WaniKani is a great way to learn Kanji and some Japanese vocabulary alongside it. I’ve already written a couple of times about the online program and made numerous attempts o pull through with it and stick to it till the end. Of course, life came in between but at least I tried. Currently giving WaniKani another run and there are actually a couple of small web extensions that make studying a little more comfortable.
Table of Contents
Very useful external sites
KaniWani – Not actually an extension but a very handy website you should use. You just log in with your WaniKani credentials and this site lets you practice vocabulary the other way around. Gives you the English word and wants you to enter the Japanese equivalent. Now you really see if you know a word by heart. You’ll be surprised how much more difficult it is this way around especially because you never learned them like this.
WaniKani data – I’m a sucker for statistics so this is right up my alley. You just input your API and this neat little website shows you tons of statistics and level-up estimates. Another neat touch is the reading ability measure on your current level and a bar that fills up as you progress further. Can’t wait to fill up my “book” reading ability.
WaniConjugation – Just wrote about the great Genki Conjugation app the other day but if you’re a WK user you should check out this awesome (and free) site. You can freely choose which forms you want to train and select the different WK levels which the words shall be chosen from. I personally prefer the Genki app for verb and adjective conjugational training but choose for yourself.
Deuendecat – A Japanese sentence looper sorted after WK levels. Just select a level from the right sidebar and treat yourself to some Japanese sentences which use Kanji you already learned.
WaniKani Extensions
These are all user script extensions to use with something like Tapermonkey. You first need to install this extension before you can go and download the ones below.
I tried busing it with Safari (which is my main browser) but I just couldn’t get it to work then switched to Chrome. It’s now my WaniKani extensions browser which is kinda neat as well because it keeps things really separated.
There are tons of useful extensions out there I just picked the ones for this article that I still use and would recommend to anybody because they make reviewing a lot more comfortable. If you have any that you like and can’t review without – please share them in the comments. Always happy to get new input.
New: You need to install the WaniKani Open Framework in order for most of these scripts to run. But don’t worry, it’s easy. Just install the script with a simple click, Tap on the tapermonkey symbol on the right side of your taskbar in Chrome (or whichever browser you’re using), go to the settings, and sort it so that the open framework is in the first place. That means after starting the other extensions WKOF will be started first which is important.
WaniKani Override – Adds an ignore button which lets WaniKani ignore a wrong answer you have given. Very handy if you mistakenly input a wrong which happens a lot to me. Of course, you should use this responsibly but that should be clear from the start. In the end, you’re learning Japanese for yourself and not to impress someone with the speed you climb the WaniKani levels.
WaniKani Reorder Ultimate 2 – A script that lets you customize the order of items you’re going to study. This allows you to do all Kanji or Radicals first before working on your Vocab-Reviews. Alternatively, you can sort the items after level and even a 1-1 mode where you get meaning and reading right after one another. If you want to level up fast that’s the script you need.
WaniKani Real Times & Real Numbers – If you want to get rid of the 42+ and just have the real number of reviews/lessons displayed this is the user script for you. If you are part of the lively community WK has to offer the real times script gives you the exact time someone posted and not just a rounded hour.
WK Improve – A couple of small changes which make cramming Kanji and Vocab a lot more comfortable. If you answered an item correctly it just skips to the next word without the need for hitting the enter key again. Which actually makes things way faster. And this neat extension displays information about the last item you answered with a little button to toggle.
Level UP Celebrator – Always nice to climb up a new level. Why not celebrate this with a nice graphic?
Ultimate Timeline – This gives you a detailed view of all the reviews that are waiting for you in the next couple of days. You can even toggle the timeframe. Really like this feature because I can gauge how much time I’ll roughly have to invest in WK. If there is too much on my schedule I’ll pause doing new lessons so reviews won’t pile up too much.
Apps
I’m using the Mobile AlliCrab App for all my iOS devices which already has a couple of very useful extensions built in. For non-jailbroken phones, this is the only way if you don’t want to study WaniKani in its conventional way. I actually wouldn’t recommend it because especially when using a mobile all the clicking is a hassle.
The biggest plus for me is the ability to just ignore a wrong answer you have given or just change it to be recognized as correct. Goes a long way for me because I tend to make spelling mistakes on my phone all the time.
For all Apple Watch users check my post about a neat App to use for WaniKani with.
Like always this list will be updated whenever my favorites change or I find something new which is just too good not to share.
