Any chance we can get the option to still view the old mnemonics but use the new material as default? 
As far as I can see the old radicals and mnemonics have to be the default if you want to see them?
I’m thinking I should reset since I’ve been away for awhile and forget a lot, and I’d like to use the new mnemonics, but it’d still be nice to be able to see how I learned them originally, especially for those ones where the old mnemonics really stuck for me.
I’ve managed to stay on track on my level, but despite making my level up items, just waiting for last review on them, I think I’ll have to take a break from leveling.
I feel overwhelmed and nearing a burnout. I started feeling it before the update, but managed to push through, but now I just feel exhausted and struggle keeping up with my reviews…
I will do the perfect version of “Vacation Mode”: I’ll complete all vocab lessons, slower than usually but within the next week rather than two days, and keep the new radical and kanji lessons when I level up in lessons.
Vacation mode is dangerous, as it freezes the SRS and you can’t work on your backlog.
So I’ll just stop leveling by not doing the new radicals and kanji, but get the vocab out, cause they will help solidify the most recently learned kanji, and never, ever leave vocabs in lessons for more than a few days! if you ignore vocab lesson, yo are sure to fail =P
I will keep widdling down my reviews as well, there are only 200 right now, but I keep getting it down to there and then get pooped. It’s just my fatigue, I can’t push my self too hard, physical nor mentally (so why not decide to learn Japanese? LOL!)
My first burns are coming in too, December 21st I believe, so I’ll have those on top too =P
I’ll do reviews till past New Years probably, and only start leveling again in January.
I will use this time to learn all the new radicals though! I’ll take a few a day and have them all gurued and then some before I start up again! =D
And honestly, I’ve felt this coming for a while now. I had a feeling I’d stop the week of Christmas, the update only pushed it by two weeks really 
I did a moths break using the same method at level 8, as I had a guest and couldn’t find time to do lessons. It felt so good, pushing all items out of apprentice and guru. I had already decided to do this a few times on my way to the top, to actually reach it this time =P
I started almost two years ago, pushed too hard and reset at lvl 19. Reached lvl 21 ish a year ago, got sick, kept pushing on while sick and ended up giving up and just level to 42 using a joke script (already decided to reset when I got better, which I did, all the way to lvl 1 yet again )
This time I’ll make it! I’ll just take breaks when I feel overwhelmed. Breaks where I keep doing reviews! =P
…that got much more wordy than intended… XD
I still love the update! <3
I’ve read every comment on this thread, and find it a good way to pick up on the changes.
I totally added “Books” as a synonym earlier today 
It’s just a faster way to say “number of books”, I know that full meaning within that word alone =P
Just want to warn you in case you missed it: If you want to keep the access to the old mnemonics like you have now, do NOT reset to lvl 1! Doing so removes the access.
You can safely reset to any other level though. Just not 1
Thank you, I saw that! I’m currently using Self-Study to quiz my old burned kanji and see what level I really start getting forgetful.
Would be great if we could stop the old meanings for the radicals being accepted and make it only accept the new meanings
that would fuck old users who keep using the old mnemonics.
Of course this would be an option…
I definitely recommend this approach. I’ve taken breaks multiple times and this has always worked well for me.
** squints ** The “spirit” meaning has no extra tiny line, and the “clothes” one has that extra line? Is that the visual difference? (Cool, cool, cool. Wish I’d known earlier. Although for some reason, at some point, I learned to call that extra line on the clothes version “knife.” But I didn’t realize what difference it made.)
I thought they already split them but I am probably remembering a different resource.
I basically agree with this, and it definitely has affected many more kanji than just this one. I reviewed 原 today and the meaning “plain” had been removed, now it only has the 3 synonyms “original” “fundamental” and “field”, this kind of removing keywords someone might use when they can’t think of the others in the moment of reviewing is kind of lame in my opinion. There was also the books counter example I had above, which had about 6 synonyms before and 3 now; it has me a little worried as to the extent of this scrapping of synonyms as I usually try to remember all the synonyms as a safety net for if the primary word isn’t coming to me as I blast through 100+ reviews and finding that one that used to be accepted is now gone is frustrating to the max.
I am very glad to find out that I wasn’t losing my mind and that “by way of” used to be a synonym for 以。
“Offensive” mnemonics are a small part of the overhaul.
First of all if I judge the update solely from the perspective of a new user, who hasn’t learned with the old mnemonics, then it seems to be an improvement, which is quite the achievment considering WK has already worked so well before the update!
The few minor issues I experienced were that sometimes the radical and kanji would have different meanings, so I’d confuse them. Other times I wouldn’t remember the mnemonic, because they just didn’t seem to stick (too long, too complicated for a non native speaker).
Judging by the radicals and kanji I’ve seen so far, this doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore. I would have loved to study from level one with the updated WK.
But of course people who already studied with the old mnemonics don’t share this point of view. It just feels like more work when the old system worked well. I can totally relate, understand and to a certain degree feel that way myself. Also some seem to have an Anki deck based on WK, changing that of course is annoying.
And as others have pointed out, if the old mnemonic teaches a reading, that isn’t even asked for, the update isn’t really that optional.
But we all know how much easier WK made learning Kanji. Even if every radical had two meanings one would need to learn, I’d still argue that learning Kanji with WK is easier than more conventional methods.
Also should the consequence be that WK just can’t be updated anymore ? Because every kind of change (that isn’t correcting typos) would anger users who are currently in the process of reaching level 60.
And do we really need to relearn all the kanji with updated radicals ? As many have pointed out with time the mnemonics start to vanish and only the meaning and reading stays behind, so you can just continue to study with the new radicals, without having to go back.
So in my opinion the additional work is just learning those 70 radicals, which isn’t even equal to one WK level. I think that is a small prize to pay for such a great system WK is.
It’s not about offensiveness but about cultural references that some younger users or users from other countries wouldn’t understand.
They only let us old users use the old system cause we have already started, and might want to finish without relearning (but anyone lower than 50 should transition really). The new system is a new and improved version while the old will not even get a typo change anymore. They will only support the new going forward, and the old will be fazed out and removed in about two years time. The access to the old is just to help us in the transition, not really meant to stay in for more than a short while
They make similar changes every week, this time was just a much bigger one. And renaming radicals would take some relearning. All the other changes are done all the time, little by little.
At my level I think a lot of them were easy to relearn since they reflect the meaning of the associated kanji (ie 束) or are more or less synonymous with the old radical (like prison for enclosure). There were some oddballs like yurt, but not so many that I couldn’t guru the 60 odd I had to do without messing any up.
I think a lot of the new radicals will be harder for very new users because often the radical names with associated kanji can be somewhat abstract, but this problem existed for old users when they came across the new kanji anyway (or vice versa, I remember being annoyed by 反 being called “devil” after I’d learned the kanji meaning and now all of that nonsense is behind us). It is an inconvenience but it’s not the biggest inconvenience in the world and probably will be more uniform going forward. I’m glad I swallowed the pill and just relearned the radicals ultimately, and I wasn’t planning on it.
That’s what you’re doing (makes it seem like you just want to say your part and no one gets to respond). They asked us not to start it again.
I’m sorry. That was wrong of me. Please, say your part, I am actually kind of curious. And I won’t say anything further.
We can’t respond, because that would be starting it.
I understand. Where did the original discussion take place?
Several threads. They may be gone by now.