New to Tofugu and WaniKani

WaniKani Tips & Tricks
#8

Thanks for the advice! Yeah, I’m planning on eventually getting graded readers, for sure. When I am ready for them, do you know of any good places online to purchase some well tried and true ones that are trusted?

#9

There is an incredibly long list compiled by Radish8, one of our book club regulars:

Just check out the section on the Graded Readers, and don’t forget to drop by the Graded Readers reading thread! There you can see what people discussed before, which might further guide you in your choice.

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#10

Well, if only restricted to WK, I will keep it short: since you are planning to go for lv60, then you are likely to choose one of the subscriptions. Wait a couple of weeks until the mid-end of Dec for the (akhem) unexpected sale. You still have a few free levels ahead of you so waiting won’t change much anyway.
When I was new to WK I looked into the system around this time as well and only a couple of months later realized that I’ve missed a good chance. Lifetime sure pays back, at least for me personally…

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#11

I had a feeling there would be a sale again on the Lifetime, as I saw the last one in previous posts for last year, so yeah, I was DEFINITELY gonna jump on that if it does open up. I’m really excited about that.

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#12

Welcome! May your journey be fruitful and enjoyable!

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#13

Thank you!

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#14

Welcome, friend! Restricting comments solely to Wanikani, there’s not much to say except:

  • do reviews daily

  • there are suuuuper helpful userscripts available (such as reorder scripts and ignore buttons), but make sure you aren’t overdoing it on using them

  • pay attention to your leeches (the reviews that you always miss) and go over those especially, so they don’t tie you down every time you go to do reviews

  • consistency is key! that’s mostly a rewording of my first bullet, but I emphasize it because of its importance in SRS

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#15

So, super ignorant comment of the day…What are userscripts? :nerd_face: WHAT ARE THEY FOR? I HAVE SEEN THEM REFERENCED AND DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN lol

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#16

Woops! It would have helped had I explained them! Userscripts are third-party scripts which, here on Wanikani, are made by other members to help facilitate things, like how I mentioned earlier, there’s no ignore button built into Wanikani, but there is a userscript for that. Here’s a decent list of some to get you started!

EDIT (plus kumirei’s correction): You’ll need this one by @rfindley. Also, here’s another list of userscripts: these are made by @Kumirei.

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#17

That’s the developer thread, this is the installation thread

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#18

welcome to the community! you might check out my thread I made and maybe ask questions there too. maybe you find something there what’s in your interest? https://community.wanikani.com/t/new-recruits-of-november/46891?u=qozm

I’d recommend learning the grammar stuff - at least learn the basic “particles”, because it will turn out to be very very beneficial for both Wanikani and learning the Japanese language - you would miss out the additional opportunities on things getting stuck into your brain, when you only do WaniKani while not knowing much of the language itself.

don’t get to hasty though, even if WaniKani really makes fun. there will be review shortages when you have to wait for the last Kanji reviews before reaching the next level anyway so there’s enough room for the language or of course to contribute to this fantastic forum.

you should also check out userscripts, which make the WaniKani Experience even wanikanier: The New And Improved List Of API and Third Party Apps

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#19

Woops again.

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#20

Amazon.com has graded readers.

Also, for more advice, don’t try to go faster than anybody else. Find the speed that works for you. It’s not a race, but a long-term commitment.

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#21

Oh, another thing! You might like to read some members’ level 60 celebratory posts. Here are a couple that I found particularly useful: this one and this one.

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#22

Also this one

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Biribiri Beats
#23

still level one?! what a shame - I hope that all the serious Japanese learning stuff didn’t freak you out :smiley:

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#24

NO! Lol. I just want to finish Katakana before I start WaniKani officially. Work schedule has been slowing me down a tad. I should hopefully be starting WaniKani officially by Saturday! SO excited! :smiley:

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#25

:angry: ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

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#26

I made it to level two day and then was like AH!!! 70 LESSONS D:

I’ve found that they don’t always give mnemonics for certain Kanji that are verbs, but only give mnemonics for the READINGS, which is a little frustrating. Do they keep that up, or do they eventually add some more mnemonics for the meanings of vocab later?

#27

well, in general they won’t give new mnemonics for items they already gave mnemonics before. Here is some examples:

  • radical has same meaning as a kanji > the “mnemonic” is something like this kanji is same as the radical… / this radical is same as the kanji… (<= late you’ll sometimes learn the kanji first before it is introduced as a radical as well)
  • the kanji was introduced with same meaning as a vocab item > the “mnemonic” is something like *this kanji’s meaning is X so this word means X~…
  • the reading is same as reading introduced with the kanji > the “mnemonic” is something like this words reading is the same as the kanji’s reading so you should already know it…
  • …

So if they introduce a kanji with the meaning “move” and then the vocal item “to move”… it kind of is same same, I guess. Hope it helps :slight_smile:

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