Hi, I'm Alivia and today I want to give a tutorial on how to use WaniKani to learn kanji. So in this
video, I'll be going over all the basics on how to get started but there are also a lot of really
cool ways that you can customize WaniKani and make it even nicer to use which I really recommend
doing. But I'll be talking about that in another video so if you're interested in learning more
about that and other language learning tips make sure that you subscribe and hit the notification
bell so that you don't miss anything and let's get started. Now if you're watching this I'm
assuming that you already know the basic premise of WaniKani and how it uses spaced repetition,
mnemonics, and radicals to teach you kanji. But if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I really
recommend that you check out this video first and then come back. But as a quick refresher,
you're going to be learning the readings and the meanings of 2000 kanji, as well as
6000 vocabulary words that use those kanji. You will do this by doing lessons to learn new items,
and then you are going to review those items, and then you just do that every day. So let's
go open it up and I'll show you how everything works and then at the end of the video I'm going
to explain how the review cycles work and how to properly pace yourself so that you don't burn out.
So when you first open WaniKani up, you're gonna have these two big buttons on the top lessons and
reviews. So lessons are things that you have not seen before and they're ready for you to learn
and as you level up in WaniKani more lessons will become unlocked for you. So you can see here
that I have 58 lessons that are pending that are available for me to learn and later in the video
I'll actually go into the lessons and show you how it works. So once you learn an item it's going to
move over to your reviews. So reviews are where all the items that you have seen before show up.
So you've already done lessons on these items and now they're going to keep showing up as reviews
until you've memorized it. And once an item is perfected, it's going to become burned and that
means you're not going to see it anymore in your reviews because you've burned it into your memory.
And now the counter on this review button is how many reviews I currently have available right now
for me to do. In total, I have over 2000 reviews that are in my review cycle, but at this moment
only 70 of them are available for me to review. So on the right-hand side here we have the review
forecast, so this is where WaniKani shows us when our reviews are going to be ready for us. So most
of my reviews were due this morning, but I haven't done them yet because I wanted to show you how it
works, but you can see that later today at 6 pm one more new review will be ready for me to do,
so in total there will be 71 reviews at that time. And then we can also look at how many reviews I'm
gonna have on Sunday, on Monday, on Tuesday and at the approximate time that all these reviews are
gonna show up. So this forecast is just showing me what my future reviews are going to be based on
this current moment in time, but as soon as I do the reviews for today, as long as none of those
reviews are being burned and being taken out of the review cycle, they're going to be placed on a
new day. So some of the reviews that I do today may show up on Sunday, on Monday, on Tuesday,
so these numbers are going to change as I keep doing reviews. So then here in the center, we
have our level breakdown so you can see that I am on level 22. We have this progress bar that will
fill up as I keep going, in blue are the radicals for this level, and in pink are the kanji. If you
don't know what radicals are I really recommend that you check out that video that I was talking
about earlier and I'll pop it up again, but basically radicals are building blocks for
kanji. So for each radical, you're going to learn a word to associate with it and then when you're
looking at kanji, you're going to break up the kanji into different radicals and remember all
the different words that go with each radical, and then you're going to build a story about the kanji
so that you can remember it better. So learning the radicals is really important for learning
kanji, so that's why it's the first thing that you're going to learn on each level. And now
down below we have the kanji that we're going to be learning on this level and you'll notice that
some of them are in gray. And the reason for this is because they're still locked. You're going to
have to learn the radicals for this level before you're able to do the lessons for these new kanji,
and the reason for this is because many of these kanji use these radicals in them. So you need to
make sure that you have learned them first before you can learn the kanji. And then the reason that
these kanji are already unlocked is because they use radicals that I already learned on previous
levels, so I can jump right in and learn those right away. You're also going to be learning
vocabulary on each level but it's not going to be shown here on the dashboard. Basically,
as soon as you pass a kanji then you're going to be able to learn any vocabulary that is related to
that kanji and then they're just going to show up in your lessons queue automatically. You'll also
notice that there's these little bars underneath each item and this is just showing you what your
progress is for that item. So every time you do a review and get it right, the bar is going
to fill up one, and if you get it wrong it's going to go back a level. So once you fill
all five bars then that item is passed. So as I fill up the bars underneath these radicals,
these kanji are going to become unlocked. And once I fill up 30 of these kanji with five bars,
then I'm going to pass the level. Now, these colourful boxes along the bottom are fairly
important but I'll go into more depth at the end of the video when we're talking about how to pace
your studies. But basically, it's an overview of all the items that you are currently reviewing.
