From what I’ve heard from other WaniKani users is that there are a lot of Radicals, Kanji, and Vocab. Some of which is used very rarely. I’m only level 2 so, are level 60 people able to recall most of the burned kanji?
3 Likes
If someone just completes WK and does nothing else, they would start to forget stuff, yeah. That’s why it’s recommended to start consuming content like manga, books, etc, as you progress. And then that becomes your primary method of retaining the knowledge.
Even the “no one ever uses it!” vocab shows up if you read stuff.
16 Likes
I definitely forget items that I burned years ago and never used. Recently I’ve started resurrecting vocab that I’ve forgotten and had to look up.
2 Likes
I quickly glanced through my burned items and no I don’t find it hard to recall them (+5 months since I last burned something). I read on a daily basis though so that’s probably why.
3 Likes
It depends if you ‘cheat’ or not.
Cheating would be if you looked up the answer, or ignored each wrong answer until you got it positive. So you were never actually learning it and it burnt in the minimum time despite getting it mostly wrong.
Looking back at things I burnt almost a year ago, I can recall all of them, but I’m sure over time, without any exposure to those items, I might forget them.
I guess, use it or lose it, in that sense
1 Like
I’m sure it’s like anything else - use it or eventually lose it.
There are native Japanese speakers who, when put on the spot to recall / write a certain kanji, may not quite remember it. In English, there are words I rarely use that I get mixed up (etymology and entomology…). Hell I’m sure I could barely write a lot of cursive letters, almost never use it.
Similar concept I think.
Going along with what all the more experienced here are talking about, there are a lot of ways to keep in shape with your content. Such as user generated scripts that allow you to review burned items or practice your leeches. There is also KaniWani that trains recall.
My personal goal is to get to about level 14-17 and start working on my reading through easy news websites. According to the stats I should be able to comprehend about 75% of the kanji used at that level. I think learning through context will be a huge step in my Japanese.
Yeah you forget some, but mainly the uncommon ones. I had forgotten 紳 until I saw it the other day and was like “oh yeah, that”.
Its not a problem, though. If you’re actively learning and consuming native material, you’ll know what you need to know. The stuff you forget will come back really easily too.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.