I’m relatively new here and just have a quick question. For the first couple of levels I had been taking note of every Radical, Kanji and Vocab that I’m being taught. Creating a dictionary of sorts for myself and for studying. My question is if I should be doing this? Or should I just keep it purely to WaniKani and trusting in memorisation?
I’ve just purchased a years subscription and looked briefly at what’s ahead, and I’m now realising how much writing that would be. What are your thoughts?
Some people do it for the sake of practicing handwriting. I can’t deny its benefits, studying is studying after all. However, if your time is limited and handwriting is not a priority for you, I would take that time to focus on other studies (vocab outside of WK, grammar and at later stages, reading).
I still write everything down. But that’s because i’m a tactile learner, so writing something helps me remember it. I’ll admit I’m starting to get a small dictionary because of it lol I also like it because if i’m bored at work I can look over them and see any notes i’ve taken.
I do this, but with computer text programs. It’s just something from my school days, I suppose. If I write it down I’ll have it with me forever, and the information will be reinforced IMO because I had to psychically enter it in somewhere. I suggest it, but if you feel you don’t need it then you don’t need it.
It won’t. The whole point of an SRS system is to get a thing into your long term memory with as least effort as possible. Doing extra reviews won’t harm your long term memory, it’ll make you remember the word more easily in the short term.
I have a notebook where I write down all of the items as I learn them. It’s not so much about using it to learn the info, but to get practice writing. It does help burn it into my brain a bit, too.
Also, when I get a bunch of similar kanji that are screwing me up, I make little squares that show the differences. I rewrite the squares occasionally to help me remember better. It helps. Maybe it will help you?
The dictionnary part might be a bit too much but I enjoy writing kanji as I learn them. I don’t really bother with radicals and write down only vocabulary that contains kanji that I have trouble writing.
I don’t know if you use Kaniwani. This is what I use to practice recalling vocabulary from English to Japanese. When the site asks me for a word I write it down in kanji before checking the answer on the site. I only mark the word as correct if I wrote it correctly.
When I first started I wrote down the radical, kanji and vocab readings, meanings, and a short version of the mnemonic. It took foreverrrr. So I stopped that after level three I think.
Now, every night (when I get my big pile of reviews) I write down the vocabs and kanji that either took me too long to recall, is a leech that won’t go away, got right with a 50/50 chance, ect. So out of ~100+ reviews, I only write down 15-20 items. This way I can really focus on the ones that need it and trust in the SRS for everything else.
Yes, I write them all down.
Radicals all together, but I don’t review them too often. I don’t think these are important enough to remember since a lot of them are nonsense, so I keep them around in case I forget one I am about to burn. I know it’s cheating, but I only use it for these radicals, and I’ve not actually needed it yet. SRS just works fine.
Kanji all together, but I don’t save those. I just review them once or twice. I do highlight the ones that hit enlightened on a big scroll I have on my wall just to give me visual progress for motivation.
Vocabulary all in a list ordered to level. I only review those on the day I learn them. I put them all in a folder. Adding pages as I go a long. I have no idea what I’ll do with them once I’m done.
All in all, writing them down, helps me remember them better.