project) browser extension. Hovering over vocab will produce a pop-up with details of the vocab including pronunciation.
A level 11 and above question - is it just me or have the vocab context sentences started to introduce kanji we haven’t seen up to that point? I didn’t notice this being a problem in the first 10 levels.
It seems like of the three sentences, the third one is significantly harder grammar and has unknown kanji.
Yeah, many people used to complain that the only sentences on the items were all too easy, so they also added more advanced ones.
I have a question specifically for you, is it true you’ve completed WK a million times? I see you in like every old advice post helping out noobs. In fact, I used to see you in random forum threads yeeeaaars before I even started using WK, just from googling noob questions. Even recently, I found threads like ‘How do I become better than Leebo?’ and also the one about ‘7 kinds of WK users,’ where the first one is called ‘The God,’ who are basically the crazy ones who’ve hit level 60 twice and are still super active in the forum, sharing their stories, giving advice, and helping out newcomers, people were commenting stuff like, “just rename the top one The Leebo”
I completed WK two times, like 7 years ago. Now I just use the forums occasionally.
Makes sense. You probably also passed the JLPT N1 and Kanken Level 1 like 5+ years ago. I think I remember reading a post somewhere where you said you’re really into taking exams. I assume you’re studying Japanese every day. I need to spend less time reading random threads and focus more on studying. I don’t remember when I first started using this site. This isn’t my first account. I’ve had a bunch of other accounts before this one, but I’d always quit early. I’d feel demotivated reading random posts online or hearing some YouTubers say why they don’t like it. This time I’m hoping to reach level 60 sometime next year.