So apprentice items are items that are fairly new or they're ones that you've been struggling with,
so you'll be seeing them fairly frequently. And then as you level up you will start to see
items less frequently, and they'll move up in these ranks. Once an item is burned, you will
no longer see that item anymore because you've proved to WaniKani that you know it really well,
so you will no longer see reviews for those items. All the items that you are learning on
each level will start out in the apprentice stage, but once you fill out that fifth bar
that's when it's going to level up to the guru level. Then along the bottom here we have these
three tabs that aren't that important but I'll show you what they are, this tab will show you
what items you have recently unlocked. So these are items that were recently added to your lessons
queue. In the center, we have critical condition items. So these are items that you've been getting
wrong pretty frequently, so WaniKani is saying “hey you've gotten this word wrong more than once,
so you might want to pay some special attention to it.” and then over here on the far right we
have burned items. So these are all the items that recently levelled up to burned and I will
no longer see these items in my reviews. And then these tabs along the top aren't super important,
I rarely ever go in here, but these are basically going to show you an index of all the information
that's on WaniKani. So if you want to do some exploring and see what you're going to be learning
on future levels, you can dig through those and see what's going to be in each level: all the
different radicals, all the different kanji, all the different vocab, and that's where you can find
all that information. Okay, so now let's dive into the lessons tab. So we're gonna click on that,
and right here it's just gonna show you a quick summary of what you did in your last lesson
session. So here it shows nothing and it says I was on here two hours ago because I was just
checking to make sure everything was going to be okay for this video, but usually, it would
show you any radicals that you learned last time, any kanji you learned last time. Then this button
up here is just going to bring you back to the home page and then we're going to press on this
to get started. So now we're in our lessons so up in the top right here we can see all the different
types of lessons that we have pending. So these are the radicals that I have waiting to learn,
the kanji, and the vocabulary. So I'll walk you through each of these three types because
they look a little bit different. So purple is a vocabulary word. So up here I have the full word,
I have what it means, and then I have these four tabs here. So first it's going to tell me
what kanji are used in this vocabulary word. So sometimes they'll only be one kanji, sometimes
there'll be multiple. So you can just go “oh yeah, I remember I learned that earlier. That is kanji
already know, and now I'm learning a vocabulary word that uses that kanji.” the next tab is for
meaning, so we already have the main meaning of the word up here. But there will also be some
synonyms on the side here. And then there'll be this meaning explanation that will tell you a way
to remember what the meaning is for that word. And then down here you can click on this and add some
notes if you want to, and then the next is the reading tab. So this is where it will show you
how to pronounce the word. You can also click on these buttons and it will read it out to
you so you can hear what it sounds like. And then there'll also be a mnemonic on how to remember how
to pronounce that word. And again you can add your own notes if you'd like and then the final tab is
context sentences. So here it will show you some sample sentences using the word that you can read
and what they mean in English, but honestly, I usually don't look at this tab in too much detail.
So now we'll look at a radical you'll notice that there is a lot less tabs here. So basically all
we'll have is the radical up top, what the word is, and then we'll have a quick sentence here
to help us remember what this radical is. On the next tab, we have some examples so this is just
a little sneak peek of the kanji that we will be learning that use this radical. So now I'm just
going to quickly finish these lessons and then I'll show you what the quiz portion looks like.
So once you finish going through all of the items, you're going to be prompted to do a quiz. So if
you don't feel ready yet you can just say “I need more time” and then you can keep going through all
those different tabs. But if you're feeling good, you can press start the quiz. So how it'll work is
it'll show you the item, and you can see that the background is blue, so that means that this is a
radical, and then here it's asking me for the name of this radical. So you're just going to think
back to the mnemonic that you read before and see if you can remember it. You press enter, and then
if you want you can also click on item info and here it's just going to give you the breakdown
of this item. So that's what it is here, the mnemonic, and then you can add a little note for
yourself for later if you'd like, and then you're just going to continue doing this for all of them.
And then I can click on this and see more information if I want.
Go next. Now if I get one wrong, nothing really is gonna happen. So if I put in hello here,
it's just gonna go red and then I can click on here and see what it actually was
so that I can get it right the next time. So it'll shuffle them up and show it to me again, and
then once I do get it right it will move to the reviews. You only need to get it right one time.
So one thing you do have to be careful of is that you do need to write exactly what the word was.
So here I wrote in bath, but the actual answer is bathtub, so it marked it wrong. But there
is a way to avoid this and to override it using these things called user scripts, which I'm going
to be talking about in a different video, but that's just something to keep in mind for now.
So one thing I want to show you is for typing in the answer is it's going to show up in hiragana,
but you're going to be typing it in romaji. So you can click on this tab here, it'll show you
a kana chart so you can see what character that you need to type to make each kana show up or
you can even type just by clicking on the button and then that will show up. But it'll be faster if
you remember how to actually type it. So on my keyboard, I'm just typing in the letters a I e
u and o, and then you can see that the hiragana characters are showing up.
