I really wish there was a fast track option for wanikani. I am set to leave for Japan in a few months, and would like to grind out wanikani quickly before leaving. I know the course is designed to make use of timed interval learning, but I still wish there was an option for potentially much shorter intervals, or even a timeless mode when one has all day to grind, when timed intervals become less of a retention tool and more of a hindrance. I think wanikani should consider adding these options to those subscribed to the site.
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You want to try and cram years worth of learning into a few months?
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Try HouHou or doing independent study along with WaniKani
Not at all. I understand entirely why wanikani is set up how it is. But when you have literally all day to study…i do think the interval timing can be cut in half, perhaps temporarily. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not disagreeing with the site’s mentality, however I do disagree how unopen the site seems to be in taking into consideration feedback on this situation. For the next four months I will have nothing but free time, and wish I could really
take advantage of this time
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The entire site is built around spaced repetition. Asking them to offer anything else is asking them to do a bunch of work to support a minority of people. There are other ways you can study if you want to cram.
As far as your situation goes, it would probably take months to make changes to the site to support what you’re asking for anyway.
@smartie344 HouHou is built around SRS as well.
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I know, but I suggested it bc u can pick ur own kanji to study
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How’s that grammar plan going? Vocab? Japanese friends to exchange language with?
Japanese is so much more than WK. Even if we’re only talking about WK itself, you can finish it in 1 year and 1 month. You might get to level 30 before going to Japan… and that’s already 1000 Kanji learned. Level 30 is around N3, which is pretty reasonable (very actually) for 1 year of study.
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Wanting it to go faster is common in all learning. WaniKani is not going to help you learn faster, it’s going to help you actually remember kanji/vocab over the long term.
If you want something you can just grind through all day, try something like Memrise or Duolingo.
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The problem is more complicated than it seems at first glance. Essentially, there already is a fast track - doing all lessons and reviews as soon as they’re available. Now, the beginning is still very slow, but it basically has to be. All your review items will reappear and a few levels in, this means that you are getting significantly more reviews than in the beginning. Now, if you made the first few levels faster, it would probably feel fine and way more satisfying in the beginning. However, some weeks/months later, due to the SRS, the load will become much greater and probably unbearable for anyone.
It’s understandable to want this, and I felt the same in the beginning. However, 10 levels later, I know I would have regretted it; even the current pace is now very challenging despite me having lots of free time.
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you can review with kaniwani (that helps reinforce vocab) or practice grammar with bunpo. you’ll burn out very quickly if you try to cram and won’t retain much of anything.
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Maybe just use something else that allows you to go how fast as you want? Like a kanji book and a pen and paper…
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You can set your own intervals in Anki. Just get one of the kanji decks and change the interval
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You could abuse the reorder script if you’re only looking for kanji knowledge I guess. Feels kinda dangerous, but that’s an option…
There’s nothing to stop you doing another course at your own pace. Buy a book and work through from start to finish or use kanjidamage or something. Personally I think turning up in Japan with a load of kanji is far less useful than turning up with a basic knowledge of some of the spoken language and some vocab. Even that isn’t going to get you too far in the short term. It was a few weeks before I had the confidence to ask someone where the post office was (because I had to) and half understand the reply. Better kanji would not have helped at all although it might have done at the odd restaurant in the middle of nowhere.
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If all you need to do is learn Kanji, use the book Read the Kanji. The author of that book had like 3 months of nothing to do but study kanji and he learned them all in that time. Very doable and it will probably stick well–particularly if your Japanese grammar, vocab, speaking, and listening ability is already very good.
Otherwise, haste makes waste. Establish good study habits now (e.g. daily use of an SRS-like system) that you’ll continue to use while you’re in Japan.
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If they made that option, many people who don’t understand the value of SRS would just keep that option on all the time and get nothing out of the site. They would try to learn it like American schools…cram in as much as you can and then forget it all shortly afterward.
Plus as felix330 said, the later lessons really get much more of a deluge. I’m getting 150-250 reviews daily now. If it hadn’t been so slow in the beginning, I’d be overwhelmed for sure.
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So you got too much free time, eh? There was a question like this yesterday. Heres my reply
Hmmm as for what to do. Well theres really 3 options.
Grammar. You can use bunpro.jp2 or Genki or anki decks like myself. There are a few other lesser known apps but those are the ones I see the most. Personally I use Anki decks as I have stated just because they work best for me. I can make a card have exactly what info I want, and I can add grammar points as I come across them.
Vocab. WK doesnt teach you all the vocab you will need. Not even close. In order to expand your vocab you have quite a few options, but ill list the ones I think are most popular. Anki can be used like with grammar, you can head onto memrise which is a free website and what I am currently using, you can use Iknow which is also a free website. I used it for a little and I thought it was aight. Lastly you can get more vocab from the third option.
Consume japanese media in the native language. Im not sure what level you are at, but most people say its never to early to start. Read childrens books or watch/listen to things with the actual intent to understand. Use dictionaries for words you dont understand to increase your vocab if you wish and look up grammar points you dont understand. Or you can just do it for fun. Either way is fine, youre helping yourself out either way.
WK doesnt have to be your only form of study, and in fact IT SHOULDNT BE. You will not become fluent off of this website alone.
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I don’t know what knowledge you already have but I’m guessing you are pretty new to learning. If this is the case, based on your goals, WK is the least useful thing for you. Just knowing the Kanji is near useless.
If I were in your position and starting from the beginning. I would be using SRS for lists of the most commonly used words and studying them. During times when I’m not doing SRS, I would be cramming grammar (3 months of highly dedicated study and you should be around N3 level). I would also use an app like HelloTalk to be initially constantly posting to the wall to get corrections, then after I start to get a bit better with the language, use HelloTalk to get connected to language partners (and only use the voice chat functions).
My main focus of study would be speaking and listening. I’ve already mentioned to use focus on the most commonly used vocab but extend that into the type of words you are likely to use, identify the situations that you will likely experience and tailor the vocab to those situations. Learn set phrases for those situations as well, these are highly useful for when you need something to fall back on.
With all this study I’d also create a very fixed routine that has a focus on getting enough sleep, plenty of breaks, plenty of exercise (it will help with your study) and defined times for different types of study. I’d also focus on nutrition and fueling at the correct times to enhance my study. Also remember that constant breaks during study will benefit you greatly, perhaps looking into different time management techniques such as pomodoro’s.
That’d be how I would handle it … at least that is how I say I would handle it. In truth I would never be able to dedicate myself to that type of load for 3 months, the mental fatigue would quickly trump my motivation. Self study is a particularly difficult beast since you don’t have outside sources of motivation, it all has to come from within and it is far too easy to make excuses to yourself.
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People have trouble just staying at the fastest pace that WK allows. I’d give that a shot before claiming it’s too slow.
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The first levels are slow, but once you begin to juggle both new and already learned items, you can easily have hours of reviews, if you work your way through the material at the fastest possible rate. Come back and make suggestions once you’ve been using the site for a month, and know that the amount of reviews stacked on top of each other still has enough to nearly double your work-load. In any case, it’s good to diversify your types of practice. use other resources in the downtime.