I started using WaniKani 1 month and the SRS (Spaced Repetition System) has been great at making me recognizing Kanji. Treating the reviews as a game to see if I can get them all correct really motivates me to consistently do my reviews on WaniKani. However, I am unable to recall or write the Kanji. So I was curious if there was an app or a website that uses SRS to learn how to write the Kanji, while also being in the order of the Kanji learned from WaniKani.
This problem persist to vocabulary as well where I know what it means when I read it, but when told to recall it. I tend to draw a blank. There are also times where I learn a vocabulary that is rarely ever seen which is demotivating at times. So is there a SRS for learning vocabulary that is most commonly used or in the JLPT N5 exam.
Finally, I’ve been studying grammar using Genki 1. What other resources should I use to help me with my grammar?
You can do WaniKani in reverse with KaniWani.
If you want to study N5 vocabulary with an SRS-system the most common one ´would probably be Anki, you can find a lot of pre-made decks for it. I personally use kitsun, which is very similar to WaniKani, it also let´s you import Ankidecks for example. I also switched from KaniWani to kitsun (with a reverse WaniKani deck) since I don´t want that many different SRS at the same time.
There are also other SRS out there, but I only have experience with those two.
Regarding grammar, there are a lot of resources. I use Bunpro in addition to Genki, to practice my grammar further. Bunpro is an SRS for grammar basically.
I also sometimes watch Tokini Andys Genki videos about the chapters I already covered and occasionally also a Cure Dolly video.
Other popular resources for grammar would be Tae Kims Grammar guide and Japanese Ammo with Misa, although I can´t say much about either of them.
There are tons of other resources but thats the stuff I use/heard a lot about
For kanji and WK vocab recall, Kaniwani would probably be your best bet here
I’m sure there’s an Anki or Kitsun deck out there for vocab you’d likely see on the N5, but I don’t study JLPT stuff so I can’t recommend any specific ones.
Something that helps me w/ vocab recall is trying to make simple sentences as I do things. So for example if I’m making tea I say/think to myself stuff like 「今、お茶を入れている。お湯を沸かしている。お湯を注いでいる。このお茶が美味しいよ。」So this helps me recall the words for: now, tea, to make tea, to boil, hot water, to pour, delicious.
For grammar, I recommend Japanese Ammo with Misa and Bunpro (note: the SRS for Bunpro costs money but the information itself is free)
It has been 5 days since I posted the original topic so apologies for the late reply. Thank you for the replies and the suggestions on how to improve myself at recalling Kanji, Grammar and Vocabulary. I’ve yet to look into the grammar stuff yet such as BunPro, Tae Kims Grammar guide and Japanese Ammo with Misa as I wanted to approach each problem at a time.
In terms of recalling Kanji/ Vocabulary. I searched up KaniWani online and also found other similar programs such as the mentioned “WaniKani Reversed deck” on Kitsun.io and KameSame. So I just ended up trying all 3 of them for 5 days to see which one I liked more. KaniWani until it ask me how to say Woman or Girl in Japanese. As 女、女の子、女の人、女子、少女. all mean Woman or Girl in someway, it was very aggravating to keep getting the reviews wrong. Meanwhile KameSame alleviated this problem by saying your answer is not the answer they were looking for, but also not wrong. Then it comes again later in the review, but it tells you that its not the word you typed earlier for it allowing you to narrow down which word it is. KameSame requires you to use a Japanese Keyboard, which is a good thing in my opinion. Then finally, there is Kitsun.io which not only has the “WaniKani Reversed Deck” but also has other community deck such as “Genki Complete Vocabulary” and JLPT Level Vocabulary Decks. As Kitsun.io can help me with recollection and also teach me more vocabulary. I think it’s the one I am going to continue with. I would like to ask if its possible to sync up WaniKani with Kitsun.io as its only giving me 5 lessons a day which is too slow for me. Also if there are any tips or tricks you can give me to use Kitsun.io more efficiently.
The final thing I wanted to talk about is writing Kanji. Do you guys practice writing Kanji at all, or is recognizing enough? I know for a fact that there are many Kanji that I see such as 会議, where I’ll instantly know what it is, but telling me to write it would lead to a disaster. If you do practice writing Kanji, do you have any tips or recommendation on how to do it: whether you write a single Kanji a lot of times in a single day, follow a Kanji Writing Textbook or use an app/program that shows stroke orders.
Writing is cool, it helps you recognize similar kanji since you know how to write the different parts. It also looks cool. I used to just write them a bunch, but it’s kinda boring, so I’m planning on using an app, but I haven’t had the time lately.
As far as I know there isn´t any way to link WaniKani to Kitsun yet, but if you want more lessons you can just force that. After you´re done with the 5 you can just click on the Lesson-Button again and it will ask you how many you want to add. And if you go to the deck settings you can also increase (or decrease) your daily lessons, change the batch size or just set lessons to unlimited.
What I really like are the known words, so when you add a new deck you can just filter the deck for your known words and hibernate them.
I don´t really practice writing Kanji. As long as you aren´t in japan it´s more like a partytrick. And I heard even most people that do live in japan don´t need it that often. I will probably do it eventually, but it´s low on my priority list. Altough I do agree if you practice to write a Kanji it becomes way easier to remember it. When I read my first manga I wrote out everything on paper once in japanese and once with my translation. I did pratice Hiragana a little beforehand and I just wrote all of the simpler Kanji that weren´t too hard and wrote the Rest in Hiragana. It definetly helped with my handwriting and I can now write all Hiragana from memory.
When I practiced Hiragana I ordered a book with Genkouyoushi paper from Amazon and wrote each character until it started looking less wobbly. You could also print these out or use an app to practice.
And no need to apologize. When you start your learning journey there are so many questions and it can be a bit overwhelming figuring everything out and especially figuring out what works for you. People on here love to answer them
So its been another 8 days since my last post and I’ve decided to lower my kanji writing practice to a lower priority. I got some questions to do with kitsun. I’m currently using 4 decks: 10k - Kitsun Optimized, Genki Complete Vocabulary, JLPT N5 Vocabulary - Kitsun and the WaniKani Reversed Deck. Since I’m learning 4 decks, it sometimes give the same word back. For example I get 一つ in both the WaniKani Reversed Deck and the JLPT N5 Vocabulary - Kitsun Deck. You mentioned something about known words, so I can filter a deck for words I know. So I was curious if its possible to filter a deck for words I’m also learning in a different deck?
Second of all is with the WaniKani Reversed Deck, how do you deal with it asking for Woman or girl as it can be all of the following: 女、女の子、女の人、女子、少女.
Finally how do you guys practice reading. I’ve tried reading some stuff such as manga but I want something closer to my level as reading something and not understanding the grammar structure is very demoralizing?
I may be one of the few people that thinks that writing can actually be beneficial for learning, but I would say hold off until you know a couple hundred kanji already. Writing will be so much more efficient when you can recognize a larger pool of kanji. People use Ringotan, Kanji Study and Learn Kanji apps for writing practice. All are free and have a slightly different approach.
Kanshudo also incorporates writing practice into their lessons, and しり漢 is a kanken trainer that is popular.
