How to Use WaniKani to Learn Kanji | Tutorial for Beginners

[@MrEDET]

Made it to level 60 in 368 days :) Thanks again for this video which made me start with Wanikani.

[@momochichiify]

Do you still use it ❤

[@MrEDET]

Actually I do :) When I encounter a Kanji which I forgot while reading, I look it up again in WaniKani. Are you using it? How is it going for you? @@momochichiify

[@klarinblack]

@@momochichiify i mean level 60 is the final level, would be surprised if they still were.

[@Amit_Pirate]

Yo, I got your story through email from wanikani

[@MrEDET]

@@Amit_Pirate Oh? Can you share what was in that email?

[@sjmarga]

i love how u explain everything! so straight to the point and understandable that it makes the resources so much easier to start to use 🥰

[@AliviasNook]

Yay! That’s exactly what I was going for, thank you! 😁

[@locke-01-]

Thank you sooooo much! Your channel has been a lifesaver for me to find methods to help me study. I was super overwhelmed by which books to use ( I had started with Japanese from Zero, which I liked but it's quite slow), I now have Anki set up and have started using WaniKani everyday and it's so much more rewarding to use them alongside books. My motivation has gone up 1000%. Thank you!

[@momochichiify]

Do you still study?

[@amiriasubcutaneous4716]

I just found this channel and I've started learning Japanese! I only learned hiragana and katakana and didn't know where to go from there, so this was really helpful!

[@AliviasNook]

Nice, glad I could help! Kanji takes a while to learn so it’s great to get started early!

[@naomirodriguez4697]

I just started using WaniKani two days ago and I am very new to it but I am so glad I found your videos before I ended up overwhelming myself with reviews. Before watching this I thought I just HAD to do ALL the lessons in the same day they became available and I think that if I had kept doing that farther down the line I would have burned myself out. Thank you so much for sharing this and for explaining your routines and everything you have found to be useful for you in all your other videos, they really have been of so much help and it is very motivating to see your progress and the resources you've used because it makes self-studying a language seem less daunting.

[@AliviasNook]

I'm so glad to hear that they have been helpful to you! Self-studying can be really overwhelming when there are just so many things to choose from 😣

[@lenhardtstevens7818]

Just finding this. Amazing job. Thanks for that.

[@Eldiran1]

I have to admit , the last part of the video was helpfull . I was already using wanikani 4-5 years before but this month i've return to it after a fresh start. (back to lvl1 ) The begining is peacefull but as i was lvl 6 before i believe , i was going full speed and after not pausing the app during a 2 weeks vacation , i was overwhelmed by the amounts of stuff i didn't do . In essence , i should try to not rush it , especialy if i wanted to find time for grammar and relax after work . So i will take into consideration these number said in the end section of the video .

[@kemushim430]

Thanks so much for making this video! I've been using Wanikani for a week now, and I hadn't found a sustainable pace yet so everything you mentioned at 16:00 was super helpful! One question though, do you only use Wanikani on its own or do you keep track of what you learn there by taking notes or something like that?

[@AliviasNook]

Aw thank you so much! WaniKani works by purposely not showing you things for longer and longer periods of time to improve your long term memory, so I don’t review WaniKani stuff independently or take notes or anything like that. If you wanted to learn how to write the characters you could definitely do that though! And of course I do come across the vocab and kanji I’ve learned when I’m reading organically

[@kira5612]

Thank you so much for this video (and all of your lovely videos! ) I just started WaniKani today and it is soo much more fun and just a less stressful way for me to learn kanji.

[@ZaiyeProject]

You’re videos have helped out a lot! I hope to see your channel continue to grow!!!

[@AliviasNook]

Thank you so much! Much appreciated 🥰

[@ZaiyeProject]

@@AliviasNook No problem! You were a big help in setting up anki. I started learning Japanese about a month ago and I tried setting up anki but the video I watched basically had me doing it manually and it was terrible. Uninstalled it and was wondering how all these KZbinrs could recommend this thing but you made it very simple and your quality of content is super nice and professional!

[@AliviasNook]

Yeah I found the same thing when I first tried using it and completely gave up on it for months because it seemed too confusing, but once you’ve got the basics down it’s not too bad! It’s still ugly though 😣

[@ZaiyeProject]

@@AliviasNook true! I’m a big aesthetics person and it’s not very nice to look at😂😂😂

[@_LamG_]

Such a nice video with good tips, thank you from Brazil.

[@Condeycon]

Great guides and intros! Your channel deserves more love, its a fantastic resource for finding fantastic resources!

