Will KaniWani just fill my mind with word I don't need to know yet?

Yes, most of the grammar and reading on the N4 test was in hiragana from what I remember.

It doesn’t stop you learning more here on WK, because you’ll see kanji that reinforces vocab etc, but the reading was actually more difficult because of all the hiragana.

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Got it, I was just gonna edit my post cause I found this as well:

Continuing the discussion from Wanikani levels and jlpt:

I think I was around level 17 when I did N4 and knew way more kanji than what was required.

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I agree with everybody defending the vocab on WK, as usual, but I wouldn’t say it’s useful enough for a beginner that they ought to be concerned with using KaniWani. It’s overwhelming when you start a new language, and I would definitely want to focus on the standard beginner words that will let me construct basic sentences using the grammar I’m learning.

There’s nothing wrong with the vocab on WaniKani, but I wouldn’t be spending my precious time giving it extra work on KaniWani for now.

I’ve got KaniWani set up to drill burned items, so it won’t become relevant to me for several more months anyway.

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This is really useful to know. I was gunning for the N4 at level 27. Thanks!

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I mean, there’s still the possibility of learning WK’s vocab or doing KW later on… but why would you do that? Sure, getting extra free time for other things might be useful… but you’d lose momentum of something that you’ll eventually have to learn.

If you can’t find time for WK + KW, either improve your efficiency (my 3 times/day routine) or reduce your speed. The cool thing about learning Kanji on WK is that you easily reach a point where kanji is your best skill and you simply don’t need it much higher to practice your other skills.

I did N4 around lvl 26 and I only didn’t know 1 or 2 kanji in the entire test. The unknown kanji had furigana though, so we weren’t expected to know the kanji.

ahem… My 3-Times/Day Routine™ :smirk:

Hmm… Also good to know. Let me reassess my goals after taking the J-CAT.

PS
Did you notice the trademark? LOL

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Probably true that Kanji is at the moment one of my, if not, my strongest skill. I surprise myself when I don’t know a seemingly basic word. I tend to concentrate on WK a bit too much I think, but the good thing is I can cool down and go at my own pace as you said and study elsewhere

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I think the only kanji word I saw on the N4 test that I hadn’t previously seen on WK was 野菜

To be clear, I’m not advocating ignoring the WK vocab. I’m just not convinced that drilling it on KaniWani as well is necessary to begin with.

And I could use the extra time to learn other “things that I’ll eventually have to learn”. I like the delay of putting it off until I’ve burned the items, because it lets you focus on more useful vocab for complete beginners, while also avoiding any possible interference with the WK SRS.

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Yes :stuck_out_tongue:

Sometimes basic words use a more “advanced” kanji, but I think that’s okay. You should use WK’s kanji order to your advantage, not against you. It’s easier to learn words when you recognize the kanji then forcing yourself to just learn the hiragana version. You’ll eventually need to learn the kanji version too, so…

Kanji-specific questions are a small part of the JLPT. It goes without saying that WK is a resource for specializing on kanji, and if general Japanese is your concern you should be devoting more time to other things.

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Yeah, you’re right you didn’t say that.

I’m not fluent in Japanese yet and I’m somewhere between N4 and N3 grammar-wise. However, I live in Spain and learned to speak Spanish fluently so I could point you in that direction from a general language learning perspective.

Fluency is achieved by knowing a core of the most common everyday vocabulary and expressions that natives use so well that you don’t even translate it consciously. So when you see 猫 or hear ねこ (or any one of up to 10,000 words) your mind reacts the same way it does when you hear see the equivalent in your native language.

So in my case I don’t want to be thinking… 猫 → cat → meaning
but this… 猫 → meaning

In other words, you want your mind to have the same experience with 猫 that it does with cat. The same way that in English my mind has the same experience with the words “maybe” and “perhaps”. They’re essentially the same thing. I think the key to knowing these words so well is you have to become emotionally engaged with them. Language learning isn’t an entirely intellectual process. A lot of conversational speech is purely emotional and subjective. Think about how you’d say this in your native language. 僕は犬が大好きです。What tone of voice would you use? Which word would you stress? Do you even like dogs? Is 僕は犬が大嫌いです。more appropriate? Practising sentences about how you personally feel about stuff really burns things into your mind.

It’s no coincidence that the language you speak best (most likely your native language) is the language that you understand best only with your ear. Practicing your listening comprehension is key. It’s absolutely crucial. Ideally one should spend half an hour to an hour daily practising listening if possible. The reason many people avoid doing this is that at the beginning it’s the most difficult, frustrating, and disheartening aspect of learning a language.

Use the Anki core listening decks and https://supernative.tv for active listening practice and use anime/japanese radio for passive listening.

Hope this big rambling message helps

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Oh wow, supernative is a completely new site for me. Absolutely never heard of it before. :open_mouth: Thanks a lot!

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No worries. I just discovered it two weeks ago and I’m loving it.

such a great website!!!
great idea Shadowing with voice recognition :exploding_head:

Thanks!

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I wonder how legal that site is, though… I mean, how and from where did they acquire all those clips?

I tested the website and that the videos are posted on Youtube, not sure by who. The website seems to be legal, doubt the youtube clips are though.

If your grammar and vocab won’t be N4 level by the time you want to take the N4, then spend your time elsewhere. If its important to pass the n4 this year, then you should probably use your time outside of WK to focus on that. You only need level 16 to know 95% of the kanji on it, so thats taken care of assuming you dont have level up times the speed of a dead snail.

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