Why does wanikani give me words like “shaved ice” at like level 3? Why shaved ice? Why not literally any other more common word? It makes no sense. There are a lot of words like these that are N1 kanji/words that it teaches you early on. Is there a reason they do this?
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From my understanding, Wanikani is more about teaching you kanji than vocabulary. So the vocabulary they give aren’t really ordered by usefulness. They’re just words that use the kanji you learned so far.
Your point is a fair criticism of the way they do things, but I kinda get their point too.
かき氷 is a cultural staple of summer and comes up way more than you think it will. Many of the weird “technical” or “niche” words beginner materials show off come up far more than they do in English.
Also, it’s just a useful word to show off 氷 with the こおり reading.
On the N1 point, it may come as a bit of a surprise, but there is actually no designation on what Kanji appears in what N level. They keep it secret since 2010, and it can absolutely fluctuate. Lists are best guesses based on previous exams. Kanji listed online could show up on an N3 test, and do time to time. Further, as Wanikani does not teach towards the JLPT, Kanji will come up whenever they deem it fitting or similar to stuff you’ve already learned.
Wanikani is about learning Kanji. The way to learn kanji is to see that kanji in different context, that’s why you learn words for the kanji rather than commonly used words.
If you want to learn vocabs then find an anki sentence deck, as those help with learning Vocab better than wanikani.
They want to have the different ways to use the kanji represented in vocabulary words.
In my opinion (I did all 60 levels on WK), the vocab on WK is mostly good for reinforcing Kanji readings and not much beyond that. I ended up using Anki decks alongside WK to keep up with relevant vocab as e.g. used in textbooks or other content.
It gives you that word because it has the kanji in it.
WaniKani is primarily a Kanji learning tool.
They’re going to get you to learn the radicals, the kanji and then several vocab which reinforce 2-3 of the most common readings for that Kanji.
I know they stress vocab in the ads, but your money is for the kanji SRS rather than for learning vocab.
Yeah, you’ll learn some interesting words, but you’re better off using another means of learning practical vocab.