That’s been my experience as well. I actually prefer kanji and think it really makes the language easier. You’d be surprised how many people look at me funny when I say that.
I’m actually starting to realize this. I don’t really like Wanikani’s radicals for that purpose (mostly), but I think it would be beneficial if I learned the 部首.
I agree on this point, but that’s just based on where I am with learning the language. I’ll do the WK way for the lesson, then set all of their synonyms to “radical” so I can just…skip them. The major reason being that I already know the 部首, and the minor reason being that I don’t use the mnemonics for anything 
Surely you already know all of the kanji you’ve seen in the first 5 levels anyway (and presumably most of the kanji throughout all 60 levels).
I think even if I didn’t, the WK mnemonics might not be the best for me. Some of them are pretty funny, but I’ve never been great at utilizing longer mnemonics. I’ve heard the mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets and the one for the quadratic formula throughout my whole life and I still can’t recite either one of them properly (I do know both things; I just can’t remember the mnemonic).
For the readings, I do find the mnemonics useful, but in a different way. I’m supposed to remember a story. But instead, I just take the salient points. “Sheep. Yogurt. You.” I don’t even remember what the story was. And then eventually I don’t even need those because the readings are cemented in my head.
But they do help for a small bit of time, and that’s still useful enough to me to spring for a lifetime…
I always had trouble with those too. The stories were just too long for me to focus on to begin with, let alone remember.
I’ve personally found phonetic components to be the most helpful for remembering readings. I used the mnemonics on occasion for readings, but only when I was desperate.
Hmm. Phonetic components. I’ll have to look into that.
I respect the two Japanese language teachers I had in high school (both were native speakers) and I wish they weren’t coy about the fact that textbook Japanese does not accurately reflect natural Japanese spoken by natives. I feel like there is a huge disparity between textbook Japanese and real Japanese, as opposed to textbook English, which seems to be much closer to how it’s actually spoken.
Also yeah I wish I was taught dictionary form as opposed to masu form early on. I remember in classes when you’d get shunned for NOT using masu form, which imo is a terrible way to prepare students to use it. It obviously is important for speaking to seniors, but this discouraged students from understanding more casual Japanese.
probably i wish i had known about wanikani or tofugu in general. kanji overwhelmed me so much at the beginning i avoided it for 9 months. i don’t even remember what i did in those months but with just kana, probably not much.
I wish at the beginning I had learn that sentences in Japanese basically just need one main verb including implied state of being(not counting slang/colloquial speech)
I wish I knew about Wanikani earlier. I had taken Japanese at university for two years before I started using it. I liked this learning method far better than what I was doing in school and basically had to restart learning kanji.
I’ve heard about this… How do I learn this “actual” Japanese?
Ditch あなた、どうぞよろしくお願いします、君、and the other outlandish pretenses textbooks provide you. And you’re off on the road to speaking it. Good luck!
Side note, I have never heard a Japanese person say ではありません outside of the high school classroom. Ever.
textbooks teach proper japanese, it’s just a bit formulaic. beginner lessons also tend to add subjects without need.
saying though that textbook japanese is not “real japanese” isn’t quite correct.
I can actually think of a lot of things i wouldve liked to know right away that i was never told
(And i started learning in a classroom setting, only thing it remembered since was kana)
Since ditching everything from there and finding my own ressources ive actually progressed massively.
Also i have developed the cynical view that language schools are a scam. (But im sure thats just because good teachers are hard to come by)
Overall i wish i had been taught from more of a top down approach.
To be taught specifically about japanese word classes, inflections, modifications and how all the particles fit into it all.
After teaching myself these things and disregarding everything i know about western grammar i found everything to be quite easy and straighforward.
Edit: The word i was looking for was “Agglutinative” which japanese is very heavy on.
I have heard it used very commonly in a business context and in other situations where I have been speaking 丁寧語. (I am often older or hold a more senior position than the people that I am talking to, and so I tend to both use and be spoken to in very polite Japanese.)
I assume that you are probably younger or the same age as the people that you are speaking with? If you are just talking with friends that would explain why you haven’t heard it used.
I wish that there had been more emphasis on Katakana and that I had been taught to take “Loan Words” more seriously as part of the Japanese language (and not to think of them as English, French or Portuguese words said with a Japanese accent 
)
Katakana is a real weakness for my reading fluency…
can totally relate. The more reading I do, the more I get stuck on Katakana words that I would easily have understood if they were written in hiragana or kanji. It turns out Katakana is used for style as well as loanwords.
I wish TextFugu didn’t teach everything in polite mode first. Having to learn to do casual verbs by converting from the ます form is a bit めんどくさい. That said, the lessons were fun and I did get to where I could do the opposite easily, so
It would have have made life so much easier!
My tips for teachers:
~ explain why masuform exists AND at the same time teach dictionaryform
~ immediately start kanji learning, don’t wait
~ start speaking from day 1
~ don’t say things are complicated, or difficult (even if you think so, keep it a secret)