Hi All, first message here, so please be patient.

A little background first- I've been studying Japanese on and off for several years and finished up RTK1 this early this March. At that point I had planned to set up an SRS for the Core 2k/6k to solidify the vocab I already knew as well as learn the rest of the core set. I followed the suggestions here and set up the Core 2k/6k decks in Anki and started studying. This went all well and good until I ended up moving and life took over the time I used to spend studying.

Anyways, what I'm getting to is that now I finally have some time again I'm coming back to studying the core 2k/6k again. My Anki deck is a little disorganized right now thanks to the break, but it should be sorted out if I spend a week of work correcting it. However, I was looking through some Japanese learning resources and found links to iKnow. I gave it a shot and I seem to feel that it does a better job of teaching new vocab thanks to its game like nature but I'm wondering if it may just end up bogging me down if I go through the work to get back to where I was in my anki deck.

I know that iKnow and the anki Core 2k/6k effectively have the same content (even noticed it while using their trial) but has anyone tried using iKnow instead? It'd be nice to hear opinions going one way or the other.

Also, if I do decide to stick with Anki, does everyone just use the default new card introduction settings on the core 2k/6k? I feel I may need to turn the new card introduction rate down until I get back into the groove of it.

I'd love to hear any responses you all may have

I'm someone who actually started out using iKnow (even bought a year subscription) but moved to just using Anki.

iKnow is great because it really cements each word into your brain--by quizzing you on recognition of the written word, the spoken word, and having you produce the word by typing it from the meaning (and something else, too, I think, but I can't remember right now). This lets you practice both production and recognition, which is great.

However, the same can be done in Anki by adding different note types (or whatever the actual term is, I've never done it ahahaha).

I like Anki because you can choose to focus ONLY on recognition--which makes the words go by quicker, of course--but it's up to you if you want to stick with the production aspect or not. There are pros and cons to both learning philosophies, but I won't get into them here, as I'm sure you can just google "production vs recognition site:koohii.com" and tons of threads with good opinions and advice will pop up.

Overall, though, I think Anki is the best option simply because it has a strong SRS system. iKnow DOES ask you to study old words, but I'm not really sure how the SRS actually works or if it's any good, or even if it IS an SRS or just a general timeframe reminder system... Not sure. Maybe someone can clarify.

But yeah, Anki has incredible customization options AND a highly recommended SRS algorithm/system AND it's free.

Quote:Also, if I do decide to stick with Anki, does everyone just use the default new card introduction settings on the core 2k/6k? I feel I may need to turn the new card introduction rate down until I get back into the groove of it.

By all means, turn new cards off completely until you stabilize your backlog of reviews so that you don't get overwhelmed, but once it's under control, you can add as many words as you want ^.^ I recommend giving this a read, though: The key to fluency: 10,000 words in one year.

You still need to pay to use iknow now, right? Then I guess it comes down to whether the time spent getting it to where you are in your anki deck is worth it to you, as well as if you think it's worth paying for.
I used iknow a bit when it was in it's free beta stage, and did think it was better for learning new words, but it wasn't as addictive as anki, and when it got out of beta,
and went paid, it was too pricy and for me it wasn't worth paying for.

Thanks for the info zurisu.

You actually mentioned something that I just realized was nagging me at the back of my mind. I was playing with the trial last night and after your comment on their true SRS setup (or lack there-of) I feel that you were spot on. I looked at their FAQ/forum section and it seems like they use some form of SRS, but I saw a decent amount of complaints about people only getting new words or only getting review words and not a decent mix of both. This is definitely a HUGE turnoff as SRS was probably the only thing that kept RTK stuck in my head.

I'll definitely stick to Anki and make it work for me over risking an SRS nightmare (oh and save a few dollars too)

I'd just like to point out that iKnow separates reviews into two different bins, "now studying" and "completed". It employs an SRS in both bins. That said, it usually prioritizes the newest lists you're on as your next recommended review, but you can always look at what's up for review in the completed bin as well.

I'm not on the dev team so I can only speculate this is because new items are more vital to review sooner. That is, its easier to have permanent loss on a word's memorization if you miss a review on it when it is brand new because it has yet to make a solid imprint in your mind. I also believe the "completed" bin is for words which have days to weeks(?) stated as their review interval so they've got a little more leeway.

They are definitely using an SRS at iKnow.

I personally use iKnow because it manages every word I've ever reviewed over the course of years. I think that's its strongest point. Because of my intense schooling I tend to only review and learn more when I'm on break (so 2 or 3 months out of the year). I tried using Anki but I always forgot what I was doing the last time I studied and it lead to a lot of frustration. I've found with iKnow I can skip all the janitorial work and just go straight to the lesson without any set up.

I'd also like to just point out, there is a lot of hate for iKnow here from a lot of the users who were around when they pulled the rug out from under us when they went pay-for. I suppose I'm more forgiving than most in that regard, and they do offer a nice service now (in my humble opinion) and have worked hard to improve it. The mobile app in particular I've found to be great.

I used Iknow to learn RTK 1 in 2 months some 3 years ago. It worked great because it drills the hell out of that stuff. Problem is that it continues to drill the hell out of it forever.

it may use an srs, but it's not a very good one in my opinion.

the point/value of an srs is that it is efficient. it figures out what you need to know right now and only makes you study those things. better srs algorythms give you lower reviews. Iknow always gave me huge reviews. anki had about 1/4th of iknow's reviews.

iknow may be better for a few months, or for doing rtk in the beginning, but anki is best for the long run.