I set myself the objective of catching up with her so we can study together but I’m really behind at the moment as I’m just about level 6 (missing one to reach next level).
I’ll keep track of bugs or issues within Wanikani as I go along as well.
Bugs:
*万: normally you can type numbers (1, 2, etc…) but you get a wrong answer if you type in 10 000.
*“by the end of the year” requires spaces. Normally you can type in an answer without spaces. They probably forgot to code it in.
When providing a single kanji, no incation of the reading is provided (kun’yomi or on’yomi)
*For 「大会」“tournament” is a good answer but “competition” is wrong.
Is there are rule for the softening of a consonant in a word such as:
大声「おおごえ」instead of [おおこえ」
I’ll update as I reach a new level or if I notice something. Sometimes some answers are synonyms but are refused such as 毎年 every year is good but each year is wrong.
Some notes on stuff giving me trouble:
本来: have trouble remembering “originally” as a meaning.
～年来: keep thinking this means “recent years” (the year which come) but it means “for some years”, I need to think of something to differentiate this one.
大声「おおごえ」Keep misremembering this as たいご. Having trouble using the correct on’yomi with this one.
近年：This one means “recent years”. That’s the one I keep getting confused with 年来.
体＆休: I couldn’t tell these two apart until I took some time to compare them. I’m ok now.
入力: This one has been the hardest for me. The りょく reading of 力 keep tripping me up.
I feel like りょく is a reading of 力 you’re going to get very comfortable with in the coming levels - most of the vocab containing it seem to use that reading so you’ll definitely have it reinforced through exposure
For 年来:
“the years start coming and they don’t stop coming” seems to be what I think of for it and that to me gives me the right meaning - maybe that’ll help you? I don’t know, I feel like thinking of it in terms of the passage of time helps
近年:
Nearby years = recent years - I tend to think of the current year surrounded by the nearby (or recent) years
With 本来 I think that’s something else you might just get more comfortable with over time as long as you make an effort to remember 本 also meaning “origin”
June 17th 2021 A.D.: Zizka has reached level 6. Let’s see how long it takes me to reach level 7.
Thanks for the help good sir. Actually, later on I realised that ～来年 had the little ～ before it and then it clicked for me that it would mean “for years”.
I don’t know what the average is to pass a level. I’ve heard of two weeks, we’ll see.
Day Two Notes: (TOP SECRET) 156 to review
毎月「まいつき」This one is a bit odd in the sense that 月「つき」for me was a reference to the moon, not the month. I thought がつ／げつ was used for anything ‘‘month’’ related.
生える「はえる」to grow. I’m not used to this reading of 生.
何月「なんげつ」trying to determine if there’s a logic to using げつ／がつ as I often make mistakes because of that.
分ける・分かる confusing the too often.
作用 is not さくよう, the く is not part of that reading.
Not to be confused with 作文 which does require the さ.
行う「おこなう」Completely foreign reading to me.
In order to remember:
Someone is giving out an order to Otto to carry out something: Otto now! (おとなう）
From what I can tell so far the logic is that がつ refers to a non-relative month - when you’re referring to specific months like “June” or something (and asking which month is non-relative too since the 何 is a placeholder for a number here). げつ seems to be used with relative time - “next month” and “last month” for example since those are relative to your point in time
Someone can correct me if my understanding is off, but I think that’s the general rule for when がつ and げつ show up
DAY 3: Captain’s log star date June 19th 2021. Earth, solar system: 74 reviews.
Entry: Typos piss me off when I get a mistake about it.
I made a mistake in my previous message regarding: 行う. I said it was “Otto” but it should be “Oko” for the way to remember it. Just a slight but important correction. 里心 another softening of こころ. Hope there’a rule to determine when to soften and when not to. I put in ‘‘away from school’’ and got it wrong. I’ll email owners about it. ‘‘Absent from school’’ and ‘‘away from school’’ is the same thing. Need to be careful in distinguishing 分かる／分ける. Still getting confused about げつ／がつ. 毎月「まいげつ」。 入学 I have the unfortunate reflex to write down: '‘enter school’. Need to watch out. 学ぶ is not がくぶ。
78% (ok). More items crept up meanwhile… 17.
