WaniKani Content Additions: Wednesday November 16 - Wednesday December 7 2022

WaniKani Content Updates
#1

Hello! :wave:

We’ll be adding some new content to WaniKani over the next four weeks, starting tomorrow, Wednesday November 16. We’re also planning to change the level of a few items to better reflect their frequency, level of difficulty, visual simplicity, and so on.

As with all our previous content updates, there won’t be any site downtime, and you don’t need to do anything extra to get the new items. They will simply appear in your lessons if you are on the level of the item or above.

And thanks to a recent update, anything you’ve started to study before it moves up will remain in your review queue, so you won’t have to wait until the new level.

Here’s a list of the additions and movements. Happy studying!

Wednesday, November 16 2022 - Published

Additions

  • Level 9: 心強い (こころづよい) - reassuring
  • Level 15: 初耳 (はつみみ) - something heard for the first time
  • Level 20: 築く (きずく) - to construct
  • Level 21: 種 (たね) - seed
  • Level 23: 節目 (ふしめ) - turning point
  • Level 28: 解凍 (かいとう) - thawing
  • Level 30: 押さえる (おさえる) - to hold something down

Movements

  • Level 44: 匹 (kanji) - moving down to level 15.
  • Level 44: 〜匹 (ひき) - moving down to level 15.
  • Level 44: 四匹 (よんひき) - moving down to level 15.
  • Level 44: 一匹 (いっぴき) - moving down to level 19.

Wednesday, November 23 2022 - Published

Additions

  • Level 6: 石ころ (いしころ) - small stone
  • Level 17: 青春 (せいしゅん) - youth
  • Level 19: お持ち帰り (おもちかえり) - takeout
  • Level 23: 出張 (しゅっちょう) - business trip
  • Level 25: 岡山城 (おかやまじょう) - Okayama Castle
  • Level 29: 激怒 (げきど) - rage
  • Level 31: 雄 (おす) - male

Movements

  • Level 3: 外す- moving up to level 15.
  • Level 3: 外れ - moving up to level 21.
  • Level 5: 外れる - moving up to level 19.

Wednesday, November 30 2022

Additions

  • Level 3: 元パートナー (もとぱーとなー) - ex-partner
  • Level 9: 元々 (もともと) - originally
  • Level 10: 高度 (こうど) - altitude
  • Level 18: 関わる (かかわる) - to be related to
  • Level 20: 無くなる (なくなる) - to be gone
  • Level 33: 温厚 (おんこう) - gentle
  • Level 25: 〜毎に (ごとに) - each

Movements

  • Level 3: 公 (kanji) - moving up to level 10.
  • Level 3: 公用 (こうよう) - moving up to level 25.
  • Level 5: 公社 (こうしゃ) - moving up to level 23.
  • Level 57: 瑠 (kanji) - moving up to level 58.

Wednesday, December 7 2022

Additions

  • Level 3: 日の出 (ひので) - sunrise
  • Level 4: 他の人 (ほかのひと) - another person
  • Level 18: 初恋 (はつこい) - first love
  • Level 23: 町外れ (まちはずれ) - outskirts
  • Level 30: 節々 (ふしぶし) - joints
  • Level 40: 世に出る (よにでる) - to go out into the world

Movements

  • Level 5: 万人 (ばんにん) - moving up to level 42.
  • Level 5: 作用 (さよう) - moving up to level 23.
  • Level 35: 払 (kanji) - moving down to level 15.
  • Level 35: 払う (はらう) - moving down to level 15.
  • Level 37: 支払い (しはらい) - moving down to level 16.
  • Level 37: 払い (はらい) - moving down to level 19.
75 Likes
New Kanji/vocab added?
#2

I still haven’t burned everything and you are adding stuff!?! :scream_cat:

Well, if I’m being honest, it doesn’t change anything as I’ll probably burn most of these new items before some of my leeches =^_^'=

18 Likes
#3

Do those additions get added even if someone is above that level? (I see some changes for level 3, so if someone is level 20 already, will he get these words too?)

Just curious.

2 Likes
#4

Yes :slight_smile:

That would be sad for people at level 60 (such as myself) if we had to go back to get the new items, it was hard getting here xD

6 Likes
#5

As kopp said, the additions will be added for everyone who is at that level or above it :blush:

7 Likes
#6

@kopp @TofuguJenny Thank you! :blush:

3 Likes
#7

You’re adding at least one shorter synonym, I hope? :stuck_out_tongue:

9 Likes
#8

Finally, super common words aswell so know most of them already. Definitely an improvement that is welcome.

(Sounds sarcastic, but was serious. The improvement makes it easier for beginners.)

7 Likes
#9

This is great! Thank you!

I can’t figure out how to pronounce this one

13 Likes
#10

I’ll offer a counterpoint here: I don’t like these content additions, and I didn’t particularly like the last few rounds of them.

It might be a minority opinion, but WK already has too many items for my taste. Adding additional ones - which of course one is not allowed to skip - is not the right move IMHO. One such round of additions isn’t much of an issue, but it starts to pile up.

I’ve been on an extended break from new lessons, trying to reduce my review count as much as possible, and was looking forward to starting with new lessons again soon and I’m mildly annoyed that I will now have to deal with some, to my eyes, unnecessary content from very low levels before being able to continue with what’s really important (namely the remaining Kanji that I haven’t learned yet). I feel like there is zero need for me to learn “something heard for the first time” at this stage in my Japanese learning journey.

