The most useful scripts / apps

WaniKani API And Third-Party Apps
#1

Hi guys,

I am relatively new to the site. I have been studying Japanese at Textfugu for the last couple of months and joined the trial of Wanikani after seeing it being recommended all the time. It was a bit too much for me to do both at the same time so took some time with the trial. The content on Textfugu is slowing down now and I am finding more time to dedicate to Wanikani now. But still have problems memorising kanji, etc… For me personally, radicals are a breeze, but need a lot of warm up before I can get kaji in my head.

Would you recommend any scripts/apps to use to help with some of it. I am currently using Smartphone apps that don’t add much, and my main browser is Chrome (no scripts installed). What helps your study flow?

Thanks…

What are the most necessary userscripts?
Must have scripts?
#2

You can use scripts but they are really for changing or speeding up the wanikani process for users, not with helping learn the kanji.

To learn kanji, it would probably be better to use only this site, as it relies on SRS so studying kanji too much outside of review time could mess with the system. As far as having trouble with getting the kanji in your head, the only thing I can really say is to implement your mnemonics; they’re there for a reason. If the ones provided aren’t doing it for you, make your own. If you find yourself missing a cretain kanji frequently, review it on the kanji page immediately after a review session (not before).

Other than that, there’s not much to do. Spend more time on your lessons if need be. It’s not a race, so as long as you finish it someday, that’s all that matters.

Also, don’t skip vocabulary. There are scripts that help you reorder lessons and reviews to help you level faster, but the vocabulary is really what helps cement kanji’s meanings and readings. Also, there are often different readings introduced in the vocabulary that you don’t learn with the kanji originally.

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#3

You can’t install scripts on Smartphone; unless some apps have pre-installed scripts. Are you using iOS or Android?

On a laptop/PC, you can install “user script”, but most of them come with a caution tag.

Why don’t you try a search box? It’s on the top right (magnifier icon). There are already personalized lists posted.

Some time ago, “Show dashboard” thread also mentioned personally-chosen scripts.

#4

Thanks for your post. I don’t want to appear lazy to everyone, I did search and browsed through a few threads and went through the pinned list. The thing is, I have no idea what I am looking for so I was looking for some guidance what to use. And what some of the cooler apps/scripts actually do (in plain English :slight_smile:)

I have both iOS and Android and installed AlliCrab on iOS and Wanikani on Android. There are lots of options in AlliCrab but I don’t understand what for at least half of them.

#5

There are some scripts that I use that I couldn’t go without using anymore, so I’d definitely say if you’re wanting to use scripts then make sure you’re prepared to need them for the rest of your Wanikani career. (Note this also makes doing your reviews on mobile a lot more tedious haha)

I only use a few but here they are :
Wanikani Improve
Wanikani Override (Use this one responsibly!)
Wanikani reorder ultimate 2
Wanikani Egg Timer

These are the few that I use to just make doing reviews a little more streamlined, you can always add a script then remove it afterwards so I’d recommend seeing what works best for you! Best of luck!

がんばってください！

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#6

Wanikani Ultimate Timeline is by far the most useful userscript I use.

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#7

@hgbearawesome’s advice is all very solid and useful and you should definitely listen to them. On everything except this:

It may mess with the SRS - and deliberately reviewing kanji directly before a review is a definite don’t - but the main point for everyone is to learn the kanji and to achieve that end you should care absolutely zero about ‘messing the system’ and 100% about what helps you remember. I do understand the point trying to be made, but you should try to get as much exposure outside WK as possible as soon as possible. It’s hard at your level, but seeing kanji in context is a great (the best?) way to remember them.

Recently I’ve been using a lot of sentence decks on Memrise and Anki and I’m finding them a lot more useful than the pure vocab decks I’d been grinding before that.

In terms of scripts, there’s one called item marker that’s quite useful. Allows you to click any items you’re having trouble with so they appear on your dashboard and you can write them out, make your own anki deck or whatever.

Main advice is just keep going. What SRS is good for is never letting go until you do remember something. If you just keep coming back day after day, eventually things will stick.

#8

There are also other threads that I have forgotten the name, especially the one by Mempo.

Also, try New iOS app. It comes with Reorder script. There seems to be none of this in Android.

#9

searching for ‘user script list’ gets you this: User script list

Lots of suggestions there.

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#10

You’re right about that.

I think I should have worded that differently. I meant that more as a “don’t study them in the same exact way with different programs”.

Learning different vocabulary using the kanji, seeing them in sentences, handwriting practice, etc. is great, however, I wouldn’t use another program to learn the same WK kanji out of context with meaning/on/kun (that isn’t to say that you can’t make a note of a different reading not covered by WK that you come across) because that’s doing the same exact thing twice.