万 (ten thousand) and 方 (direction) are different kanji - the latter has an extra dot on the top.
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Morning everyone. I moved to Level 2 last night and did my new lessons but I’m still trying to wrap my head around how WaniKani’s progression woks. Am I right in thinking that new levels are unlocked once you reach guru with 90% of the Kanji? If so how does vocab proficiency affect progression?
Correct on the level up conditions. And vocab doesn’t affect progression. ^^
Radicals and most of a level’s kanji are unlcoked upon level-up. Guru’ing the radicals unlocks the remaining kanji. Guru’ing 90% of a level’s kanji means another level up.
The only downside to making errors in vocab reviews is that they might end up in your Apprentice pile again. Apprentice review intervals are short, so a high Apprentice count means your review numbers tend to bloat.
You’ll encounter quite a number of people that keep their Apprentice count somewhere between 100-150 to keep control of review numbers.
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Thanks for the help, I might have to take a similar approach. So far I’m able to remember most Kanji with little trouble as they only have one reading to learn. Once the vocab starts to appear and the readings move around I’m making a lot of mistakes, I can see my reviews stacking up.
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How would that be achieved? I think I don’t really understand.
Say someone does a lot of mistakes in vocab reviews so that the apprentice count would reach more than 150 - how could that be held under control other than just ‘gitting gud’?
We’d simply recommend they stop doing any new lessons until their apprentice items count stabilized at a lower number.
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As @konekush said, it’s mostly about reducing or stopping lessons when the Apprentice count gets too high.
With the Ultimate Timeline script it’s also easy to see how many Apprentice IV reviews you have that day. If a bunch is moving into Guru, I don’t mind going over my usual limit, because I know that’ll even itself out by the end of the day.
For much of the same purposes, I also use the SRS and Leech Break-Down script. Makes it easier to have oversight on what is spread at what precise SRS level.
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Quick answer: vocab doesn’t affect progression through the levels. However, learning the vocab will often help solidify the kanji (thus helping you BURN them down the road) faster… And you know, you’ll be heading towards learning a language. : D
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Thanks, I’m hoping the vocab will click into place soon and I’ll start to see patterns. The multiple readings for different Kanji have been catching me out but remembering how the hiragana can change the meaning is confusing me the most. 大した has been giving me a headache today… I’m hoping typing it out here will help me to remember it’s meaning.
I expect the answer’s no, but is there any way to indicate you’ve already got something down? It’s mildly annoying to, for example, spend a couple days on 水 as a radical when I’m already comfortable reading that kanji.
Nope.
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The only way to mildly reduce reviewing things you already know is adding something like “a” as a user synonym for the meaning. This isn’t possible with the reading, though, so it’s marginal gains.
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I’ve usually found that complaining about it (often in the “Complaining is a must!” thread) tends to help it stick. But yes, some are confusing indeed. There are a couple 生える-like words that I keep mixing up… even now, levels later. (One is “to grow” the other is “to plant”.)
… We’ll both do it.
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Kumirei is correct.
However, I just wanted to tell you I love your Gonzo avatar! YAY, GONZO!
And welcome aboard!
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Thanks! That’s about what I figured.
Second question, is the info in the emails important? Mine seem to be coming late. I got the one about starting Level 2 just as I hit Level 3, and it said there’d be changes in 3, so I’m curious/confused.
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They’re not really important. They’re just a fun read 
To fix the levels’ delay, just unsubscribe to the mailing list and subscribe again.
You can find the email compilation here:
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hello this is a test
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Did it work? ^^
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Hello. I wasnted to ask - is there really a difference between “to lower” and “to get lower”? Also, would it not be better to make a session of meanings and readings in reviews? Because probably I will used to it, but for now my wrong answers are because after entering reading for previous question I enter reading for the next, even though it was meaning question.
Hello! There actually is a difference between the two (and I assume you’re talking about 下げる and 下がる in WK). The first is transitive and takes a direct object. “I lower the bucket.” The second is intransitive and does not take a direct object. “The bucket gets lower”, or “The bucket drops.” Notice that with the second one, the action occurred on its own, with no accompanying direct object. Maybe in this case it would help for you to think of “to get lower” as something more like “to drop” or “to fall.” The specified item is dropping or falling on its own.
You’ll see these kinds of transitivity pairs in Japanese a lot, so it helps to learn the patterns. With these verbs, 下げる is the transitive one while 下がる is the intransitive one. In general, if you have a pair of verbs like this where one ends in える and the other ends in ある, then the える verb is transitive and the ある verb is intransitive. That’s how you can distinguish the meaning and usage of these words.
For your second question, do you mean that you’re having trouble distinguishing the meaning and reading inputs during reviews? That’s something that gets easier with time and experience in WK. Try to take note of the differences between the two fields (like color), and also the input text (meaning is in English, reading is in Japanese).
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