I think if I knew that wanikani would eventually come to their senses and change back I would have waited. I started just as they were making these changes that make wanikani less useful. And other users on this forum have helped me realize that focusing too much on wanikani is not the way to learn Japanese. What do other newer users think? Is the current wanikani worth it for new users?
Should new or prospective users wait until Wanikani changes back to focusing on the on'yomi readings
I just started back on WK after 10+ years and was bummed reading the other thread calling the changes out. Dang, my first post was flagged. Nice community.
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Youâll end up learning both readings either way, so I really donât get the angst over this.
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Depend how much you value your time.
IMHO WK (or any other service) can be replaced by other means but the effort to do so is substantial. For me getting lifetime for several services I use is a no-brainer because time to study has become the limiting factor.
If I were still a student my views would have been very different.
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I appreciate greatly the time long time wanikani users take to answer questions. But, I am really hoping to hear from people who have used wanikani for less than six months, because I think this is the group that will bear the brunt of the changes.
Iâve been using for a bit over a year.
I advise to continue using WK. I found my first trip to Japan quite rewarding knowing how to read some of the kanjis, despite only at level 12.
However, I definitely agree that âfocusing too much on WaniKaniâ is absolute NOT the way to learn Japanese. The app does not teach you to read full sentences or paragraphs. Bunpro too for that matter (does not teach you how to read full paragraphs). Nor do they teach listening and normal-conversation pattern. I am currently not full-throttling on WK and BP and looking to balance the factors I mentioned above.
Of course, if you find it pleasing to be able to read (as in, âread aloudâ) without understanding what youâre reading, you can study WK to the high levels. I think listening/speaking/dialogue-patterns are just as important.
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regarding the kun/on readings. My opinion is:
âThere are worse things to be horrified about the Japanese language than the kun/on, ateji readingsâ
I found the ćæ„ăć «æ„ăïŒæ, ćă€ăetc. to be more annoying.
But hey, what do I know haha.
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I am a new enough user that I am still in the âfree trialâ period (i.e.; still below level 3). Iâve been having a heck of a hard time trying to figure out when, what and which WK is asking for⊠They spend so much time trying to get people to âbe patientâ in the onboarding process but they donât actually make it easy to understand what the difference is between On, Kun and Reading vs. Meaning. I had to spend a bunch of time searching other resources before I even knew what to ask in the WK knowledge guide. (but thatâs probably just my issueâŠ) Anyway
Hearing that WK is going to start âchangingâ their focus from On to Kun is distressing. Again, Iâm new enough that I am just scratching the surface, but I have to say, hearing that the readings may become less consistent (always On) is bothersome to say the least. One thing is for sure, I definitely agree with users in another post in that WK is a Kanji learning app, not necessarily a vocabulary app. Stay specialized! The loss in quality when apps try to start being âmore inclusiveâ isnât worth it IMO,
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WaniKani has always used a mix of onâyomi and kunâyomi readings for their kanji lessons. It has always leaned towards more onâyomi and will very likely stay that way, regardless of the occasional change.
WaniKani is a kanji learning app, so its vocab is in service of that goal. That said, it has included vocab since at least 2017, which is around when I joined.
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Thatâs true but there has been a trend over the past few years to switch to kun even when thereâs a common onyomi for some kanji (like cardinal directions lately). When I started in 2022 the only kanji that were taught with kun were those that didnât have a very useful onyomi. Thatâs not true anymore.
That said, I donât know if telling newcomers to avoid subscribing is the way to go. I still think that WaniKani is probably useful for a lot of people in this state, and hopefully the team will reconsider their strategy given the recent backlash. The content team is usually pretty reactive (unlike the dev team that just does whatever they please whenever they please, it seems).
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Have you read the other thread? The problem with the recent changes to kanji readings
Perhaps I am new enough I should have kept my mouth shut, and no, Iâm not going to stop using the app yet, Iâm still too new! That said, this seemed to echo some of my frustrations with the learning processâŠ
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I think, and have posted saying as much, that these changes are for the worse and WK would be better off undoing them. But I wouldnât worry yourself that much about them. You can get by with or without WK, if you like how the platform works broadly, keep using it. It is true that, ultimately, through words you have to learn every reading eventually anyway.
Frankly, with all due respect, while itâs judgment calls all the way down, since part of the decision about what reading to teach involves how common a reading is or isnât, newer users are not equipped to judge that. In my opinion youâre better off finding what those who have made a lot of progress in Japanese learning think.
