Ok so I guess it’s automatic at some point it will let me progress. I’ll pay so far it seems really effective
Is there somewhere to suggest readings? 聴力 not accepting “listening ability” really frustrates me.
Yeah, you can E-mail them at hello@wanikani.com .
They are normally pretty receptive to such feedback.
For now, I’d recommend setting it as a user synonym by going to the item page and adding it with the manage synonyms button. It will accept your answer the next time around. (Don’t ask me why I have it misspelled in there o_O???)
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I have not once realised that was possible. Thank you!
Hello, I’m not really new here since I’m already level 13, but there is one thing I don’t understand. I keep seeing people complete all 60 levels in a year or so, but for me it seems impossible. Everyday I complete my reviews and spend like an hour on the 150 reviews that are there and yet I’m level 13 after 10 month of doing this. I wanted to ask if someone could give me some tips on how to progress faster.
Just checking, but what is your understanding of the three terms 聴力, “hearing ability,” and “listening ability”?
I think hearing ability and listening ability would typically be regarded as different things. Usually listening is an active process where you’re focused on something (e.g. someone’s speech) and trying to comprehend it. Hearing is usually the inate ability for the ears and associated brain areas to sense soundwaves.
Japanese makes the same distinction between 聴力 (hearing ability) and 聴解力 (listening ability)
I suppose if that’s the way you already understood it, and you just still want the terms to be accepted according to your preferences, it’s no problem to override it. But I wouldn’t ask WaniKani to change how they do it, personally.
Just important to recognize that if you tell a Japanese person you’re worried about your upcoming Japanese exam because of your 聴力 they’re going to think you’re telling them you have a hearing disability.
Edit: Also wanted to add that 聞き取り is more common in everyday speech than 聴解力 regarding listening and understanding what people say. 聴解力 is more likely to be used with regard to an actual exam.
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It’s one of those where I know the difference on an intellectual level. My native language is not English and failing the item because of this nuance was too annoying for me.
聴解 and 聞き取り are listening comprehension (not ability) in my head to differentiate them more.
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How many lessons do you do each day? I would personally not recommend to increase the numbers of lessons. But I would recommend to do the advanced lesson picker if you do not already do it. I do around 13± items each day, but I choose 3 kanji and the rest vocab (except on level up days, then I still do the 13 usual items but I also add all the radicals since after level 13 the number of radicals are pretty low). In this way I usually level up in about 2 weeks! I also try to don’t choose vocab in the way it comes, I try to take one vocab from each kanji, something like this:
Also, I know many other people do it too but I do not fail kanji/radicals when they are apprentice. I will pass them as right until they are gurud, and after that I would fail them if I don’t remember. Vocab I would do normally so fail if I dont know them
I normally do 20 lessons. Your advice on making it less seems to slow down the process, but when I actually think about my correct percentage is pretty low from time to time, ranging from 88 to 97. I just got to level 13, so I will try your method! Also, is doing reviews 3 times per day a lot better then once? I can try that too.
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I always do at least 3 review per day, I might do less when I get in the higher levels when most of my time goes to immersion. So lessons when I wake up, and then a review at noon ish when the lessons is at apprentice 1, and then the evening. I also do reviews in srs ascending order, so if i have lots of reviews but not a lot of time then I make sure to do the apprentice items.
The guru, master, enlightened items get reviews when I have time / care. However I try to do all reviews every day.
That helps! I’ll set mine to srs ascending. And try doing it 3 times a day from now on. Thanks for your advice)
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Doing reviews once a day slows you down a lot compared to 2 or 3 times, because of the initial 4 hour and 8 hour review timings being delayed to 24 hours. Doing radical and kanji lessons when they unlock (especially radicals) speeds it up too, because the only thing that controls how long you take to level up is getting to 90% of kanji guru’d
A bit of optimisation around lesson/review timing can go a long way, without having to go full-speed, which does add a lot of extra reviews and can start to take too much time for lots of people.
ワニカニさん、こんばんわ。
I’m not sure if this qualifies as a noob question, but when comes the point where you don’t have to use the mnemonics to remember readings?
On the one hand I am amazed how well they work to memorize readings, but I also feel like I take too long thinking about the stories attached to them before I recall the reading. If I read a text and have to think about all this each time I encounter a kanji I’d take ages for each sentence.
When did you reach this point? How do I get there faster?
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Hardly anyone completes all 60 levels in a year. That’s just an advertising point aimed at getting people to join WK. I would aim for anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 years to complete all 60 levels, plus an extra 6-12 months if you want to burn everything.
As for progressing faster, the only way to do it is review as much as you can per day. Be mindful that this only works so long as you’re good at managing your reviews and answering correctly when it comes time to review.
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I use about 50/50 the given mnemonics and my own. Most of the time, they fade quite quickly. Generally they only stick around in one of two circumstances. Either they are particularly memorable and I find them associated with the word even though I remember it, or when I have real trouble remembering a word and I have to dredge up the mnemonic each time.
I certainly don’t find them to be ‘extra work’ as I wouldn’t remember the kanji without them.
This makes a lot of sense, especially with how you’ve explained it. Purely in terms of ability, I think in day to day I’d used them interchangeably which is probably just bad English on my part. In a sentence, purely saying “Your listening sucks” or “Your hearing sucks”, I’d absolutely see the nuance. You’re definitely right, tho I think in this one case the reading annoys me enough to change it. Just this once 
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How are you choosing to not fail a Kanji? Is this through one of the apps rather than the normal website?
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I personally use iphone app tsurkame for most reviews, and you can then choose to fail/pass. If i do on pc I have a userscript which allows retyping if I do a mistake