Once you're done the quiz for the lessons that you just learned, you can either press “I’m done for
now” and you'll go back to the home page, or you can press “continue with new lessons” if you want
to keep going. So I'm going to press continue just so I can show you what a kanji lesson looks like,
and then we'll go and see what reviews look like. So the kanji lesson page is pretty similar to the
vocabulary page. On the first tab, instead of seeing the kanji that makes up the vocabulary
word, we're gonna see the radicals that make up the kanji. So here we have three different
radicals that are making up our kanji, and these are all radicals that I've already learned
previously. So now in the meaning section, this is where you're going to get that mnemonic to
remember how you can remember this kanji. So here in blue, these are the keywords that go with the
three radicals that go with this kanji. So our mnemonic is “if you try to *say* things with a
*knife* the police will put you in a *net* as your *penalty* for breaking the knife laws. You
can't just go up to other people and saying with a knife out.” then there's also another little
sentence that might help you with your memory, just because having these stories will really help
build connections in your brain. And then you're just going to look at it and try and remember
that. Okay, so I have a net, say, knife. Net, say, knife. So then you just want to kind of say
it to yourself in your head and make sure that you really internalize that mnemonic: I’ve got a net,
I’ve got say, and I have knife. So I said something with a knife and now as my penalty,
I'm going to be placed into a net. So just say that a few times in your head so that you have it
stuck there and then you can go to the next tab. Or if you don't like the mnemonic that WaniKani
gave you, you can click to add note and you can add your own. So on the next tab is for readings
and again we'll have another little mnemonic to help us remember how the kanji is pronounced.
On the side here it will let us know if we're learning the on’yomi or the kun’yomi. So you'll
only learn one or the other when you're learning the kanji but then you will learn the other when
you are learning vocabulary words. So right now I'm learning the on’yomi reading for this kanji
but later on, I'll learn a vocabulary word that uses the kun’yomi. So this is our reading and
then we have a little mnemonic: “your penalty for breaking the law isn't over. Now that you're stuck
in a net, you can't fight back when they hit you with *bats*.” so that's what you're going to try
and remember. Okay, I'm in a net because of my penalty and now they're hitting me at bats. So
that's how you're going to remember how it is pronounced. So then on the last tab, we have
examples again and these are just some vocabulary words that use this kanji that we will be learning
later on. The lesson quiz will be exactly the same as what we saw before so I won't do it again. And
then when I go to exit it will show me a little summary of what I just learned, and you'll
notice that the kanji that I just showed you isn't showing up here and that's because I didn't do the
quiz. So even though I looked at the lesson, it doesn't officially upgrade to being a review until
I finish that quiz. Okay so now our lessons are done we can go into our reviews and the items that
we just did on our lessons are not going to show up in our reviews for four hours. So if you're
just starting with WaniKani you're going to have to wait four hours before you can do your first
review. So if you don't have any reviews great, go and do something else and then come back. You
do not want to go and study them on your own while you're waiting because that will really defeat the
purpose. WaniKani is a spaced repetition system, so we're trying to train our memory to remember
things for longer and longer periods, to train that long-term memory. So if you have no reviews
to do right now, just go and do something else and then you can come back when they're ready.
So once again when you click on this it will give you a quick summary of what happened last time.
So you can see last time I reviewed 26 items and they were all vocabulary words and then I can see
a breakdown of the one that I got wrong and the ones that I got right, and what levels they went
to. So we're gonna click “start session” and get started. And you'll notice that this is going to
be really similar to the quiz that we did in the lessons. We've just got a couple of things that
are different but the main premise is the same. So along the bottom, we have some extra buttons.
So this button here is to “wrap up.” so you can see here that I have 70 reviews to do today,
but if I only wanted to do 10 of them, I would just click on this and then it will only show
me 10 reviews and then it'll be done and then I can leave. If you try to exit out early before
you finish your reviews without pressing this button it won't count what you did unless you
finish all the way to the end or unless you use the wrap up button. Last 10 will give you a quick
recap of the last 10 reviews you did, so right now I haven't started yet so nothing is here. And then
again here we have the kana chart if you need help typing it in. So this one is “scholar” I believe
and then I can click on this eyeball if I want to see more information. So yeah it was “scholar”
and then the little mnemonic is there and then the kanji that were used in this.
So next. So while we're doing these reviews you're going to be shown the vocabulary words and the
kanji twice. You'll see it once to be tested on the reading, and once to be tested on the meaning.
So you have to do both of those to finish the review, which is why if you want to leave early
you have to press the wrap up button because then it will make sure that you finish both
of those parts before you can leave, because if you only finish one part then it doesn't count.