But the bit you mention about not focusing on WK too much is absolutely true; this should be essentially your lowest priority as a beginner. What you want most is a foothold to start working through native material when possible, and what gets you there most is learning grammar and common words. Kanji is certainly important, but thanks to tons of material with furigana you can even start reading without knowing any kanji. Not that Iâd recommend putting it off like that, but knowing grammar and some words is, by contrast, non-negotiable.
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Iâve almost completed WK and Iâve never paid attention to the concept onâyomi/kunâyomi. If your goal is just to be able to read Japanese I donât really think you need to care too much about these other than knowing they exists. Thereâs enough vocab in each level you intuitively start to know how to read the kanji based on the surrounding characters. Native Japanese people when reading a book arenât thinking about onâyomi/kunâyomi for each kanji, they just instantly know the readings from countless repetitions. And youâll get there to eventually.
Not saying the changes WK made are good or bad, just giving my two cents as someone whose been studying Japanese for years
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If the reason youâre learning Japanese is exclusively to be able to produce the onâyomi for any kanji you see and donât want userscripts, then the answer to the question is probably yes. Honestly, if itâs that important, you could just do a re-do on the kanji cards themselves and donât bother learning them and then pick out all the onâyomi vocab first when doing lessons, and youâll remember that first.
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Hey, Iâm the guy that wrote that other thread about the recent changes to kanji readings. Just wanted to let you know I still 100% endorse WK and think itâs easily the best way to learn to read Japanese. While I am definitely frustrated with a lot of these recent changes, it by no means invalidates the entire WK system. Itâs really not a conversation that beginners will be able to get, and itâs worrisome to me that it might be turning newbies away from using it. By all means, DO YOUR REVIEWS! Thereâs no reason to be worried and you definitely will learn a lot.
The whole talk of onâyomi and kunâyomi isnât really something you need to worry about until you come to an understanding of it naturally, which you will. My post comes from the perspective of someone who has been doing wanikani for a long time and has a decently solid grasp on reading Japanese. Iâve been through the gauntlet of WK and learning Japanese in general, and I just wanted to share that while I can see where theyâre coming from, I think these changes are misguided. It seems to me that a lot of other more experienced users in the thread agree. Hopefully we can make our voices heard, but until then thereâs still no better way to learn kanji! So please keep going 
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I will be a new user soon, did the first three levels around two years ago and decided against wanikani as the tool to start my japanese journey. I used other sources (mostly bunpro) in the mean time until I feelt an actually need for kanji. So I already know a bunch of vocab, grammar and am already reading manga regularily.
What do I think about the changes? I donât care at all. Stuff like this only make a small difference to the learning experience. Iâm not a person to start fretting over small things. In the end Iâm just expecting wanikani to give me a prestructured âdonât have too think about itâ learning path, with helpful mnemonics (and introducing radicals for those, even if they or their meanings are made up). Sure, I also want to learn their readings, but I donât care which one they ask for, In the end, kanji readings will be settled in immersion, so I couldnât care less which reading wanikani focuses on.
Some of their choices might be objectively bad, but still, those are just a few bad choices in an overall comfortable learning experience. Before Iâm gonna invest the emotional energy into getting angry over some stupid reading choice, Iâd rather put that energy into memorizing the reading I think is more important 
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Itâs a systematic way to remember 6,000 vocabularies while also making sense of Kanji.
Actually, while making sense of Kanji, you may remember something else outside 6k vocab more easily, rather than letting the knowledge from exposure fall off and forgotten.
As long as,
Though be aware, learning a language is a multi-year journey with life along the way. People studying some ten years might not remember the beginning well, while people starting less than six months might not see several years ahead well.
My start of WaniKani isnât the beginning of the language as well. I started WaniKani to know Kanji and improve memory, rather than getting started with basic Japanese.
I donât think WaniKani will change back (though Iâd be thankful if I would), but it doesnât really invalidate the 6000 vocab and the level system.
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I think WK is great. And you shouldnât let these small issues get in the way when eventually by reading you will crystallize all the Kun and on readings. Itâs a tool to help bootstrap the knowledge, not the last stop to literacy.
People get so worked up trying to perfect the imperfect. Itâs never going to be perfect.
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I agree. I donât think they will change back. And I think wanikani has value for some users, but probably not the majority of users who pay for it at some level. No one I know in the wild still uses it and I live in an area where there are lots of people studying Japanese and lots of native speakers. And I know a fair number of people who have passed N1 and consider that just a first step. Almost everyone I know who have obtained a functional of Japanese tried wanikani, quit, and created their own system which I think is ideal. Iâm just not up for doing that.
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Now I want to know what systems they used 