I love WaniKani, It’s brilliant. But I never know what to do in my down time, in between reviews. I feel kind of lost. I have Genki, and I work through that. But I seem to be useless at self study, not necesarilly the motivation. But just knowing what to do.
For instance is just copying sentences on to paper helpful? it kind of feels like it’s pointless. But I do it anyway every so often.
Do you learn the stroke order, and how to write the Kanji along side learning them?
I’m currently at the start of Level 3 by the way. Also this isn’t a post saying I’m bored of the waiting. I’m not. I just want to know what to do!!
Thanks in Advance.
P.S If anyone wants to email with me or something, that would be cool!
If you’re looking for grammar, try Bunpro, everything is done in an SRS system, and the grammar is structured according to the JLPT.
For me, writing stuff out of useful. Textbooks can be a struggle to learn from, since once you’ve worked through them, you’ve forgotten a lot of points. That’s why I’m going through, writing out every example sentence. It’s probably a bit over the top, but it’s really helpful if you want to improve your handwriting/writing speed.
Writing out Kanji can be a huge help as well. A lot of the time, I won’t be able to remember the details of a Kanji unless I write it out. This isn’t so much of a problem for the first few levels where the Kanji is quite basic, but later on you will start getting similar Kanji mixed up if you don’t remember the radicals that differentiate them. The mnemonics WaniKani provides are usually pretty good at helping you remember, but I’d still recommend getting a Kanji writing notebook to practice them.
When it comes to self-studying, it can be hard at first to know whether you’re doing the right thing, and whether you’re doing enough of it. Ultimately, you should constantly be trying to read and listen to Japanese from various places. At first, this will be a struggle, since your comprehension is so low, but the more you do it, the better you’ll get. It will also give you a good idea of what you need to work on, and it can give you a boost of motivation when you suddenly understand something you had no hopes of understanding just a week ago.
One thing to note, just to make sure you are aware.
Wanikani is often called slow by people, and this is true at the start compared to some other methods. This is just because it creates a foundation that it slowly builds on. Up until level 20, your workload will steadily increase given you learn stuff at the same rate. Once you hit the 20s, if you choose to you can learn up to ~20 items a day average ans have ~175 reviews a day average…probably a bit more actually. Whatever you choose to do outside of WK, make sure its flexible with your increasing WK workload. Idk how much free time you have, so you’re really the only authority on this topic.
Hmmm as for what to do. Well theres really 3 options.
Grammar. You can use bunpro.jp or Genki or anki decks like myself. There are a few other lesser known apps but those are the ones I see the most. Personally I use Anki decks as I have stated just because they work best for me. I can make a card have exactly what info I want, and I can add grammar points as I come across them.
Vocab. WK doesnt teach you all the vocab you will need. Not even close. In order to expand your vocab you have quite a few options, but ill list the ones I think are most popular. Anki can be used like with grammar, you can head onto memrise which is a free website and what I am currently using, you can use Iknow which is also a free website. I used it for a little and I thought it was aight. Lastly you can get more vocab from the third option.
Consume japanese media in the native language. Im not sure what level you are at, but most people say its never to early to start. Read childrens books or watch/listen to things with the actual intent to understand. Use dictionaries for words you dont understand to increase your vocab if you wish and look up grammar points you dont understand. Or you can just do it for fun. Either way is fine, youre helping yourself out either way.
Because everyone’s progress is different on WK, saying this is a little misleading. Essentially one’s work load builds until they start burning items on a regular basis. For those going through the program quickly, this would fall along the early 20s, but for others this may happen sooner because their pacing was also slower. Additionally, accuracy plays a huge part on how one’s review pile grows. If a person gets items wrong on the regular, but continues to do a ton of lessons, they’re going to have a mess on their hands due to an abundance of items that aren’t on the higher levels of the SRS.
Thank you for the elaboration. Yeah overall, I just wanted to get the point across that workload on here will increase if you want it to (which it seemed that he does). I just feel its something to keep in mind as the other things he chooses to do in his free time may not be flexible enough for that workload increase thatll creep up on em.
Thank you for your reply! yeah I’m currently enjoying it a lot. Even if it is stressful when you know that you know a word, but you really can’t recall it! haha but that’s not too say I want an insane am mount. Gotta find the right balance!
but that’s not too say I want an insane am mount. Gotta find the right balance!