[@AliviasNook]

Aw thank you so much!!! 💕

[@MrEDET]

What a great tutorial, especially the last part about getting overwhelmed. There is also a great app btw for Android users called Flaming Durtles, which links to your Wanikani account so you can do the lessons and reviews everywhere.

[@Niconicoshizuko]

This is seriously so helpful thank you so much!

[@H.pylori]

Good review, thanks. Just learning wanikani is a chore. You covered much of the inner workings.

[@kieracoco]

Such a great tutorial!! This video helps me solve a lot of the problems I had, thanks a lot!!!

[@AliviasNook]

Glad I could help you out!

[@mortenhje]

This is the video i wish I watched the day I started out learning Japanese! :-)

[@AliviasNook]

Aw thank you so much! I hope it’ll help out those you are just starting! 😄

[@TomKilworth]

Same here, I wasted time on an app that gets to you to draw the kanji but not teach you its readings. It also had no mnemonics or example sentences (but will be useful after Wani Kani is completed, I imagine)

[@AliviasNook]

Yeah that sounds super useful for learning the stroke orders, but not as much for general kanji learning

[@ErnieV76]

I’ll give you about 6 months before you have 10k followers. 👍🏼 Great video! I think I am gonna do the Japanese from Zero book and Wani Kani until I know all the free lessons. Because...why not? 😁 Do you do it every day? 🤔

[@AliviasNook]

Haha thanks! I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there’s already 1000+ of you following 🤯 And yes I use WaniKani everyday! I’ve only missed about 15 days since I started it last summer

[@jesusdiaz8335]

its been 6 months i think, hows the japanese?

[@ErnieV76]

@@jesusdiaz8335 Hope she’s doing ok.

[@ShaolinViolin]

thanks for posting this. think I will try it out with anki! keep up the good work

[@SueGurney-vw2dy]

Great video thank you so much ❤

[@adamhoward2464]

Amazing! Thank you so much!!

[@Amaury0971]

Very informative as always, thanks a lot !

[@RedYumaCosplay]

I'm almost all the way through Wanikani need to resubscribe so I can finish my 150+ items that aren't burned. I used it as a beta user in 2014 (only two levels were available back them burned all those items before I subscribed in February 2015) until February 2017. I went on for the first time in a while and had 6 lessons to do related to Lessons 1-3 which are the only ones available since I'm not subscribed at the moment. The amount of remaining items may have increased since they added new vocabulary to some of the levels over the time time I haven't used it.

[@AliviasNook]

Wow I had no idea how long WaniKani has been around for, very cool!

[@hondo190]

Thank you. I was really frustrated trying to speed it up in the first days. Now I get why this was probably a bad idea.

[@AliviasNook]

Haha yeah it’ll definitely ramp up, but no worries. Now you know and can adjust accordingly 😊

[@marco.nascimento]

Loved it!! Will definitely try to use it soon, I'll just finish a deck I'm using right now in Anki, the one you mentioned in one of your first videos. :)

[@AliviasNook]

Awesome! I found it helped me so much with learning kanji, and started using it before I even started Anki. If you’re struggling with any of the kanji cards in that Anki deck, I definitely recommend trying WaniKani out!

[@silvercrystal3]

Hey I'd have a question please relating to Wanikani. I just started Wanikani a few days ago and study Japanese in general for a few weeks now, so I'm a beginner merely knowing kana and some very basic Kanji. While I like the mnemonic concept of WK since their stories are really cool and actually helpful imo, I found myself seeing few to zero sense in getting forced to learn a (or better "any") respective reading(s) on how the Kanji could be pronounced (or as WK stated is rather "the most common" way); what is the actual sense in that? I mean I'm getting taught 1 or even more readings of a Kanji, for example 大 is being taught as たい and だい - yeah great, but that doesn't help me in the slightest when a Japanese says "ŌkĪ Inu (大きい犬)/ big dog" since たい and だい are both On’yomi-readings, while おお being Kun’yomi. Another example with "big", this time without hiragana so one might think now it's pure On’yomi-reading time, is "大人 / adult", which is pronounced おとな more commonly instead of だいにん, so when I'd talk to a Japanese and saying "だいにん" they might propably understand what I'm referring to but when they talk "おとな" to me I'm left in the dark despite I know "the most common" way of reading 大 and 人. If I had instead simply learned 大人 as おとな, then I automatically would have been able to see one way of the usage of how 大 and 人 can be pronounced, without directly learning the pronounciation of the "puzzle pieces" beforehand, but with having a much more pratical usage (yes WK teaches me おとな additionally which is good, but that makes the separate learning of the sole reading of 大 and 人 even more redundant in my honest opinion, even in case there will eventually come words where 大 is pronounced as だい, since then I would again automatically see that 大 can also be read as だい as I encounter the new vocabular) - so in the end I would rather prefer to learn more targeted instead of "this can also mean this and also that and so on" as it seems this is a lot of "unnecessary" input which I could use to learn other vocabulary instead. If I would like to order a glass of water I'd always say "水、おねがいします where 水 is pronounced Mizu instead of Sui, where Sui is primarily taught on WK - in fact I've seen Japanese learning apps where a Kanji indeed is shown instead of pure kana only, but it's also neither pronounced nor expected to be memorized and the reading is merely being hinted as a "side note" in case the learner might be interested in, which I think is really helpful to not blow up the brain too much; like saying "neat to know but no compulsion". Altogether I'm convinced the slang _putting the cart before the horse_ would fit here (meaning to learn the specific vocabular first in order to see or "get a feeling" for how containing Kanji _can_ be read as, instead of the contrary way getting taught _some_ possible readings and then going on a journey with that "insufficient" knowledge). Can someone enlighten me on how they feel about that? All this ain't no rant btw but I really feel kinda unproductive already, despite my else big motivation in learning Japanese in general. Thx a ton.

