Question on Lessons/Review

[BadBatmanW]

I am only level 1 but have been working every day for a week or 2 now. My question is should i write down the vocab and kanji and study outside of wanikani or just let wanikani do all the work. Thanks

[kemperb]

I’d recommend not studying outside, at least at the start. You should be able to handle it. In fact, if you’re studying just before a review, you’re not going to correctly work the SRS, since you’re actively refreshing your memory on items you should be getting tested on for long-term memory. (Not an issue at level 1, when the reviews are still quicker.)

I personally do recommend writing them down, but more as writing practice. I’ve found it helps you remember the characters/words better, especially as you start getting to similar-looking words. Say the character/word as you write it, too. Just once as you learn it, maybe as a random review tactic later. Reading/writing/listening/speaking skills reinforce each other. (But really, if you just want to learn to read and nothing else, it isn’t critical.)

Good luck and have fun!

[Takuya4189]

I write down the kanji just to get some practice and to review it on my own whenever I’m bored (mainly for writing). Sure, you shouldn’t do that because of SRS but it depends on your lifestyle to be honest. See what fits.

I only write some vocab but most are usually easy enough to get by just reading. So I don’t bother writing that down. All in all, I write just to get some writing practice in since Tofugu and WaniKani emphasizes reading and typing over plain writing, which is completely understandable.

As for studying outside of WaniKani, I assume you mean just Kanji? You can put in the extra effort sure but it really depends on your lifestyle as I said. The SRS should be enough for most. If you’re talking about studying in general, then that’s a definite yes. Don’t overwhelm yourself initially but once you hit around Level 10 (as per Tofugu’s advice), you’d wanna start textbooks and the like.