Starting wanikani with N2

WaniKani Requesting Help
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Hey all, I’ve managed to pass the N2 but Kanji was a huge weakness of mine so knew i needed to supplement my studying for N1 with some heavy kanji pratice, I figured I would give this a shot, but It feels like a huge waste of time getting through the slog of these first few levels. I’ve looked up some addons but I can’t seem to find any addons or ways to just burn kanji you already know fairly well. In addition to this, Things that I have burned into my memory, such as meaning of kanji aren’t the exact meaning that WaniKani wants. The Override addon is pretty useful in this, but It can still be kind of frustrating.

I’m just posting in case I’ve maybe overlooked something or I’m not looking in the right places.

Also open to any advice from anyone else who’s kind of started at an “Intermediate” japanese level. Thanks all!

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@Naphthalene senpai
I immediately think of you. Probably you could offer some insights.
よろしくお願いします。

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Nope. It’s not possible to skip levels or burn items with a script. You can add your own synonyms if you wish, though.

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Naphthalene started with N1 - read their lvl 60 post here: [Review] Making it to level 60 as an advanced Japanese learner

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Hello hello, welcome!

As mentioned, you can’t skip ahead in WK, but there is the option to add user synonyms. So if you find yourself stumbling on a different wording for meaning, you can add what you’re used to.

Edit: which @Ryouki already mentioned. Ninja’d.

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Definitely worth the catch up and wait. Even if you know a lot of the items already it’s great practice

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For this you can use user synonyms, as Ryouki and Omun mentioned. But are you using slightly different wording, or learning a new meaning/nuance to the kanji/vocab previously unlearned? There might be some value there if you stick to WK meanings.

There are several users active in the forums who have passed N2 or N1 even, but still found it worthwhile to use WK even after passing.

I myself was able to comfortably pass N2 with WK level 51 last December, but decided to reset. There are many words on here that I had learned while my Japanese was still at a low enough level that I wasn’t able to actually use them in the conversations I was having, but now, going through them again, I have more use for them. Also, it is now still a feast of recognition for me, with very little mistakes, but I am using this time in the early level to just solidify a kind of (routine is not the right word, more a) pace, thst I hope will sustain me even when I start to encounter tough levels again. I remember havig trouble with the 30’s first time around, with too big a workload and really not consistent in leveling. For now I am able to level up in about 7 days per level, with apprentice and guru items at manageable levels at all times.

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I found this thread super helpful, thank you!

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Mostly slightly different wording! For example “decide” instead of “to decide” or “Decision” vs “Decide”

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For these kinds of things I prefer the Double Check script. Instead of moving to later on in the queue, you can just use backspace and retype right away. I use it for typos as well.

But verbs always want a ‘to’ in front of them (except 聞こえる as far as I know). Still sucks to fail on that, even if you know it is a verb.

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I agree that early (and many later) levels waste time if you have prior knowledge. WK desperately needs an “ignore” function like Memrise, Anki etc have but I guess that messes up their billing structure. Unfortunately, looking everywhere I found nothing.

Some scripts can lighten the load, though:

The Autofill Radicals script is a big help. It’s very satisfying to smash “enter” and get past a bunch of radicals.

Reorder Ultimate Two makes it so you could just ignore all previously known vocab by moving their lessons to the end and never doing them (a kludge for sure).

During lessons, the Lesson User Synonyms 2 script lets you put in your own synonyms at… surprise… the lesson stage. For stuff I already know with long translations, like all counters, prefectures, city names, set phrases etc etc I input “FU” as the synonym to make it more efficient. Two easy keystrokes, next question. I also do abbrev. for long vocab to make it faster, “Lt col” for lieutenant colonel, that kind of thing.

If you’re doing test prep with a deadline at a high intermediate level, WK is probably not the best tool. Outside WK, other than JLPT-specific stuff, the best kanji/vocab learning resource I have seen are the KLC Graded Readers. No SRS, no scripts, no corny jokes, but they are masterfully put together. Go at your own pace, skip around, read 255,000 kanji or whatever the number is.

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Have you used theore advanced books? Do you know what kind of grammar is introduced, and what sorts of reading comprehension questions do they ask?

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The first one’s a free PDF so you can sample. The first three are like six or seven bucks as bundled PDFs. The later ones are not but he runs sales sometimes.

The readers are super-simple.

There are no questions or tests or quizzes. I’ve used trad textbooks-- the last was New Approach ニューアプローチ中上級日本語 at the Yamasa Institute. Grammar points with short texts on some topic, then audio and questions you answer. It’s good if you want that. I found it really hard to revisit once class was done. I think long grammar explanations like that stick best when you already kind of know the grammar point from seeing it in the wild, but you’re not entirely sure.

In the KLC readers, each kanji entry has several passages in Japanese; then the reading; then an English translation. After that, any new grammar is cross-referenced for Genki, Marx(?), Tobira, and the three-volume Dictionary of Japanese Grammar. Some entries are only DJG. I guess the others don’t cover those grammar points.

They’re focused on using texts to teach kanji readings. Grammar’s incidental, but there’s a lot of it. Without other grammar instruction I don’t know that KLC is your best option for that.

Here are two sample entries from Vol. 6:

1009-1. 中断された睡眠。

中断(ちゅうだん) された 睡眠(すいみん)。

Broken sleep. (101)

…

1009-32. 着衣は大変乱れていたが、それは彼が眠ってるところから、飛び起きたのだろうと思われた。

着衣(ちゃくい) は 大変(たいへん) 乱れ(みだれ)て いた が、 それ は 彼(かれ) が 眠っ(ね
むっ)てる ところ から、 飛び起き(とびおき)た の だろう と 思わ(おもわ)れた。

His disordered dress showed that he had been hastily aroused from sleep. (1)

「〜ようにおもわれる / 〜とおもわれる」 {〜ように思われる / と思われる 142} [“seem(s) __”]:
DJG v2 p325; Tobira ch4 #2.

I picked the first and last ones for Kanji 1009. Most are short like #1, with the last 8 or 10 longer like #32. The texts are all public domain sources listed at the back.

There’s like 30,000 text samples in the series for 2300 kanji entries. You will see readings and grammar over and over and over, learning them organically. I level up to 50 tonight then will finish Wanikani lessons in five or six weeks. I’ll probably guru everything and then output a list of what I know and don’t know for reference, and then probably never look at it again. WK really has helped, but I moved most of my study time over to these readers about a month ago when I found them.

It’s like an SRS that never repeats itself. And it has no leeches since you never get anything wrong.

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