[@salamilid4125]

If you said DAININ I probably wouldn't understand what you were saying since there's probably 50+ kanji that read dai, nin. Anyways, the reason wanikani keeps showing you the onyomi reading is because that's the single solid reading that will allow you to read the multiple compound words it creates in real life. 大学、大事、大丈夫、大変、大切、大体、大統領、just search up Dai or onyomi on your keyboard. Also wanikani will teach you more vocab with the onyomi reading the more you progress.

[@salamilid4125]

You need to learn the separate readings of 人 and 大 because compound words created will usually use those readings. Abd you can just guess then, even if you don't know the word you're reading. 大人 type of thing is an exception, probably because the word existed in japan before chinese characters introduced. Then at that point it's the story the characters tell rather than reading it. : )

[@salamilid4125]

Also nin a couter generally. So, DaiJin just sounds like 大事daiji to me..

[@joseph181516]

I dont fully understand this app. How can i do to study just some kanji i want to learn and where is the drawing option to practice drawing inside the app? Is so confusing lol Good video! is helpful

[@osu_fishy]

For me, it's just so tempting to do all the lessons right as they show up haha... So far, I do not really have a problem with doing this at the moment. (Only level 5 so take that as you will.) But if things get too overwhelming like you said. I'll keep the 100/500 rule in mind. (Mine is currently at 145/334 but still feels manageable).

[@jackb9045]

Very helpful thanks!

[@AliviasNook]

Happy to help!

[@voldy3565]

I started Wanikani yesterday, and today I'm not getting any new lessons, and 0 reviews. Why?

[@ghost_lad08]

What about writing tho? I mean, I understand the concept of reviewing these and memorising them, but that will help you mostly with reading and recognising the kanji, not writing, and I feel like it would take a long time to write all of these down, no?

[@OGFizzyGoldTing]

I got stuck doing a bunch at once and now I’m at lv 3 do you recommend I reset my wani Kani

[@BokushingusKendoTV]

I’m sick on lesson 1 got 3 days now even though I’m getting perfect score. His to move to next lesson?

[@davidpicarazzi]

Regarding the review forecast, let’s say I have to review at 8am and 5pm for a Monday, does it have to be done at those times or as long as I do the review I’ll be good? Ngl if I have a day off work I’m not gonna wake up at 8am to review but I’ll def do it when I wake up at 10am or something

[@AliviasNook]

The review forecast shows when reviews will become available, but you can do them whenever you want. Just beware that if you go too long without reviewing, you will have a lot to catch up on!

[@davidpicarazzi]

@@AliviasNook I ended up signing up. Love it so far but I’m going to work on my hiragana before I commit. This will def be how I study my kanji

[@miiztiix]

Hey ! This is so nice to learn Kanji ! But is it possible de change the language ?

[@liricz813]

thanks

[@cyberheter0]

65, 562 guru =/ 130 review a day im in the bottleneck club haha, trying to squash my leech to have a smooth next 32 level. ( self study script with added filter is good for that, notice your leech and dashboard srs and leach breakdown ) my top leech is 38 fail in total...

[@priyadarshiniprasad5747]

I have not been able to sign up to Wanikani. Is the site down?

[@AliviasNook]

It’s up for me right now! Maybe try accessing through google?

[@DiegoRamirez-td5ds]

Could you make a video speaking japanese? Please.

[@namor637]

Not very engaging at all!

[@masamangtao6417]

Helpful video, thank you