I made it to Level 3 of WaniKani and didn’t even start it because I’m finding myself so confused with how they present info to me. I won’t go into details because I don’t need a tutorial, I need a recommendation of another method to learn Kanji specifically from people who also didn’t get on with WaniKani, since they’ll understand how it failed them and how the other method didn’t.
Okay, thanks in advance.
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It would be a good idea to elaborate on “so confused with how they present info to me” because, you know, without that info, alternatives you’re going to get will likely include the ones with the same issue.
It’s hard to answer your question unless you go into more detail. Most people get along with WaniKani because it breaks down Kanji into its simplest form and teaches you the meanings from the ground up (radicals -> kanji -> vocab). Personally I only did around 10 levels of WaniKani and then moved on to just learning Kanji through vocab since it was faster. However, I still value how WaniKani gave me those fundamental meanings on basic radicals and kanji. If you don’t want to build foundations and learn from the ground up, it seems like your other option is Rote Memorization which will most likely be more painful and confusing unless you already have a strong understanding of vocab (without kanji) in the language.
Anki and Duolingo
controls for WK were poor to me at the time and it was so slow. It just did not fit the way I learn
Duo flamed out as I just started to hate it towards the end but it worked for several years to get me used to Japanese. I never diss Duo because IT WAS WHAT I NEEDED to start
Anki is an acquired taste as well but now that I am used to it, I can be a machine when I want to
There’s an app called kanji study (it’s paid tho)
How they present the information is just radicals and stories. I don’t understand where the confusion is. It takes maybe a little bit of imagination for a story to click sometimes but nothing hard. Honestly WaniKani is one of the simplest and best methods. Tell us why you are confused. What exactly do you not understand ?
Don’t take this the wrong way but this post sounds a lot like “ I gave up because it was hard”. A language is a tool . It takes time and experience to get good with said tool in any aspect of the language.
I’ve used both Wanikani and Renshuu. Renshuu is “stickier” for me. I find that I learn pronunciations best when there’s a concrete vocabulary word involved, so that I can attach the pronunciation *to* something meaningful to me. Renshuu tends to be more focused on concrete vocab words, rather than just learning pronunciations for kanji without context.
Sorry for stealing the show but does anyone have a good Anki tutorial? I feel the same way about Anki as Op feels about WK –
it’s so confusing and seems so messy. People rage on about it but I literally have no clue why everyone swears by it. I use WK and bunpro. But wouldn’t mind trying every resource possible
WaniKani doesn’t work for me either. I think I’m more of a visual person. I can’t remember short jokes, so remembering mnemonics doesn’t seem to work for me either.
I’m evaluating Skritter right now. They have some free decks. So you have some time to test it before you commit. Will see if drawing the kanji will help remember it better.
Anki.
It was hard for me to get into wankani since I was going in with N3 already. I like how with anki, I can customize the content and decks. I also recently downloaded renshuu and have been liking it so far.
I used it to like Level 37 and then when I started reading, found that I didn’t recognise many of the kanji I’d learnt in it when I saw them outside the app. Now I use the Kanji study app because the practice of learning to write kanji really helps me to remember and disambiguate them. And I read a lot so that I learn/remember kanji in context.
Just read, motherfucker, read. There’s a free dictionary app called Yomichan, which allows you to derive the definition and kanji make-up/readings from a word on any browser that you install it on. Use that to do things like reading YouTube subtitles (via the YouTube transcript or ASBPlayer), or read easy manga, using mokuro, and read other things, like visual novels, light novels, web novels, graded readers (which I’d recommend for any beginner), satori reader especially (amazing for beginners), and more. More exposure to kanji, which you can obtain via reading, will help you to learn it in the long run. Combine these with Anki for long term SRS. You’ll be good.
got the wanikani anki deck and am learning only the meanings of the kanji, without vocab and pronunciation. for now. Sort of like Heisig, but in Anki