So one thing about WaniKani, if you don't have any customizations in,
is that if you write something that is close but not exactly what the meaning it was asking for,
you'll get it wrong. So you can see here that I had the right idea for this word but I didn't
put in the exact keywords that WaniKani wanted. So there's two ways that you can fix this. The first
one is right here you can add your own synonym. So if I want WaniKani to accept “crime family”
as an answer in the future, I can just write it right here and press add and now in the future,
I will get it right if I wrote this as my answer. The second thing that you can do, which I think is
a bit better, is if you customize WaniKani using these things called user scripts. So you can
download something that will add a button where if you got it wrong, but you know that it was right,
you can just override WaniKani and it will change it to being correct. So if you want to do that,
I will be making a tutorial video that shows you how to do that, and I'll link it in the
corner when it's ready. But for now, that's just something that you should be aware of.
So you can see that I rely on that plug-in quite heavily. I often
know what it means but I don't remember exactly what it wants. So I needed “sense of duty” but
I wrote “one's duty.” so yeah I highly recommend downloading that customization
because it can be a bit frustrating. So that's basically how the reviews work.
It's very similar to what we did in the lessons, and I also just don't really want to do these
without all my plugins. So now let's talk about how to properly pace your studies.
Okay, so now that we've gone over how WaniKani works, and how to navigate the site,
I'm gonna give you some tips on how to properly pace yourself and how the review cycles work.
Now my first tip, if you don't take anything else from this video, is to not do every single lesson
as soon as it shows up. Now I'm sure most of you have done this and don't stress out if you have,
it's okay for the first couple of levels if that's what you're doing. But if you continue doing this
in the long term it's gonna really pile up and be really overwhelming. And this still applies if
you're wanting to like speedrun WaniKani and level up as fast as you can. I still recommend that you
don't do all of the lessons on the same day, there is a much better way to do it. So each level on
WaniKani takes at least seven days to pass. There are a few exceptions, there's a handful that only
take four days to pass, but in general, if you're going max speed it takes at least seven days to
pass a level. And this is because, like we talked about earlier, you have to pass both the radicals
and a certain amount of kanji for each level before you can level up. So doing all of the
lessons that you have available at the beginning isn't gonna make you level up any faster,
and now you're not gonna have any more lessons to do until you pass those radicals. So this is gonna
cause your reviews to be really uneven. Instead of having a steady amount of reviews every day
and having them evenly distributed, you're gonna have these big spikes that show up from doing
all those lessons on the same day and if you continue doing this for multiple levels, those
big spikes are going to overlap on each other and you'll have some days that are super super heavy
but other days that you barely have any reviews at all. So what you're going to do to avoid that is
to just spread out how many lessons you're doing each day instead of doing them all at once. And if
you are someone who is trying to level up as fast as possible all you have to do is the lessons for
the radicals because you're not going to be able to do all the lessons for the kanji anyways until
they're passed. So if that's what your goal is the first day do all the radicals but then spread
out all the kanji throughout the next couple of days. But if you're not trying to speedrun it,
the most natural next question is: how many [lessons] should I be doing each day? Now,
this is going to depend a lot on the person, just depending on how much time they have every day
and how fast they are learning the new words. But a good rule of thumb is to keep your apprentice
items under 100 and your guru items under 500. So what I mean by that is to go back to your WaniKani
home page and look at those colorful boxes along the bottom and pay attention to the pink box and
the purple box. The general consensus on WaniKani is that if you keep the pink box under 100 and the
purple box under 500 your reviews won't pile up in the future and they'll be nicely distributed
and will not become overwhelming. If your numbers are higher than that, there's a good chance that
the number of lessons that you're doing is not going to be sustainable for you in the future
and those reviews are going gonna compile on each other and you're gonna have to be putting
in a lot more time every day than what you're doing right now. Or it could mean that you're
getting a lot of reviews wrong so you're kind of creating a bottleneck because none of those
reviews are levelling up and getting spread out more. So if your numbers are higher than that,
I recommend that you stop doing lessons for a while and just focus on your reviews until those
numbers come down. And these numbers are just a guideline, you'll notice that my numbers are well
below 100 and 500 and that's because I didn't know about this rule when I was first starting out. So
I had a ton of reviews that were in that purple box and now they finally made their way to that
light blue box and now I'm just waiting for them to get burned so that I have less reviews in my
overall cycle. So I'm basically trying to give myself a fresh slate by doing less lessons and
letting all those reviews graduate so that I'll have more consistent reviews in the future. But
if you follow the 100 500 [method] you hopefully won't have that problem. Now there's a lot more
that I want to talk about for WaniKani, so please let me know down in the comments if there's
anything specific you want me to talk about in a future video, and I'll be putting them all in this
playlist so that they're easy for you to find. If you like this video make sure you give it a
thumbs up so that more people can find it and that's allowed for today and I'll see you soon!