How do you guys learn vocab not on WaniKani?

I think that learning vocab is easier when it’s learned inside of a sentence, and that’s why the Tango anki decks are pretty neat. Also, I use both iKnow and Clozemaster together. Separately, neither really seem that great, but using them back-to-back is immensely useful, at least for me (using the mobile app versions vs the desktop also seems to improve efficiency for me).

Removing the Japanese from Zero mention as OP wants to focus on vocab, which is JFZ’s weakest area

@OP there are a lot of vocab training apps that are free. On an app store, type in “N5 vocab NDC” or whatever JLPT level you are looking for. The NDC Lab apps are great for drilling vocab.

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Mainly by reading whatever I randomly encounter. Here’s a useful program:

This is something I’ve been kind of struggling with as well. I know WK isn’t really a great vocabulary resource, but I have yet to find anything else to supplement it that works for me. I’ve had trouble with core Anki decks in the past since I run the risk of running into words with kanji I don’t know, and that makes it a lot harder for the written form of the word to stick in my head.

I’ve heard of Torii SRS for non-kanji vocabulary, but the fact that it has no iOS app or freely available web version (currently there’s a beta web version that you can sign up for and maybe you’ll get access to it) has been a problem for me. I’m out of the house like 9-10 hours out of the day, so I can’t be prompt in doing reviews like I can be with WK. I downloaded it and tried it out, but it only took a few days before I just fell out of the habit of checking in on it.

It just makes me wish that WK could be a one-stop shop for most generally common vocabulary to at least give you a good base, because I really like its “I’ll make sure you know a kanji before showing you any words that use it” system. Learning new words commonly written in kanji would be relatively easy, and I wouldn’t have to stack up additional SRS apps and risk overwhelming myself. But alas, that’s not how it is, and I’m not really sure what else to try.

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Thanks for this thread, I actually kind of struggle with this myself and will check out the few resources you have linked!

What I do takes more time than most options, I guess, but it works for me because I’m not in a hurry to learn japanese.

Whenever I read, I write down sentences that interest me in a notebook (maybe it showcases specific grammar points or vocabulary, or it contains an expression I want to learn…). Then after a couple of days I revise the sentences, I manually add them to the SRS platform I use and I put the interesting part of the sentence in bold (to signal to the mingus5x of the future what was the point of saving that sentence). Sometimes I add mnemonics to the vocab word.

I add some extra steps, but basically SRS all the way. Otherwise, I think it’s so hard to systematically pick up random words in a language that is completely different from any language you know. But different people have different talents, who knows.

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  1. Listening to music and translating/matching vocab
  2. Reading, and eventually encountering the word enough damn times that I remember it
  3. Watching anime w/ JP (and Eng) subs

Music: I make a google doc and paste the lyrics into it. Then I go through that, and write in furigana for any words I don’t know the readings for. Then I paste in the translation line by line, and color code things to match for words that I don’t know, or want to reinforce. Example: LiSa 紅蓮華(ぐれんげ) (Gurenge). Earlier on, I used to make a table w/ all the kanji/vocab & their meanings.

Reading: I particularly like Satori Reader, which has curated stories, with narration, excellent grammar and culture notes, and built-in SRS. For reading light novels or manga, I’ll just look stuff up w/ Yomichan. For LNs I usually use Google Keep to grab the image text, and then c/p that into a text editor or google doc, and then run stuff through https://ichi.moe/. I’ll usually run it through Mokuro as well, so I can have it up in the browser. A perhaps simpler approach would be using https://jpdb.io/'s decks for whatever you’re trying to read (they have built-in SRS).

Anime: I watch things via Animelon, which lets you watch with simultaneous JP & Eng subs, and easily click on text for definitions, or select it & c/p it elsewhere.

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I’ve looked into flash card systems on the computer, but it all comes down to myself discovering word lists, manually inserting them and using a program that isn’t as simple as WaniKani.

if you set up Yomichan in your browser, there’s a way to select words & immediately create Anki cards out of them. A little tricky to setup, but once it’s there, it’s very straight forward.

Otherwise, I did get some vocab via LingoDeer app (though the main focus is on grammar). Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about those specific words so much. Eventually you’ll encounter them enough that you’ll just remember what they mean.

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This is going to be a little off-topic, buuuuut:

You’re going to find that to be a recurring issue on Apple mobile devices. It’s not a problem that’s going to go away anytime soon. I work in IT and I have seen every other platform embrace and promote a combination of virtualization and mobilazation/appification strategies that enable them to stay relevant, but Apple staunchly sticks with its locked down ecosystem.

