I don’t know exactly what my question is, but I’m in a position where at lvl 27 (newly), I have almost all of the vocabulary from lvl 23 and onward still in queue. This is becaused I’ve prioritized learning kanji over learning vocabulary, and because as a fully employed adult nonstudent with a million other commitments, I can’t just decide to do twenty items a day every day until the backlog is done. At the rate I’m going, I’ll hit lvl 60 in maybe 18 months, but I will still have thousands of vocabulary items untouched. I guess it isn’t really a problem because I’m not trying to speed run, but I feel like my steady progress is an illusion. On the other hand, once I learn the kanji (which I can really handle at a rate of on 3 or so per day) I can pick up vocabulary much faster when I do have extra bandwidth.
I concur with this assessment. The secondary readings of kanji are taught through vocabulary. Leaving vocabulary unlearned ensures you know only half the kanji readings. You have the illusion of learning kanji but you are only half way through.
The question you have to ask yourself: When would that be?
Right now you’re at L27. Will you wait until you’re 60 to go back to the vocab? What are the chances that you might have “burned” and then subsequently forgotten your L24 kanji by the time you go do the vocab?
Don’t get me wrong, just doing kanji can be a valid strategy if you’re learning a lot of vocab on your own - reading books, playing video games, turning on Japanese subtitles on video when they’re provided. But you still have to learn the various other readings for those kanji somewhere.
I think I know what you mean. Every now and then I really want to just get it over with and speed run through the levels by skipping vocab but it never works out well. My accuracy inevitably takes a hit.
If you’re acing your reviews I guess you could just keep going until you hit level 60 and do the vocab afterwards. But if you’re forgetting a lot, better focus on prior level vocab before learning new kanji.
If you’re not speedrunning, why not just focus on the vocab for a while? You don’t have to take on a bunch at once. Maybe it’s not as satisfying since it doesn’t bring your level up, but it will help you remember the kanji better and, obviously, build your vocabulary.
I personally found the kanji to be the most boring part . In my opinion, the vocabulary is the best place to actually learn all the kanji the best. Many kanji are not frequently seen in isolation and you will need to recognize them in pairs and threes and stuff. Also, some of the definitons of the kanji kind of lose their meaning once they are found in vocabulary because you have to kind of play mental gymnastics to connect how the definition of the kanji you learned makes that word mean what it means.
Once you get into immersion, you will slowly recogninze and read the kanji in “blocks” or “chunks” because you will quickly recongize entire words or verbs. So looking at each kanji in isolation becomes rare.
In your case, I’m afraid that by holding off the vocabulary for so long you might get bored by the time you arrive at 60 having done no vocabulary and you will have to kind of “relearn” the kanji again anyways when they begin to be found inside vocabulary.
Since you seem to not be in a rush, maybe just spend a few months catching up on all the vocabulary you skipped and then continue by doing both kanji and vocab together. Maybe you’ll find that more enjoyable and it will suit you better.
And lastly, I get that you find yourself strapped for time and have many other responsibilities, but unfortunately I think time is the biggest enemy. Very little of what you learn will remain in your head if you don’t regularly repeat it, and it will slowly be disappearing over time, kind of like a leaky bucket. So if you turn everything into a step by step process like first kanji, then vocab, then grammar, then reading, etc. and you give each step like months and years before the next, you run the risk of just forgetting so much by the time you feel ready for the next step or you never feel ready for the next step at all.
So I think it’s good to come up with a way to put it all into a “package” that can fit your lifestyle and schedule the best .
Learn vocabularies, but they don’t have to be ones taught in the same level as Kanji.
Found in Vocabularies includes vocab that have higher level Kanji too. If you don’t remember the Kanji yet, just study about the Kanji on the point. In a way, you don’t need to be level 60 to know all WK Kanji.
Learning doesn’t just mean it’s always in the SRS or in the review. As a matter fact, look outside WaniKani, like Jisho, articles, or vocab lists, once in a while too.
For Anki (which may use SRS), “Found in Vocabularies” can be searched like Japanese:*漢*
For WaniKani, I think it’s a good idea to stop leveling up, and clear vocabularies first.
For me this is the root of the problem. This nagging feeling can start a downward spiral motivation wise.
What can be done for you to feel good about your progress and make you more confident in your preogress but take account of your busy life ?
Would it be doable to have at least one sentence per mandatory reading ?
If you’re doing 3 kanjis a day that means three sentences which doesn’t seems too much. A sentence is much more memorable long term than a kanji in isolation because it can be context complete for your brain.
Progress is never an illusion, but it’s always a matter of perspective.
If you look at WK as six “tiers” of levels, you’re only in the third of six tiers. And there’s a lot to go, but you don’t move up much if at all. A view from that high up is like looking at someone running a marathon from the viewpoint of a helicopter miles overhead - it doesn’t look like much at all.
If you look at it more at levels, sure, there’s more frequent indicators of progress (27 to 28 being the next checkpoint if your level is accurate). That breaks down the journey into more measurable chunks, and so there’s a little more reinforcement.
Alternately, if you check wkstats or your dashboard here, you can figure out how many radicals/vocab/kanji you know now (and whether at apprentice, guru, etc.). That’s of course daily progress, but that might be looking at it too closely.
All of that is to say is that while progress is real and measurable, the way you look at it frames how you perceive it.
More importantly, though, just remember what it is that made you start learning Japanese in the first place. I think it’s highly unlikely you started so that you could one day reach level 60 in WaniKani. Try to focus on the reasons you’re learning, and the progress you’re making toward that goal whether it’s here or elsewhere, and then think more of levels as milestones along the way. There will always be better and worse days, as long as you have days remaining, so just make the most of each and you’ll get there in due course!
. In my opinion, the vocabulary is the best place to actually learn all the kanji the best. Many kanji are not frequently seen in isolation and you will need to recognize them in pairs and threes and stuff. Also, some of the definitons of the kanji kind of lose their meaning once they are found in vocabulary because you have to kind of play mental gymnastics to connect how the definition of the kanji you learned makes that word mean what it means.
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