-Part 2- 94%
Nothing to report.
0 out of 37 kanji. Will have another review of 80+ around 8 pm.
Day 4: 91 Review
Entry: alligators and crocodiles are the same!
The radical “alligator” should accept “crocodile”! Grrrr!!! 作用 is not さくよう. That totally got me. 写る「うつる」to be photographed. I thought verbs which were reflesive add a ～え suffix. 行う is really tripping me up. Keep thinking in terms of “going” somewhere/
89% - 0 out of 37 kanji
Day 5: That goddamn 生! 78 Review 94% (take that!) 12 out of 37 kanji So this means that within 5 days I start to master some of the kanji for the next level.
生 is used with a lot of suffixes and denominations so I need to take the time to break them down if I’m to reach my next level within 10 days.
So let’s think about this:
生まれ「うまれ」birthplace;
生む「うむ」to give birth;
生きる「いきる」to live;
Hmm… 安心 doesn’t accept “calm” but it accepts “peace of mind”? Seems pretty similar to me…
Did you know?
A lot of the kanji in this lesson reminds me of my time in Japan. I’m still at a level where the new material is stuff I’ve already seen. The readings are holding me back.
Day 6: Them planets though! 17 of 37 kanji
Today went well. I’d say the only things sort of holding me back are the three planets: Venus, Saturn and Mercury.
水星: the “water” planet turns out to be mercury which is weird considering the proximity of that planet to the sun.
土星：the earth planet is Saturn which is weird since it’s a gas planet (the exact opposite of a solid planet).
金星：the gold planet is Venus. This one makes sense because that planet is the color of gold.
The ‘softening’ of certain words is called rendaku (it’s mentioned sometimes in descriptions of items so you might have seen the term before). While there are patterns and rules that can be identified, there is no one rule to remember when to use rendaku or not. I suggest reading the Tofugu article about it (and listening to the accompanying podcast). Hopefully this can help
18 out of 37
I’m fairly confident I can wrap this level under ten days although it will be day seven tomorrow. I’ve still got two kanji greyed out.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever watch Sailor Moon ever again
@VikingSchism I got them memorized now. Your mnemonics are useful but I’m wondering from a language point of view why mercury would be called 水星. I mean technically that should be Neptune. I guess it’s more of an ice planet but still.
For Saturn, I told myself that its name was the opposite of what it represented.
HELLO ZIZKA! Nice thread you have here. I’m happy, because I was wondering how things are going with you.
In some cases, WaniKani’s Mnemonics stick for me. (Yay) I still remember the Oh, Kona (Hawaii trip prize for carrying out the work)! And that Sat down on Saturn. Later, for the element of Mercury (quicksilver), you get 水銀 water-silver) that makes more sense.
You can take understand why people bothered to write those scripts about typos (undo) and the like. I’m still blundering through just re-doing ones that had typos.
What’s interesting is that Japanese isn’t the only language where the planet Mercury and the weekday Wednesday have a name association. (English is the odd one out here.)
Language
Weekday
Planet
English
Wednesday
Mercury
French
Mercredi
Mercure
Spanish
Miércoles
Mercurio
Japanese
水曜日
水星
Edit: Japanese Wikipedia says the water association comes from ancient China, saying running water is compared to the speed of Mercury’s orbit. This is not unlike it being named after the swift Roman god Mercury.
Bugs:
Is there are rule for the softening of a consonant in a word such as:
.
I made a mistake in my previous message regarding: 行う. I said it was “Otto” but it should be “Oko” for the way to remember it. Just a slight but important correction.
Need to be careful in distinguishing 分かる／分ける.
The radical “alligator” should accept “crocodile”! Grrrr!!!
作用 is not さくよう. That totally got me.
生 is used with a lot of suffixes and denominations so I need to take the time to break them down if I’m to reach my next level within 10 days.
Hmm… 安心 doesn’t accept “calm” but it accepts “peace of mind”? Seems pretty similar to me…
Did you know?
Nice thread you have here. I’m happy, because I was wondering how things are going with you.