Hey, if you’re still helping people get setup, this is my discord handle
Much appreciated!
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Added! Happy to help.
Thank you for the insight. I was looking at starting Torii upon finishing level 10, however, you’ve got me convinced with Kitsun.
Could I get in on that help your offering for it — if it isn’t too much to ask? My discord username is the same as here.
Also I don’t blame you on that Mambo no.5 insert haha. Got the tune in my head now! 1,2,3,4,5…
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You absolutely can! 
Also need the 4 digits after your username (look at the bottom-left of your app on Desktop).
Right! It’s [redacted] . Thank you
Added! Happy to help.
I just want to add my cents to this topic by recommeding to stay away from KaniWani.
A lot of people use KaniWani to be able to recall vocab that they have learned here. But that’s not the point of WaniKani. The point is that you want to learn to read and recognize the words when you see them. Know how to pronounce them and their meaning. There’s a good reason why we’re not quizzed on the opposite. If you only do JP → EN then you will be able to recognize the word when you read / hear it. If you do EN → JP the word will pop into your mind when you think of the english equivalent. There’s a big problem with this, you haven’t aquired it.
When I first started out with WaniKani, I thought that 大体 meant General as in the military term (I think they changed the description to be more clear now). It seems quite silly looking back, but I have countless examples of words that I got completely wrong (I should focus more on context sentences). When I encounter those words in my immersion (reading, watching tv shoes, talking to natives etc) they’re put into a context into a message that I can understand. Thus my incorrect interpretation will be corrected.
Even if you understand the correct meaning to 100% it might still be used in the wrong context, and have a nuance that you don’t quite understand yet. Using words from WaniKani is not recommended unless you’ve seen it or heard it somewhere.
Another example of this is “認める” “To recognize”. I thought I could use this for people, as in “I didn’t recognize him”, so I said this to my tutor. This word however is closer to the synonyms “to acknowledge, to approve” and cannot be used with people.
Enjoying native material will always be better than KaniWani in my opinion, and I’d even go so far to say that KaniWani can be destructive to your learning.
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walk me through too por favor Smoogy#7477
This seems like a solid argument against EN->JP flashcards in general, not just KW.
Yes, you don’t want to be thinking in English as you recall Japanese words, and yes EN->JP flashcards may encourage that. But, like most things, this comes down to a trade-off. A logical conclusion would be that the best way then may be to do JP->JP (definition->word once you’ve done your JP->EN). There are however a couple of problems with that:
- Resources (ready-made flashcard decks of similar quality to the 10k deck) are likely a lot harder to find in JP->JP when you quiz vocab.
- The time required to generate your own would be prohibitive given that until that point you haven’t developed recall skills which would be required to make these cards in the first place if they aren’t easily available.
It comes down to an time vs performance trade-off which I guess every learner would have to assess for themselves. Either do EN->JP and risk maybe getting bogged down in English for longer than necessary. Or wait until they are advanced enough that they are capable of using JP->JP cards, or perhaps even till they are capable of producing said cards (good luck with that) even though they haven’t done much recall before.
Having said all this, it may be a false choice. After all, maybe you don’t need to do flashcards at all after JP->EN and you can do something else entirely to develop recall skills. Maybe actual production with a dictionary next to you. Maybe exercises in traditional textbooks. Maybe extensive conversational practice.
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Added! Happy to help.
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I think it’s time I jump into 10K as well… :o
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