Hi everyone, newbie here–wondering if now is a good time to buy an annual WaniKani subscription.
After brushing past WaniKani for years, I finally tried it out a few weeks ago and am very sad I didn’t spring for it sooner. I love the simple interface and the humor and the forced waiting for reviews instead of trying to cram everything all at once. Your community seems friendly and active, and the userscripts are a godsend. Even the paywall has become a bit of a plus, as it’s a motivator to actually study (my biggest problem!), and would put me on a timeline.
My concern–I’m planning to take JLPT N2 in December and due to WK’s enforced timeline I’m not sure I can get far enough to really start covering new and test-level kanji/vocab.
I know WK won’t cover everything and I’ll study elsewhere as well. But for those with WaniKani/JLPT/Japanese experience–do you think it will cover enough to be worth using these next few months? I really hope the answer is yes!
Or–should I wait for better circumstances? Thank you!
You could get to around level 26 or 27 going full speed. The kanji in wk are not in order of JLPT level, but instead in order of simplicity in appearance and composition, so there is a good chance a lot of the kanji you cover in these levels might still be new to you, but it is hard to know as you are aiming to do N2 so I assume you already know quite a bit.
(also, either way, I would start wk now. It is a great resource for learning kanji even if it is not directly related to the JLPT and in the long term, I assume getting better at Japanese is also your goal.)
That.
Op, I was exactly in your situation when I first encountered WaniKani, and I dismissed it since it seemed too slow. I regret it now.
As you said, you have to study on the side, so my advise would be to figure out the kanji WK won’t teach you in time, and do those on your own. You’re still better off than if you had to go through all the N2 kanji by yourself. At the same time, WK will help you consolidate the kanji from previous levels, which also helps.
So, yeah, go for it.
Edit: the easiest way would be to ask a level 26 or 27 to go to wkstats and take a screenshot
Thanks for the quick replies! I know I asked a biased crowd, but it’s still nice to get some confirmation.
@jprspereira More previous knowledge/experience than I care to admit to since I failed N2 last December But 52% is a good chunk and I could use the review on other stuff–especially readings. Nothing more frustrating on the JLPT than knowing the meaning of a sentence but not the reading of the kanji/grammar point they’re specifically asking for.
Next question then–are any of the available user scripts helpful for unlocking levels quickly? Or is WK pretty cheat-proof? I did start using the override one, which has saved me some frustration.
There are two types of levels on WK: those called fast levels (1,2,26,46,47,49-60) and the normal levels. The fast levels can be done in 3 days and 10 hours while the normal levels can be done in 6 days and 20 hours. Now, there’s a script that helps with reorganizing the radicals and kanji to appear first on your lessons, which will allow you to go faster than if you had to go through a pile of vocabulary and only then do radicals and kanji. However, the limits will always be those I mentioned above. What the script does is making it more practical for you.
Here’s a mini guide on how to go fast on Wanikani that I wrote a few months ago:
The link to the script is on that post. I wrote that guide for people that have already been using this program for a while, so if you have any questions, go ahead
Also, as a “proof” of worth, I finished Wanikani in 368 days without any previous knowledge of the language (just the kana).
Just tacking this onto JPR’s post: if you want to go through levels at max speed you want the Wanikani override script as well. This gives you an ignore wrong answer button which is useful if you typo. I imagine you wouldn’t want that stopping you from leveling up.
if i want to type it in romaji i need to type the small “tsu” so if i wanna express that i have to write “yattsu” but i didnt know how to write the small tsu so i wrote “yatsu”
@jprspereira Thanks! Just one thing–I’ve installed the reorder script and Tampermonkey says it’s running during reviews, but I don’t see any extra control/toggle buttons for it! Do I need to wait for new lessons, or am I missing the obvious?
By the way, about the list of kanji you have to study on your own, I figured that if I showed kanji that are up to guru level, that would contain everything I got on level 28+ (or haven’t gotten yet)
So those are the one you won’t see through WK.
I hope it’s readable…
Thank you!
That.
But 52% is a good chunk and I could use the review on other stuff–especially readings. Nothing more frustrating on the JLPT than knowing the meaning of a sentence but not the reading of the kanji/grammar point they’re specifically asking for.
