Hey! I’ve doing WaniKani for about 15 months and am on level 22. I know a lot of Kanji now and it might confuse you about how I got to this point but I basically don’t know how to speak Japanese at all or even the most basic things about Japanese grammar (but I know a lot of KanjI!!). How do I learn Japanese from here? I’m looking for some sort of daily tool like Duolingo but the problem is they all start with Romaji or Furigana, but I already know Kanji and don’t want to go backwards. What tool should I use that assumes I know what 有り難う means instantly upon looking at it but don’t know how to use it in a sentence?
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Start reading, I expect that something like Duolingo will be ill-suited for someone who knows as many kanji and words as you do. Maybe Satori Reader could be a good place to start. You can learn a lot of grammar by just decoding Japanese and looking up more detailed explanations when you struggle with something.
At first it’s going to be very rough, like solving tricky differential equations. That’s part of the process.
Oh I have bad news about this word in particular…
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I’m going to make a post like this when I reach level 60 someday, just for the fun of it
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I had a good laugh when I read this 
because I’ll probably be in the same boat!
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Reading is nice and you will ofc get lots of grammar out of it but I think dedicated grammar study, at least N5/N4 grammar, is really beneficial. If you want to study grammar and do not want to use money then I can recommend watching either Cure dolly’s Japanese from scratch or Tokini Andy’s Genki 1 videos.
I really enjoy Tokini Andy, I have the Genki books too but honestly I do not use them. I just watch his videos and if I feel like it I do exercises on this site: Sethclydesdale.
I started reading early and every sentence was kind of a struggle and had to google and figure out grammar points. However, after studying grammar more it is sooo much more rewarding for me to read. I recognise grammar points often and its really fun and rewarding if I do grammar study at the morning, then read at the evening and see grammar points I just learned.
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Level 22 is pretty late to start with grammar for the first time. Anyway, go to bunpro and go at least over N5 grammar. There are lots of grammar points to remember. After you are done, focus on reading while learning N4 grammar as well. That will be the most painful part, but keep pushing. At this point, WK shouldn’t be your main focus at least until you catch up.
I am at WK level 25 and I learned around 60% of N4 grammar. So far I feel like I am still behind in grammar and can’t read much of anything.
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御早う御座います！
Edit: As happens every single time any Japanese word comes up, I went off to read 2 hours after making this post and here is 有難う using the kanji – slightly different than how the OP wrote it, but hey, it happens sometimes.
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And it’s fun… depending on the mindset.
As a matter of fact, even if some grammar points and some vocabs are prepped, be prepared and be willing to look up a lot of things.
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If you want to be fancy you spell it 有難い. I always thought it weird that ありがたい is the “formal” one and ありがとう the common one given that ありがたい is the more straightforward modern reading of ある＋かたい. You’d think ありがとう would be the fancy one given the archaic spelling.
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If it’s more formal honestly I had never really put much thought in that direction; it’s just also closer to being like, “appreciated” rather than a “thank you” so it slots into sentences differently, making it more straightforward to stop at ありがとう。I guess from there it slots itself into more formal constructions anyway?
Maybe we should just go back to saying かたじけない (this one I know but I don’t think I’ve learned it with kanji as 忝い yet)
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From what I read online it’s considered slightly more formal, perhaps mainly because it’s less common. Like saying “much obliged” in English or something like that maybe, it sounds fancier.
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From the few times, I heard ありがたい it was used to express thankfulness for something I was to do for the other party. Like an actual heartfelt よろしくおねがいします。
ありがとう is then used after the fact.
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Beginner textbooks will have Kana / Furigana. There is no way around that, because you (and I) are not learning Japanese the “way it is supposed to be”, by learning Kanji first. I pulled out Genki I the other day from its dusty corner. Next I will have to open it and have a look 
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this is my advice;
- start learning grammar → I use bunpro for this, its great.
- go out there and speak with the natives, make a fool out of yourself, see which words work and which don’t, be the dumb foreigner speaking with random people. most of them are friendly and will even appreciate you going through the struggle. nice things may happen.
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The formal version of adjい is （お)adjうござる。
The お in front to show respect to the subject of the adj (eg お早うございます ： You are early)
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For grammar, I do 2 things:
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Jlab beginner Anki course for listening comprehension. The basic setup of it is in romaji, which I hated, but there’s a way to change it to normal Japanese/kanji with an addon that he made himself. It’s very good. The deck goes through Tae Kim’s grammar, but in Anki deck structure, sentences from anime/Japanese TV. It makes the grammar nuances super easy to grasp and remember. I honestly didn’t expect it to be that good and effective.
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Japanese From Zero youtube playlist, there are like 150~ videos with George Trombley, and he teaches you Japanese step by step. You can gain a lot more than grammar from it, but I use it just for grammar and nuance that I wouldn’t pick up by just doing flashcards. He’s very good at explaining to you in a very simple way, without using unnecessarily complicated terms that most Japanese sources and books love so much. I just watch 1 or 2 videos a day, along with my Anki course.
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Learn grammar and consume content.
NativShark is good for grammar, as it covers both casual and polite.
Then consume content. If you want to read, read. If you want to work on listening, then watch movies and such.
And as far as speaking (out loud), Dogen’s Patreon content is good for learning pitch accent and then looking for a language partner, group, or tutor - preferably with native or native-like speakers.
I never knew this! Thank you for mentioning it.
- Japanese From Zero youtube playlist, there are like 150~ videos with George Trombley, and he teaches you Japanese step by step. You can gain a lot more than grammar from it, but I use it just for grammar and nuance that I wouldn’t pick up by just doing flashcards. He’s very good at explaining to you in a very simple way, without using unnecessarily complicated terms that most Japanese sources and books love so much. I just watch 1 or 2 videos a day, along with my Anki course.
Host, I agree 100%
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