Wayyy to slow

WaniKani Requesting Help
#81

This topic gets debated a lot, and people always make the same points. I agree that the users should be allowed to choose what pace they like as long as they’re able to make educated decisions.

Who is in a position to make educated decisions on this point? I’d say only the people who’ve been using the tool for some time, maybe from level 25 and up. So if I saw a contingent of level 25 and up users clamouring for the ability to go faster, I’d say that the overlords should consider adding that feature.

But the only people I’ve seen asking to go faster are well below that level. And the 25 and up group have been conspicuously absent in making this type of request.

Note that I’m in no way putting down or thinking less of lower level users. It’s only that they haven’t had the opportunity yet to experience what it’s like to use the system once it gets into high gear. At that point, it either takes all your time just to keep up, or leaves just enough time for users to take advantage of complementary study methods.

11 Likes
#82

While some complain it not that many people compared to how many active users there are.
I think the worry is likely that many users may blow though the first couple of levels on day and the next day they have massive review pile and say “peshh” that’s too much work this platform sucks.

This also seems to only be a issue if you have nothing else to do.
I did my first lessons, went off to do other stuff at the time like memrise and other non-Japanese stuff, came back the next day and did my reviews. I cant imagine that is a issue with most users.

The pace will speed up soon, you should not just be sitting at your computer refreshing the wanikani page waiting for reviews.

4 Likes
#83

gods help you end up in the hospital unexpectedly. happened to me and i’m only finally getting my review totals to manageable a few months on after picking up studies again.

#84

I started 5 or so weeks ago. I said the same thing at level 1. Thought this was a scam and what a joke.
Kept at it and I’m at level 6.

I’m thankful the pacing is the way it is. It is getting harder and harder to remember everything. There will be more and more and more per review and lessons in your future, and you will have harder time remembering everything so the pacing they have setup now is quite adequate unless you have photographic memory.

3 Likes
#85

The problem if you could speed up at these times is that you’ll then have spikes with more work when you master, enlighten and burn the items you learned at the times you decided to speed up because you had more time. And if you don’t have a lot of time at those times, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed (and then make more mistakes which will send items two levels back which will make even more reviews to do).

3 Likes
#86

Hi! I’m not sure what you think I was trying to say with my answer, but I was simply offering OP an explanation for the waiting times that they didn’t seem to understand why they were there. But here’s my take on your question…

First, I don’t know why the WK team made all the decisions they made, so I can’t speak for them; but to me it’s pretty clear what they’re offering:

  1. Mnemonics
  2. SRS
  3. “Gamified” experince (levels)

Now… none of those things are perefect and there might be other things they’re lacking, there’s definitely room for improvement, but they’re very straightforward about it, there are no surprises, what you see in the free levels and the guide is what you get.

Here’s what complaints about the level up system/mnemonics/SRS like yours (which, like I said, are the basis of the WK method) seem to me:

Imagine there’s an ice cream shop, you walk in and… SURPRISE! They sell ice cream. There are a few flavours and they have toppings as well. Now… you could complain about the lack of flavours (maybe they only ever have 2 of the 10 flavours listed on the menu), or the toppings are disgusting (bonito flakes, really?), or maybe the shop is dirty all the time or the attendant is really rude, those would all be reasonable complaints. But now imagine someone walks in saying stuff like: “But why does it HAVE to be ice cream? There are better desserts out there. I like cake better, why don’t you sell cake? Are you telling me that ice cream is better than cake??” Those are not reasonable complaints, the ice cream shop is just doing it’s thing, selling ice cream, it’s not making anyone buy it, it’s not telling other people to don’t eat other desserts 'cause ice cream is the only real dessert. So maybe you like cake better, but you can’t walk into an ice-cream shop and expect/demand them to sell cake instead just because you want.

So WK offers these three things, for the people that want those three things (I mean you can do without the mnemonics, but can’t really escape the levels or SRS), they’re not saying this is the best and only way to do it.

On the other hand, specifically talking about the “limit” of things you can learn, it seems to me that this complaint comes from not undestanding the implications of the system, which is alright, a lot (if not most) of us didn’t when we started. The items you learn add up because they will come back for another review, so it is expected that as you go through, even if you learn the same number of items every day/level, your daily workload will increase, being the sum of all your past workload; since at the beginning you don’t have any past workload, the sum is minimal, so you can’t tell how big it will get. For a new user it might not be clear, but given that many of us have tried to go full speed and burned out, it is evident that those limits are by no mean as strict as they seemed in the beginning.

5 Likes
#87

Your ice cream shop analogy isn’t bad but it does make a few critical errors…and to riff on it some more;

It’s a shop that we (people making these suggestions) have clearly stated that we like and support. We will be and have already been buying their ice cream and have stated that regardless, we will continue to do so.

We are not however saying to change from one product (ice cream) to another (cake) as we have stated that the ice cream is fine. All we are suggesting is that they expand how they offer the ice cream to pander to those that would like waffle cones or a cup rather than just the plain cone. In short; the same product but with options.

Furthermore, judging by the number of times these options are mentioned in the store’s suggestion box, they might want to explore expanding their options as clearly there is a demand there.

Options are not change. They are just options.

I’ll going to avoid the level/mnemonics/SRS points for now as that’s going deeper and unless the core idea of “options are not to be feared” can be met then there is no point to dive deeper.

I wrote this quickly while making dinner so please excuse any errors…

1 Like
#88

Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed.

6 Likes
#89

Well that’s a first. Mind sharing why you ‘loathe’ my system? You’re free to loathe or hate on whatever you want, but I figured I can get some valuable feedback then? ^^

#90

Oh I read it as the katakana writing system, but i think he’s replying right now to maybe clarify.

3 Likes
#91

シツソン, what else needs to be said

Edit:

Oh, I think @Vanilla is right

#92

@ Borx,
I also found myself burned out around level 18. How many lesson do you take when you started limiting the lessons?

1 Like
#93

IMO it’s a form of institutionalized racism or more mildly put, xenophobia. I can’t think of another writing form on the planet that is used to specifically denote that something is foreign. Sure there are other usages for it but look to China and they don’t seem to have this same need…heck Japan could totally use new compound for TV (电视) rather than テレビ.

I’d actually love to know why this system was kept rather than just adopt the Chinese philosophy to new words and phrases way back when.

#94

Its not tho. You see lots of stuff that arent foreign written in katakana, and that wasn’t even its original use.

4 Likes
#95

Original usage was to denote things from China…

Yes, it’s used in other was too (Japanese italics if you will) but the primary roll is denotation of foreign words.

#96

My bad, I completely misunderstood your post (as others pointed out) :sweat_smile:

1 Like
#97

It comes up over and over because people don’t read the information they are supposed to read. I suppose WaniKani could post a message before people do their first lessons that unskippable to make sure it’s read.

1 Like
#98

Not 100% sure what you are referring to but if it’s the “speed” issue, a note in level one wouldn’t fix that…

#99

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> Blockquote

Do you remember which add-on changes the colors of your review items? Your Vocab is green, mine is purple and your Kanji is yellow, mine is pink. I used to have it like that for quite some time until Firefox forced me to update and I lost some of my add-ons and scrips in the process. I never figured out which setting or add-on changes the colors on WK. :confused:

#100

Japanese doesn’t use either of those Kanji. Jisho lists two kanji words for television (電視 and
受像機) but I’ve never seen either of them used. They aren’t necessary when テレビ is just fine and much easier.