I’m currently using Wanikani and I’ve found it to be quite useful in getting familiar with kanji and how the different readings work. However, Wanikani is currently my main source of vocabulary, which means that I’m missing out on a lot of common kanji and vocabulary, plus all the words that are written in hiragana. Wanikani’s format of SRS and using mnemonics have proved highly efficient in helping me memorize and learn, so I’m wondering if there are any similar programs that are structured based on the “usefulness” of words rather than the complexity of kanji?
I could of course try to make my own mnemonics, but this seems rather time consuming and I’m not sure if I want to commit to this strategy just yet. (Though it could be a fun exercise in writing and imagination…)
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There’s a program highly praised by language learners and learners of other subjects alike. It’s called anki ([https://apps.ankiweb.net/](https://apps.ankiweb.net/)). You can download premade vocabulary decks (most are ordered in terms of frequency) or you could make your own. Most people recommend using the core 2.3k deck. [https://anacreondjt.gitlab.io/docs/coredeck/](https://anacreondjt.gitlab.io/docs/coredeck/)
Here is a video on how to use anki if you’re not sure on how to use it. The learning curve is quite high. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MAw274LtNk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MAw274LtNk)
I’d suggest anki as well. It’s an srs like wanikani but has customizable settings. That’s basically it. It’s not as intimidating as it looks and a brief video tutorial can explain the basic settings to you, which generally most people only ever change once and then they are good for a while.
You can download other people’s decks so you don’t have to make your own cards. Or when you’re more advanced, you can make your own cards as well. You can make up your own mnemonics if you think it would help but for me personally the farther along I got it WK and the more familiar I got with kanji and radicals, the less I use mnemonics. Although I do and did find them useful to some extent, I just don’t use them when learning new vocab with anki.
I’m curious what level you are on wanikani because I use it as well and you won’t be missing out on common kanji by the end of it, however I can see if you start using native material early not recognizing some kanji that would be coming up soon.
I recommend [https://www.kamesame.com](https://www.kamesame.com)
The format is just like WaniKani but a bit more advanced. You’ll need to know how to type in Japanese to use it (It’s not that difficult.). The reasons to use it over WaniKani are: It’s free, you can choose what kanji or vocab you want to learn, it offers a sizable list of things to learn from (Including top 10,000 words), and it trains you in output as well as input.
I think the learning curve is also much less steep than Anki.
You can also link your progress from WaniKani to it. Though I’m not sure if you need an active subscription or the like to access the WaniKani API tokens.
What I did was use Anki with a basic textbook and got my first vocab from that.
After that I read books and added words to Anki that I thought were going to be useful.