Everyone on Wanikani uses it to better their kanji skills, I assume anyway. But is kanji your only weakpoint?
Besides Kanji, I have a weak point in my actually speakings skills. The language when I talk comes out clumsy, or unintelligible. Some would say that I simply need to use it more, which I concede is a good idea, however its hard to find the time, and speaking a foreign language to yourself on public transit will get you a few unwanted stares.
Itās definitely Kanji.
Not that Iām particularly good in the other areas but Kanji is certainly the worst. Thereās still a long way for me to Japanese fluency
Wanikani is helping a lot with reading and vocabulary, but I still have no idea about writing. If I donāt do anything about it that will be my ultimate weakness >.<
āEducatedā guess: most people will say their weakness lies in speaking.
That aside, I donāt have much trouble on that front - at least to what comes to spoken Japanese speed, pronunciation and listening. However, Iām seriously lacking in (useful) VOCAB (something WK will not be able to amend or alleviate that much, imho)
Also grammar still gives me a headache sometimes. I have to twist the sentences around a few times, if the thing I want to say is slightly more complicated sigh
edit: seeing @carlostdevās reply, I wonder if my āgut-feelingā about the ails of us Wanikanians is wrong!
To be fair, speaking is the hardest thing. Itās literally impossible for someone to have better active knowledge than passive knowledge though, so I think people have unrealistic expectations. Like, when people complain about the speaking ability of people with N1, sometimes you get the impression they expect that āN1 speakingā would be on the level of the N1 listening content, but thatās obviously unrealistic.
Listening. Especially when it comes out the blue or if thereās a sudden change of topic. I actually find speaking fairly easy. Perhaps because Iāve spent a long time as a teacher, Iām fairly good at circumlocution and donāt have that nasty habit of just clamming up if I donāt know the exact word I need.
Well, Iām only in my third month, so I guess everything, lol!
But I figured out my priorities. Out of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking - I want my end goal to be proficient in Reading and Listening. So Iām doing as much as I can to learn grammar and kanji and vocab with WaniKani (kanji/vocab) and NihongoMaster for the grammar. I practice writing now and then, but thatās not a big priority, Iād just like to be able to write things simply because Kanji looks so beautiful.
For Listening Iām using JapanesePod and I always repeat what they say. Hopefully Iāll eventually also be able to speak and be understood, but itās ok for me if it comes out āclumsyā.
iām getting better with kanji as i go on, so i wouldnāt say itās too much of a weak point!
i personally find i have a hard time with recalling things when i need to say them- its one of the worst things ever!!!
Listening for sure. I can understand basic short sentences (if they talk slowly) but whenever I listen to podcasts or watch videos in Japanese itās really hard to keep up with what theyāre saying.
Staying within the same level of politeness. Unfortunately, I have a habit of switching between polite and casual speech during conversation, which makes people uncomfortable. Iām so focused on trying to get my thoughts through, that I just blurt out anything my mind comes up with, and usually thereās not enough time to fix the grammar on the fly
Ehā¦ thatās not unusual among native speakers, to use polite and casual speech in the same conversation. Do you actually know theyāre uncomfortable? I mean, there are definitely things you can say that are just rude, but I wouldnāt be surprised if people arenāt actually that bothered by what youāre describing.
Actually, my teacher poined it out. He said that if Iāll mix polite and casual speech, it will make people uncomfortable, because they will be confused as to our relationship - if I treat them as friends, or if I prefer to put some distance. It sounded reasonable enough, so I just believed that. But itās good to know I donāt need to fret too much about it.
Well, I guess if thereās anyone you shouldnāt be doing it with itās your teacher. But take comfort in knowing that in real life people arenāt quite that strict.
Then again, I do live in Kansai, where things can be a little easier going too.
grammar: itās so boring I canāt bring myself to actively study/exercise and just sort of hope to get it by listening to a bunch of japaneseā¦ like via osmosis or something. itās not working (it worked just fine when I was learning english though).
Probably speaking, because I canāt really practise with other than myself. But I also suck at grammar and making actual sentences, so thereās that too. I still have a long way to go.
