I swear I have learned 4 different ways of saying anniversary at my level already and it doesn’t help. Even if some are used in different contexts than others, I don’t know that since this isn’t for sentence mining, and I’d prefer learning the synonyms in their natural contexts and learn more new words than this.
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If they’re used in different contexts they’re essentially different words though, right?
Wondering how 記念日 differs from 周年? 周年 is usually for a numbered anniversary, like 十周年 (10th anniversary), whereas 記念日 refers to the specific date on which a memorable event took place in the past.
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Vocab is there to reinforce the kanji, wanikani is not designed nor is it very good at teaching vocabulary
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Honestly, this is actually a gripe for me: nine times out of ten, a kanji whose reading I can barely remember during Apprentice and takes like a week or so to pass stops being a leech basically the moment I hit Guru and get some vocab for it. Learning the readings without anything to apply the reading to, even if it’s just for a couple days at Apprentice, seems kinda like a wasted opportunity. I know I could learn the vocabulary on the side, but then I’m spreading my WK stuff over multiple places 
If I could just learn the kanji alongside one or two pieces of vocab I’m pretty sure it’d cement each kanji way sooner, which is why the vocab’s even there. Although I do also get that the way WK gates lessons (especially with the picker) means implementing that would be basically impossible.
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I mean at level 25, I’d really suggest just moving towards what you explained
Start phasing out wanikani and start getting vocab from elsewhere
If you look at any WK frequency stats, the diminishing returns start to get real big after level 30
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Precisely. 記念日 is actually “commemoration day” or “memorial day”. The “anniversary” as derived from “annum” is X周年 where the X defines the number of years.
May I interest you in our lord and savior Anki? 
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The synonyms felt a bit much for me but once I got into more of a habit of reading around level 25-28, I started to quickly run into their use cases much more frequently. Only really more frequent exposure will make the words go from “just another way to say X” to “the way you say X in Y context.” For example Keigo definitely can feel useless if it’s just more items clogging reviews rather than something you’re encountering in your reading (or listening, or speaking).
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I’m starting to think this is where I’m at. It’s tough to justify wading through 2,000 WK reviews when I could be reading things like News Web Easy or working through the rest of Minna no Nihongo.
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I’ve dabbled with one of the Anki decks recommended here. If nothing else, I think it’s good for your brain to mix things up a bit: use a different program, read a different font, etc.
I think it also gets you used to the idea that you might see subtle differences in translation, that there’s not always one single correct English interpretation of a Japanese word.
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I understand what you mean, but I think this is looking at it the wrong way around.
The primary reason for the words is to give you hooks into the kanji. The words are the context for the kanji in the same way that sentence mining gives you context for the words.
A secondary benefit of learning some words out of context is that when you read or hear them in context it’s one less thing that you don’t understand. Beyond perhaps the 1000 or 1500 most common words I don’t think SRS for single words is efficient, but as a side effect of learning kanji it’s fine.
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It’s exactly that. So at around Level 20+, I started to learn next level’s vocabularies before leveling up, or otherwise delay doing new lessons. I might not dump into another SRS for the sake of learning, though.
I think there are people who auto-pass all Kanji until Guru, anyway.
I also noticed that WaniKani failed for Kanji to teach some readings, or some missing meanings, which could be a pain to rerun learning Kanji later – so additional vocabularies in Anki.
If the vocabularies are too few for a Kanji, why not just learn those few vocabularies immediately after the radicals?
There are also thoughts on how important or not important of meanings of vocabularies, especially if you didn’t really learn them in context. There are ones that are easier to learn in advance, and ones that aren’t.
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Renshuu.org is currently implementing a learning option that would let you do exactly that. You could also go the opposite direction and get vocab for a specific kanji. Idr if the release date for that feature has been estimated yet though
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Yup, guilty as charged. I am doing the Heisig method on Kanji: put all effort on nailing the meaning, and use the apprentice levels to get acquainted with the reading. Memorize the reading only as part of learning vocabulary. Works like a charm.
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Turns out you can click “levels” at the top of the home page, then click any level (for example the one you’re starting) and read any of the vocab you want. Then if you click any of the vocab items, it takes you to a page with the meaning, reading, explanation, context sentences, the whole thing. It’s everything you get in the lesson but you don’t have to wait. (also you don’t get credit for the reviews)
I’m not pointing that out to be a smart-ass. I mean, it seems obvious after you know, but I don’t think most people would think of that. Assuming of course it wouldn’t let you look at items you haven’t unlocked yet. Wrong, it does.
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I already do that, actually - via the ‘Used In Vocabulary’ section on the lessons themselves, in fact! My problem is less that they’re not available, but that WK still makes me review the kanji without that context, so I’d have to remember to manually look up all those words every day - or put them into another SRS, which would then get clogged with duplicate reviews for stuff I’d pick up on WK.
But obvs, like you and everyone else have said, there’s no way around ‘WK doesn’t do it, so you’ll have to do it yourself’, so I’d better starting doing it myself 
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Ah ok. I typically look over the vocab list for the new level once when I first level up, click any that seem like oddballs to get the memory seeded, and then not look again until they come up in lessons. It’s just a “preview”, but I think it’s helpful. I don’t actually WANT to get credit for the lesson at that point or for the review cycle to start, since I have enough reviews as it is.
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it’s hard for me to guess the right kanji if i am second guessing myself if this is the same kanji or not, only to figure out that the base meaning the same but the nuance is slightly off. it makes the whole process easy to “cheese” unless you’re more willing to learn, which i am. it’s just a gripe i have with the platform
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wait you’re onto something
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