What are the best supplementary resources for WaniKani? What about after WaniKani?

#7

Yes, I was wondering about that worry as well. It is extremely unlikely to fail N1 only because you had problems with obscure kanji. It is good to have a look at them of course, but there are more fruitful ways to spend your preparation time. Even the people designing the tests would know it was just malicious to keep asking foreigners stuff you don’t need in daily life.

On the positive side after you reach level 60 (or rather say 30–40) it is easy to learn any missing ones (it’s not a shame to be a completionist). You already know all parts the kanji are constructed of, they are often semantic-phonetic compounds, and they are more regular in that regard. You won’t ask yourself the question “how do I learn the rest?” then, you can just do it.

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#8

Yeah, there are a grand total of 6 questions in the N1 kanji section. They are sure to use them on hard, but not super obscure, kanji.

Everything else that involves reading kanji (like in the reading comprehension section) is going to be influenced by if the words themselves are considered N1 words.

I’m pretty sure if 蚕 appeared it would be one of those things with a note explaining it.

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#9

Silkworm is not a difficult Kanji to learn, and although it may be obscure in print, it is very useful in the primary school classroom…

#10

There’s nothing inherently difficult about the shape of most kanji.

I’m not sure what you mean about primary school expect that that’s when Japanese people learn it.

#11

I quite like Japanese for busy people as a resource for learning grammar and expand vocabulary/listening skills. Having tried Genki as well, I find Japanese for busy people much better for the self learner as it doesn’t assume you’re a teenager in a classroom environment. On top of that I’d suggest Lingodeer, a free app that also helps a lot.

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#12

I also like LingoDeer quite a lot. I’ve heard it doesn’t go that far but it’s effective to teach the content it has however incomplete it may be.

Here are the exact numbers per subject types, extracted using the API :
Radical : 478
Kanji : 2027
Vocabulary : 6301

I think that 2047 is more than you need. The list of joyo kanji includes 2136 kanji but many of them are useless.

I think that from a certain point, you know enough to be able to learn by practice. Just use your Japanese and learn when you encounter new things.

Here is a page linking to everything you could dream of related to learning Japanese : The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List! .

#13

Primary School is the first six or seven years of formal schooling and is an age where many children are silkworm obsessed!

#14

I like Japanese from Zero, the YouTube videos are great!

#15

This must be region-based, because I don’t think I (or anyone I ever knew) spent any time in their life caring about silkworms.

#16

I used to keep silk worms, though that was back when I was in kindergarten or first grade. We had a mulberry tree in our back garden.

#17

Do I know you? :wink:

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#18

Japanese are certainly obsessed with bugs, but the craze seem to be these guys:

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/37/49/5833749.e2ea30b7.500.jpg

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#19

Some unconventional aproach to learning grammar could be the one I do. I’m not sure if right away if you don’t have any background, but at least after the most basic of textbooks you should be ok to give it a try.

I do sentence mining using this method with Anki and some plugins.

I keep both the first 2 volumes of the Dicitonary of Japanese Grammar series and Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns at hand and resolve doubts as they appear in this terrific reference books.

Japanese the Manga Way serves as a great companion book for having actual samples with the use of those grammar points while explaning nuances in their use. I read it every week, it’s fun and a light reading, yet really clarifying in some aspects.

As far as grammar and learning it, I would limit all the SRS and nice apps to a minimum and just start reading (graded readers for japanese learners, basic japanese tales aimed at children, etc; and move forward as you see possible)
The SRS apps are great for memorizing… yet grammar it’s something your have to experience over and over to come through and get the actual uses for each grammar point.

#20

We all had silkworm farms as kids; the neighbourhood mulberry trees were very popular…

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#21

You also get people like me who are fiber geeks and can’t wait to use words like 蚕糸 in context.

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#22

So I take it this is a British thing? Never heard of anyone farming silkworms where I grew up.

And maybe more the more relevant point… my girlfriend says she’s not aware of Japanese kids being particularly interested in silkworms. She’s never heard of anyone keeping them anyway.

You can’t really use 蚕 in a British primary school.

#23

Nope not a british thing, rarely used the word silkworm in my life, i’m as confused as you are here. :rofl:

#24

One of my Japanese friends mentioned his son brought home a silkworm from school for some kind of project.

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#25

Okay, well that’s one.

My girlfriend is a native Japanese (grew up there) and is an elementary school teacher, so she’s surrounded by them all the time.

That’s where her perspective of “never really heard of Japanese kids being interested in them” is coming from.

Not trying to fight everyone. Go ahead and learn 蚕 if you want.

#26

hopefully they feed them

@gojarappe

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