How should I approach WaniKani context sentences?

8 comments

1. Like this: 🗑️

   My opinion of course. Many people may love them but I think they are absolute garbage.

   You’re better off reading beginner material else where, watch YouTube, watch anime, etc. Real immersion is way better than those sentences.

2. Here’s stuff you can try:

   – Tadoku stories
   – crystal hunters (you will absolutely love these trust me)

   And you can go to animelon and watch beginner stuff such as panda cafe. Don’t forget to learn grammar. There are great stuff in YouTube such as misa sensei, George (Japanese from zero), masa sensei, comprehensible Japanese, the beloved cure doll (rip sadly) and many others.

   It’s hard to read when you don’t have the absolute basics of grammar down. So yeah, that’s my advice. Ditch those sentences (from wanikani) and try the ones I have suggested 🙂

3. i read them only for context of the kanji and it’s uses otherwise i ignore them -level 28WK

4. I got all the way to 60 and I don’t remember ever reading those sentences lol. I guess they may help though if the meanings/definitions seem vague, though.

    

   Or, are the sentences difficult because you’re not studying grammar anywhere else?

5. how far are you into your learning in terms of months or years? i feel like understanding the order/flow of sentences will come relatively naturally if you just look at the sentences and dissect them as much as time allows you to.

   for me with the core 2k/6k ill literally sit there with each sentence with a particle guide in hand and dissect every word, its placement, and the particles around it. eventually youll find a pattern.

6. They’re awful for actually trying to discern the context of the kanji, especially if you’re a beginner. My fiance speaks Japanese and he thought the sentences were pretty out there too.

   Like, I get that the creator was trying to be funny. But the “context” sentences on Wanikani are so absurd and convoluted to the point it doesn’t accomplish demonstrating realistic use/context. At all.

   You’re better off finding native material to engage with to learn context.

7. Like others, I would also say to not worry too much about them. But I would recommend reading the English translations as sometimes you’ll get a laugh out of the [absurdity of the sentence](https://community.wanikani.com/t/thanks-for-the-laugh-koichi/18897) they came up with. If comedy isn’t important to you, then I guess you can completely skip over the context sentence section altogether

   Also, I’ve seen kanji before in the context sentences that aren’t even taught on the site ~~(though I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head)~~. [Found one](https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/%E9%81%BF%E9%9B%A3) after checking Anki, 梯: その避難梯子はひどく傷んでいるので、交換する必要があります。

8. You really shouldn’t be learning kanji when you’re still needing to use romaji to read basic hiragana and katakana.

   It’s not fun, but you just have to rote memorize the kana. Romaji delays your ability to read.