I am enjoying my WaniKani studies so far but ugh, I am rubbish at remembering the vocabulary
I think it’s because there are different readings depending on how the vocabulary is written but I just cannot get things to stick.
I’m a bit concerned as about 99% of my vocabulary is around guru and master level (I think I can count the burned items on one hand!!!) and because I am getting things wrong nothing seems to be going past that level.
I seem to be okay with vocab I have already come across in my wider Japanese studies but I wonder if I am struggling with the other stuff because it has no context for me at the moment?
Has anyone else experienced this? If anyone has any tips for me it would be greatly appreciated
This isn’t really advice but I can assure you that you will get better. As you get more used to the way the language is structured, things do start to fall into place. That’s not to say it gets simple but it does get a lot simpler.
For now though, I would pay extra attention to the mnemonics, they will give an extra clue on the meaning. You can also do a bit of extra research on troubling words and try to learn how it works in sentences. I wouldn’t try that for all words since it will add a lot of extra work and it may be a bit too much and varied to study at once.
Overall the best advice is just to keep trying. The only time you aren’t progressing is when you are doing nothing.
I notice that your level is 5 while you signed up during 2015. Have you been taking long breaks without using Wanikani? In that case, there is no real surprise that you forgot the readings of vocabulary in the meantime.
If it is true that you tend to take long breaks, I would suggest trying to empty your review queue atleast once a day for a month or so straight and see if that improves your retention. If that doesn’t work, maybe look into other methods of learning?
If you have already been doing reviews daily for two years and you are still not able to memorize the vocabulary from levels 1-5 I would also suggest trying something else. Maybe if you believe you learn better from context try reading things and putting new words that interest you into something like Houhou or Anki?
This is my best advice without knowing more about your particular conditions, so please take them for what they are worth <3
Following on from what @vargsvans said I think it might be a good idea for you to reset your level back so that you can do the lessons again. It might help you if you havent done the lessons in a long time so that you can go over them properly.
I spent a week or so just focusing on my reviews and making sure I was paying attention to anything I got wrong and re-studying those items.
I find I make more mistakes when I think too much about remembering meaning and don’t go with what pops up in my head straight away (I’m guessing that’s the SRS starting to work, when you are able to recall things relatively easily!).
