Needless to say the Death zone has really gotten on my nerves to the point that I need to take a short break and ramble about my experience so far and offer some advice on how to tackle things. I still have a long way to go and there are many WK senseis here so any thoughts welcome!
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Scripts. The scripts and third party apps have been very helpful. I use Wanikani Stats, Ultimate timeline, Review SRS Indicator and Context sentences in reviews. Wanikani stats gives a good map of where you are at. Itās like checking the map when taking breaks on a long trek. It is also helpful reviewing kanji and vocab as you quickly visually check the items where you need to work on. Ultimate timeline letās you know whatās going to hit you over the next few hours/days. Helps a bit with planning things but it mostly has a psychological effect, just the right warning for the series of slaps in the face that the reviews are going to give you. Review indicator, I have to admit is a bit of a cheat as itāll help you guess kanjis that are similar based on the SRS status. The main reason I use it though is to be extra careful with my answer/typing. You dont want a fat finger to ruin a review at higher levels, you may also want to secure a level-up. Context sentences in reviews: iāll write about that below but it basically helps you learning Japanese as opposed to mastering WK, two very different goals.
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Vocab review - Go beyond the game
Think of the vocab review as the key goal of WK. Kanjis are just a conduit to this. I try to read them out loud in Japanese particularly during the meaning review, I have found that this really helps link the meaning and reading together. Audio recordings there are also great. Basically, in real life youāll hear these words and if youāre not used to listening to them you wonāt be able to put 2 and 2 together I promise you. I also try to make my own simple sentences in Japanese with the word in question and I imagine a situation where I would say that. This is also where I use the Context sentences in review script, they are great practice and actually quite fun, Iām sure Koichi et.al had a lot of fun writing them! After level 20 you really need to start reading to keep going. If you dont you also run the risk of forgetting your Burned vocab which would be a terrible wasted effort. Again, the goal is to learn Japanese and not to master WK. I try to anchor words, meaning, situations and sounds as much as possible. It makes things a lot slower but I think itās worthwhile. -
Frustration with Mnemonics. Iām just not good with them. Why would I remember an association that is completely pointless? I understand the point of the technique but Iāve never really been able to use it. I want to remember things by association of stories but Iād rather the story makes sense otherwise I feel I am putting garbage in my head. I know most people here will disagree but itās just not my thing. I wish it was as it seems to make things a lot faster. The radicals also donāt really cut it for me. Sometimes the links are really farfetched.
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nin vs jin driving me nuts. Iāve seen this is a common frustration in past posts. It was not a big thing at first but as reviews pile up and the use of nin vs jin seems completely random youāll end up doubting on words that were a lot easy to remember in lower levelsā¦ itās very frustrating because usually the meaning is well understood, itās just the reading that getās in the way. Sometimes I feel like Iām flipping coins.
Thatās it guys, I hope this helps and thanks for listening! Still 38 levels to goā¦