This might be a weird question (I guess not really, but still), how do you guys put to use stuff you learn on WK? what I mean is that, sure If I ever read the words I’m learning I’ll know how to read and know what they mean, but say that you want to speak, what did you do/doing to put that into practice? (I’m referring to active recall if I remember the name correctly.?)
5 Likes
I don’t do anything too particular but for recall you can actively practice or kind of do it in the background. I think a background method of learning is kind of just exposure. If you recognize it enough and you’re exposed to it I think that could be a way to practice in the background.
3 Likes
yeah of course, try and use them in conversations and see what reaction you get, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, but thats how you learn. you ideally want to add the words into your active vocabulary. being able to read them is cool and useful, but being able to use them in a real world scenario makes more sense to me. dunno, use them and see what happens.
3 Likes
I also work on Rocketlanguages.com, and hey have a conversation in each lesson. I love that because it does help in speaking. I’ve noticed that with the grammar I learn there, I have been able to make up my own sentences. I have a bunch of practiced sentences at my command if I ever get the chance to use them.
1 Like
I think for me it comes down to one thing.
Having knowledge of kanji and vocabulary saves a lot of time studying and practicing other things.
For instance, studying grammar goes a lot faster when you can specifically focus on the grammar points themselves and not have to spend time looking up the words or trying to translate example sentences.
In other words, you have the ingredients, you just need to learn how to cook them😄.
Language also kind of comes down to a form of pattern recognition. If you see or hear something many times, it slowly becomes natural for you to repeat it. So being able to read or listen to more material efficiently and easily due to knowing more kanji and vocabulary speeds up how much immersion and examples you can consume.
In terms of what I do specifically outside of Wanikani right now, I basically use ChatGPT to translate and breakdown various material such as manga and video games. Writing japanese into the app goes a lot faster when I immediately already know the kanji and the words I’m putting in. The breakdown that the app provides allows me to mainly focus on how the sentences were put together and not on what the individual words mean. I also roleplay and monologue with the app. So for instance I imagine a situation that I might find myself in and then I try saying things that I would want to say. I write those things into ChatGPT and ask it to correct them and explain why it changed certain things or what I said wrong. Writing these monologues is easier and faster when I know kanji and vocabulary already. Plus, you can ask the app to speak to you in japanese and even simulate conversations with it.
Other than that, I’m lucky enough to currently be living in Tokyo, so I can put the things I practice with ChatGPT into use by experiencing those situations that I roleplay or prepare for in real life here in the city.
4 Likes
I’d guess you can just watch enough shows/podcasts and eventually you’ll just sort of understand the accent… I don’t have any clue though, as I still have next to no speaking/listening ability 
1 Like
It comes with time, don’t feel too discouraged🤗.
Although I would say it is really important to do those things “actively”.
So if you are watching a show, I think it’s really important to take it slow and to do things like trying to repeat every sentence yourself, or at least repeating the sentence in your head after hearing it. Also spending time analyzing the material and trying to at least understand why it was written/said the way it was helps a lot too.
I think it’s a bit dangerous to do things “passively” like listening to something in the background or just watching for quantity without actively thinking about what you are consuming. Our brains are really good at identifying noise and just shutting it out😅, which might happen when trying to immerse yourself unfortunately.
It definitely starts off slow and painful, and really feels like a lot of work. It might be tricky to actually enjoy a show or book if you are going through it at a meticulous snails pace translating everything. But it does improve over time and gets to a point where it really becomes enjoyable😊.
3 Likes
Don’t worry, I’m not one of those types who listens to podcasts while playing Geometry Dash or something. On the other hand, I don’t try to replay every segment… maybe I should be doing that 
2 Likes
One thing that I’ve been really enjoying is playing a game like Persona 5 Royal. It is delivered in a visual novel style so you can take all the time in the world to read and look over every sentence before pressing a button to go to the next sentence.
There is also a log feature that lets you look at all the sentences that have been spoken and you can highlight each one and have them replay with a click of a button. So you can just close your eyes and repeatedly have a sentence playback over and over again to practice your active listening. It really removes the tediousness of having to pause and rewind things yourself.
Plus the game takes place in Tokyo, so you get to see a lot of content in its natural environment as well as listen to the dialect and speaking styles of various characters there.
4 Likes
Talk to real people in real life, if you can! I often end up changing the conversation topic to something that lets me use the new vocabulary, but at least for the lower levels WaniKani vocab is productive enough to be used in a wide variety of situations. It will sound forced, but accommodating conversation partners will understand.
3 Likes
I have to say, I joined the ‘read everyday’ winter challenge, and at first, it took me a lot of time.
In general, I tried to pick up manga in Japanese before, but never made the effort to actually translate anything.
I didn’t give up though, and set myself on the challenge, (im now reading ホリミヤ), and slowly but surely I got to the point from reading 10-15 pages a day to like 30, a whole chapter! so I suppose it’s really a matter of putting a lot of effort. But what I’m trying to point out is that I also started reading ハピネス, which in terms of level is lower than ホリミヤ, but I read around 90 pages in one sitting! which, like I said before, tried to pick up before but didn’t get past page 10, and it was very easy as well.
What I also do to practice grammar is try and see grammar points I learnt being used in conversation, for example て form, used almost anywhere.
3 Likes
Great job! Sounds like you are on the right track and have been making steady improvement too!
I think that ultimately what is important is to just keep trying. Don’t get caught up too much in whether or not something is above your level or below, just try it anyways😁. Even if you only get through one page in a day, that’s still one more page that you weren’t able to do before and it will at some point turn into two pages and then four and so on.
3 Likes
Absolutely! I keep enforcing this policy because my brain keeps me at night and makes me question everything I do, especially with grammar, its like you learn something, and then boom brain goes “well… there’s so many grammar points how will YOU ever know what to do with it and how to use it.” but I keep telling myself, ‘so what?’, at the end of the day, I’m learning these things so that, when I immerse myself, I get context, I’m not supposed to truly understand it until I touch raw material, is the way I look at it. Because at the end of the day seeing some example sentences on BunPro wont result in me mastering it, hearing natives use it in speaking or writing will make me understand it completely. That’s just how I feel about it at least.
4 Likes
I watch Japanese programs, and it was funny how as soon as I learned a new grammar point, I would hear it on some program almost immediately. Great motivation! Same thing with new vocabulary.
4 Likes
Actually speaking with someone is always the best way to practice speaking, but if you’re struggling with live-paced recall, or if you don’t have a speaking partner, then writing can be a huge help in recalling vocab. You can jump over to the Japanese Only categories to practice coming up with sentences with the vocab you want to reinforce. And everyone here knows what you’re doing, so it won’t raise eyebrows if you’re trying to work words like 心理学 or 火星 into a conversation.
3 Likes