When to start leaning vocabulary?

[Chaly]

Hello!
So I unlocked kanji recently, and I’ve learnt that words don’t come in the order of usefullness in Wanikani and mostly are there to illustrate the kanji (or BE the kanji if it’s a one-kanji word). However, I’m very eager to start some basic reading!! Even forming something like “i ate a banana” is a huge “wow!!!” to me and the key to memorising (i spelt that wrong did i) things. That’s how I learnt English xD

And for that I need some words and basic grammar. Obviously, I should start with the words to form sentences with!
So I’ve started a hiragana-only words Anki deck.

a little rant, doesn't have to do much with the topic

HOWEVER, I don’t remember from where did I take it. Are the words correct? Are they the core ones I need? Are those more frequently spelled with kanji so I shouldn’t learn the hiragana version? Too much contemplating, yup.

Should I wait and let WaniKani teach me the words? If I can start by myself, where can I get a very basic vocab+grammar thing (book, video, guide, deck, script, anything really)?
Thank you!

P. S: I’m not complaining about slowness. It’s fine! I’m just interested in other aspects of the language and want to explore while I have a little amount of lessons and reviews.

[Haios]

memorising

It’s right. Unless you were going for the American spelling, which would be; memorizing.

Try something like Duolingo, Memrize or whatever out of the hundreds of apps that exist. There’s the 2k Core Anki deck as well. That’s what I can think of at the top of my head. Wait for others to reply, they’ll tell you about hundreds of tools available on the internet.

[Chaly]

It’s right. Unless you were going for the American spelling, which would be; memori z ing.

ohhh, that’s why I got so confused… Thanks! Half of my brain thought it’s fine, while the other was like “WhAt Is ThIs”

Try something like Duolingo, Memrize or whatever out of the hundreds of apps that exist

Hmm… Well, trying a few would not take much time, although from english experience apps like these are b a d. Maybe it’s alright for some basics, though

[Haios]

Maybe it’s alright for some basics, though

Yep. You’ll be saying,

• My name is …

• I like bananas

And similar sentences very quickly. And there’s also the Anki Core decks.

[Nedeli]

If you use Android, I recommend an app called Torii. It has the 10k deck built in but you can customize what you learn. I’m now learning N2 vocab on it but you can choose any jlpt level.

Or you could start reading through Tae Kim’s book and pick up basic vocab and grammar from there at the same time.

Checking out The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List is always worth it as well.

Edit: I replied to the wrong person… Go me! Sorry @Haios

[Chaly]

(pss, i think you replied to the wrong person^^")
Thank you! I’ll look up the app.

The list, however, scares me xDD When you have so much at hand, you just wanna try EVERY SINGLE THING!

[anon47593806]

i recommend 昨日 sakubi or tae kim for basic grammar. they’re both free but tae kim’s guide is more popular. i’ve never used tae kim so i can’t speak much about that. the sakubi guide assumes you know kana (hiragana and katakana) and basic vocabulary. the creator also encourages you not to memorize everything and to dive into native material asap. it’s very easy to reference once you go through it.

in addition, you should download yomichan and a japanese to english dictionary to go with. when you hover over a word, it displays a popup window with the defintion. that way, the unknown words can be easily learned through exposure. this will make going through the guide easier for you if you don’t want to wait do a basic vocabulary deck. among many other things, this guide teaches you how to easily import words from yomichan to an anki deck.

Are those more frequently spelled with kanji so I shouldn’t learn the hiragana version?

i don’t think there is a point in doing a hiragana-only deck because if you see that word with kanji, you won’t know the meaning of it. for example, the word かっこいい (basically “cool”) is usually written in katakana but it can also be written as 格好いい as well. if you know the kanji variant then you also know what it means when it’s in kana.

i don’t want to overwhelm you so i’ll keep it at just that. good luck!

[Nedeli]

Yeah, I did lmao.

I think it’s ok to try out all the things. When you start learning a completely new language it can take a while to find the best things for you. I’ve tried out so many things this community has to offer and I especially love supporting new programs like Bunpro, for example.