I’m also not a fan of moving content around between levels, as that can sometimes completely mess up the SRS.

Sorry for the blunt words, I don’t expect anyone to share my opinion or for it to have any consequences, and I understand that many people welcome these additions, but I felt it important to voice the opposite opinion too.

7 Likes
#11

Thanks for al the additions!

I would like to see [L17] 薬方 Prescription dropped and replaced with the waaaaaaaaaay more common 処方 Prescription

8 Likes
#12

You don’t get it.

They are adding new readings of the kanji and enforce them with really common words. How is that a bad thing?

We have 心強い, the づよ reading is something we didn’t have before.
築く, 築 read as きず we didn’t have before
節目, 節 read as ふし we didn’t have before.

What’s the point of learning kanji if you don’t even want to?

Edit: WK is well thought through, many people think that they just add things on a whim, which is somewhat frustrating.

24 Likes
#13

This is definitely an unpopular opinion, and I think some of this is reasonable, but for the most part I disagree.

It’s certainly important WK doesn’t become bloated with too much content because too much would detract from the point of learning kanji efficiently. However I think meaningful additions are inherently a good thing.

I’m sure someone could do the math on this and find the average number of items per reading for a kanji, but in its current state I think the vast majority of kanji readings have a reasonable number of vocab to help reinforce them.

(for real I’d like to see some stats on this anyone who has too much time on their hands)

While it’s not a clean solution (since you’ll still have them in your lesson queue), you can use a reorder skip to effectively ignore certain items.

But really, what @x90PT said is right, vocab is the bread and butter of WK, not the kanji. The general purpose of WK is to learn to read kanji in the wild, as in, as a part of vocab, and given all the readings kanji can have, it’s important that learners are familiar with the key vocab you find those kanji. Some kanji you may only know exist because of a single word they’re used in, so vocab items are ironically, probably more important than the kanji items.

For the most part the additions are pretty useful words, with some, like 初耳 and 初恋 highlighting the more grammatical usage of that kanji. Stuff like that is key to getting you to think about how certain kanji can be interpreted in words you’ve never seen before. Their placement is always up for debate on an individual level since different people will have different priorities, but they make sense to place them there in WK.

It depends in what way you mean, but reviewing an item before the SRS review comes up doesn’t mess with the SRS since the whole purpose is to get you to remember it. It’s just extra enforcement.

All this said you’re still entitled to your opinion so I’m not hating or anything, just disagreeing for the most part.

18 Likes
#14

Thank you so much! These movements and additions make so much sense! I’m glad I’ve leveled up enough to see these all come in at the same time too, as living in Japan I’ve heard most of these before and now can put the kanji with the word. Thanks so much for constantly improving the site for users!!

3 Likes
#15

Thank you! I have six of these currently in circulation in Anki, which is a first! The last time there were additions, I hadn’t started SRS-ing much of anything on my own. Guess that shows that at least for me, a good chunk of this list has already been useful.

3 Likes
#16

I don’t appreciate you telling me how I should learn Japanese. I’m an adult and I make my own decisions.

You’re totally free to feel differently than myself, but I am a paying customer of WK, so I have a right to express my opinion - which I did, though bluntly, without any disrespect - without having to get into a pissing contest about who’s learning this language “more properly”.

(I would be perhaps more willing to engage in an argument if you had used a different tone - but even then, I don’t see what’s the point. People have different priorities and different opinions.)

edit:

This is literally nothing more than rendaku.

2 Likes
#17

I originally missed the part where they said “moved items will remain in your queue if you already studied them” - this must have been a more recent change, but it does mean that my complaint with respect to that becomes invalid, so I retract it.

Totally fair. I think the disagreement stems from a more fundamental level. For example, WK works very poorly for me as a vocab tool, due to a number of reasons. Moreover, some of the newly added items are things I already know, so I see no point in having to go over them again. Basically every other SRS I know has an option to remove or suspend cards from your deck due to a number of reasons (I already know it, it’s a leech, etc.), the fact that WK doesn’t have that is my major pain point with the service.

3 Likes
#18

If we still have queued lessons for our current level, will these new additions come before or after them, once added? Like will 心強い, 初耳, and the 匹 kanji and vocab be first up in my list, since I’m past level 9 and 15? Or will I have to finish all my current level lessons in order to see those new words?

Also, is there a reason for 一匹 to be at a different level than the others using that kanji? Genuine curiosity.

Personally I’m always happy to see more content. Even the things that I don’t really feel I need to learn (because I already know them and they’re very simple, like テーブルの上 and ナポレオン三世 were), I understand that it’s just the nature of the system, just like how I still had to go through learning the numbers 1-10, left and right, big and small, etc., despite knowing them since childhood. It’s just how it is, and in exchange, it helps people brand new to those words, and there’s also always really good additions that I think I genuinely benefit from being able to learn. I think 日の出 is a great one, and ones like 青春 and 初恋 are fantastic since they’re obviously relevant in life, as well as very common in popular media like tv, books, and songs.

3 Likes
#19

Yes, god forbid a kanji learning service provide more accurate readings. How dare they?

8 Likes
#20

Would you maybe want to take a step back and reconsider why you feel the need to attack another person because they disagree with you about an insignificant matter on an internet forum?

When people say that Japanese is the most toxic language learning community, this kind of behaviour is what they mean.

7 Likes