Wanikani for Japanese kids?

My daughter started primary school in Japan. She had to learn about 100/200 kanji every year until grade 6 when she should know about 1000 kanji, including writing them.
The system based on repetition alone seems very inefficient to me and I am wondering if I can adapt the Wanikani system for a Japanese child (stories and names must be adapted, but not much I think).
Just fishing out if someone else already did it… :slight_smile:

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I’m not aware of anything similar, but I was thinking:

The way Wanikani is built, learners rely heavily on their ability to read (in English, in this case). I assume a similar system for Japanese kids would rely on kana only. How much can Japanese kids read before they start learning kanji? If the answer is “not enough”, I suppose you could use audio.

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I’m trying to learn all the Kanji at once while in 10th grade. right now. wee
and having a big break for about 9 years from doing any nihongo was a bad idea

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Not really, but fun for all ages!


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I can read most hiragana and katakana but i can’t translate to eigo
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大丈夫だよう。

だいじょうぶだよう。

It’s okay.

親子のうんこはよくにている。

おやこのうんこはよくにている。

Parent and children’s poops look very similar.

うんこに親指をぎゅうぎゅうおしつける。

うんこにおやゆびをぎゅうぎゅうおしつける。

Push your thumb in hard against the poop.

親切な人がうんこをとどけてくれた。

しんせつなひとがうんこをとどけてくれた。

A kind person delivered poop to me.

友だちとうんこでドッジボールをした。

ともだちとうんこでドッジボールをした。

I played dogeball with my friend with poop.

きみとは親友だから、このうんこコレクションをあげるよ。

きみとはしんゆうだから、このうんこコレクションをあげるよ。

Because you and I are close friends, give me this poop collection.

うんこでむすばれたゆうじょう。

A friendship tied together with poop.

I said my piece.

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If there would be something like that I would definitely make my kids do it.
There should be a mnemonic system for Japanese.
I think it would certainly be a commercial success because Japanese parents are spending fortunes on education. Also many adults I know admit that they forgot a lot of Kanji because these days there is not so much handwriting going on. Makes me wonder if something already exists actually.

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I thought about it a little.
The meaning of a kanji or a word can be difficult without a second language. Maybe using some multiple answer like jlpt.
In the other side the readings should be easy for Japanese speakers, and actually it Should be easier to create mnemonic using actual Japanese words.

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I’m working on a visual dictionary for WK

But surely something similar exists by Japanese grade level. :thinking: I think you could make a custom deck on anki or something like that with the picture and then having to write the kanji

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I’m not particularly knowledgable on this subject but… I recently bought a couple of kanji/dokkai books (小学の5年生に向かって) from the ‘Gakken’ publisher here and upon opening the book, it had a QR code to download an app. I’m pretty sure Kumon also have apps - have an inkling I’ve seen it advertised.

I can’t vouch for the quality of any of them as I’ve never used them but there are a variety of apps out there it seems (probably better off searching in Japanese on the JP app stores?) I think that a lot of parents here in Japan maybe aren’t that technologically orientated and are focusing on the old tried and tested methods rather than anything else.

Now for an app that I do actually use that a native speaker told me about because… yeah, they were forgetting how to write kanji themselves! 漢字力診断 - the difficulty is aimed at native speakers of course but I don’t know, a lot of us on the middle levels here can probably do it, especially with the ‘reading’ mode where you just input hiragana rather than attempt to draw the kanji (which I personally suck at lol). Anyway good stuff and it’s free! (can pay for no ads but it’s perfectly usable with them tbh).

Edit: Unko kanji drills are A* hilarity - love them XD

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