Received a JLPT N1 vocab word (not on WK) very early after WK (L4) sync

The111 · June 5, 2025, 11:25pm

I’ve been on WaniKani for a couple weeks, currently L4.

I just started Bunpro a few days ago. I planned on using it only for grammar. But then I decided, what the heck, I’ll do vocab here too (not as a replacement for WK, but just as extra fun). I synced with my WK progress, knowing it might give me a mountain of instant reviews (fortunately a small mountain, due to my low L4 level… maybe ~100 reviews total).

So far, I’ve not regretted the choice at all. Many positives, other than the obvious that I get more exposure to each word:

I get to see the word used in sentences in multiple ways
I get nice info about the word and its various definitions
I get quizzed on the reverse mapping (English → Japanese) which WK does not do at all

But today something weird happened, while nearing the top of my small mountain. I was asked a question where this was the answer (see image below, and note that jisho calls this N1 while Bunpro calls it N2). I am not sure how the word entered my review list, but presumably it is one of these options:

A regularly scheduled Bunpro word (for early Bunpro levels)
A result of my sync from WK

Option #1 seems doubtful.

Why would a JLPT N1 level word be presented so soon?
It seems statistically unlikely to be #1, since I presume the majority of my mountain came from the WK sync.
I don’t remember receiving a Bunpro lesson about it, but obviously my memory is not the most reliable source.

Option #2 seems even more doubtful, since:

万 [ばん] is not even on WK… jisho doesn’t show a WK level (see earlier link), and a WK search confirms that.
万 [まん] is on WK… jisho shows WK L3, and the same WK search from above confirms that.

Is this word intended to surface so early (or at all)?

Beghaus · June 5, 2025, 11:43pm

万歳 (ばんざい) and 万人 (ばんにん) are on Wanikani. ばん is not the most common reading of 万 so it’s probably not taught as the reading you should prioritise remembering. It is however common enough that it is worth knowing. For example in 万博.

The111 · June 5, 2025, 11:57pm

Oh true, good catch! Though both of those words are above L40, so the mystery in my OP still remains I think. It is amusing to me though to hear that the commonly heard banzai “means” 10k years old.

pixel1331 · June 6, 2025, 12:28am

I mean they do teach the On’yomi for the kanji on level 3.

veritas_nz · June 6, 2025, 8:20am

Hi there!

Assuming you have a 万 Vocab that is Guru’d in WK, we probably have the wrong data ID for that WK Vocab on our end.

If you can plz link me your Guru’d Vocab from WK, and the Bunpro Vocab that gets erroneously summoned, I can fix this issue for you! 🙇‍♂️

vendethiel · June 6, 2025, 10:51am

Hi! I have the same issue. My stats look really weird after syncing with WK. Mind you, I’m only lv20 on WK. I had done 0 vocab on bunpro before that.

fdlbt · June 6, 2025, 9:35pm

WaniKani doesn’t teach kanji and vocab in a strict N5->N1 sequence the way BunPro does (assuming you use the base decks). WaniKani prioritizes teaching kanji in order of increasing visual complexity first, and in order of meaning complexity second. So it’s expected that you will learn a mix of N4-N1 vocab early on because those are sometimes the words that make sense to be taught with the kanji you’ve just learned.

I’ve also synced my WK to Bunpro and my JLPT progress graph looks exactly like yours.

The111 · June 6, 2025, 9:35pm

Thank you for the quick response!

This one: https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/万

This one: 万 (JLPT N2) | Bunpro

どうも!

The111 · June 6, 2025, 9:42pm

Correct! I’m only WK L4, but my stats by JLPT level look like this:

To the commenter above you, I suggest checking out wkstats.com if you want to see similar stats for yourself. I suspect my issue in this thread was pretty uncommon, and is not the reason for your JLPT level vocab distribution.

The111 · June 6, 2025, 9:45pm

True, but kind of irrelevant since my question was about vocabulary (semantics), not On’yomi (syntax). I was given a task to “review” the meaning of a vocabulary word that I’d never been taught anywhere (neither on WK nor in a Bunpro lesson). Looks like it was confirmed to be a bug, which is what I expected.

fdlbt · June 6, 2025, 11:00pm

FWIW I had the same word (万) added to my learning queue and I assumed it was because Bunpro added all vocab for which you had learned the kanji on WK. So at first I figured might as well try to learn it here, but after a while I just removed it manually because the associated quiz sentences were all N1 and essentially gibberish to my N5 brain.

I feel like that wasn’t the only example either, so thank you for bringing it up because now I know that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.