The price of convenience is starting to catch up with Apple users as that platform has failed to innovate or even continue treading water since the departure of the only forward-looking person in the company.

Since the writing is on the wall, you may want to switch over to an Android mobile device.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of migrating away from Apple and more towards Linux/more open source and developer-friendly stuff, so whenever it’s time to get a new phone I may consider that option.

Lots of pros to it. Incidentally, Jelly Defense looks and sounds amazing emulated on Windows on a 50" screen.

Started off learning vocab simply through my grammar study source, Minna no Nihongo. That gave me 5000+ words to start with.

But after that, it’s all immersion. I’m not a big fan of out of context learning, going through like, top 10k most viewed word lists. I simply read a lot and use the app (I think it’s called 調べ辞書 or something like that) to look up unknown words. The cool thing is you can save the words you look up with just a click, so it doesn’t disrupt your reading experience. And it has a flashcard option as well, allowing you to quiz you on all the new words you saved. This is fantastic because you need to review new words a lot right off the bat to commit them to short-term memory. Then in the evening, I’ll go over my list of marked words, and the ones that I remember well, I’ll transition them to Anki for long-term memory. It’s been working so well I couldn’t imagine another approach better for me than this.

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I’m curious, what kind of content are you reading online/digitally? As an aspiring Japanese reader, I’m interested to learn more about this approach. I have Yomichan in combination with Anki that seemingly can do the same thing you’re describing, I just haven’t tried it out yet (or really even know where to start.)

I just read manga. The good thing about manga is that many of them are in furigana, so you can really focus on understanding the “Japanese behind the kanji” instead of struggling with another layer of difficulty. You’ll never read with kanji if you can’t read without. And once you decide to make that jump, there’s more than enough manga without furigana that you can use to get used to reading before you attempt reading an actual Japanese novel.

Graded readers, stuff like satori reader or other reading sources users commonly recommend - I never really liked those. They just weren’t fun to me. But manga, I’ve read almost 30 volumes in less than two months. It truly doesn’t even feel like work. It’s been unbelievably fun and I feel the benefits have been astonishing so far.

I suppose the best tip I can give you for getting into reading: just try to find something that really gets you going, something you can become genuinely invested in.

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I’ve found that just doing a lot of reading and listening practice has helped me to learn vocabulary. The youtube channel しのせんせい has really nice story videos where you can get both reading and listening practice. I also play videogames in Japanese, looking up words in an online dictionary as I go. Eventually words just start to stick, and it’s fun. Graded readers, books, and manga have been useful too.

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jpdb.io and a core 6k deck on Anki, as well as mining.

Reading. If I don’t recognize the word, I look it up on Goo’s dictionary, copy the english definition with example sentences, put on the back on the anki card, then find a image that represents said vocab in a way I will remember it for the front of the anki card, then click add and practice.

I try to limit myself to things I can’t get out of context or it keeps coming up in a way where I feel like not knowing it is holding me back.

I thought I might be the only old-school one here… but seems like there is at least one other person here :slight_smile:

I manually write any vocab I come across down on flashcards, so I can easily flip through them to do my own SRS memorization. I have been truly enjoying seeing my flashcard “pile” build up as I go. This takes a lot of extra work, but the act of writing it down seems to make it stick in my brain easier than just quickly reading it on a screen and saying goodbye to it.

I get these pre-cut and hole punched flashcards on Amazon: Flashcards for Studying

I work at home so I don’t have to carry around my flashcards everywhere. Makes it easy for me, and I have struggled to find apps that have everything I want, and I can use for years to come without losing data. I am also a picky person when it comes to apps, being a UI/UX designer. If it looks ugly, I’m not going to use it lol :rofl:

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Yeah that’s why Torii and Kitsun.io have always been non-starters for me.

It has its trade offs, but so does Android’s platform. Honestly, you’re just picking between which trade offs matter to you.

I personally like Apple’s MDM better than Android.

I doubt things are as bleak as all that. And in the consumer space, Apple users hold the overwhelming lead as far having users willing to spend money so not being on IOS is just leaving money on the table.

That being said, IOS development and app review is a major PITA, so I can see why smaller companies just don’t do it.

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Kitsun, 10k voiced deck, exclude words from WK, 10 new cards daily (will ramp up once Im done with WK).

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It’s a little off-topic, but let’s swing back to this in about 4 years. It will be interesting to see if the mobile device situation has any significant upcoming changes in store.