Hi, total beginner here. I therefore spend most of my renshuu training in the kana and in basic vocabulary.
My question: most kana offer a sample word and most vocab words show the kanji. In an ideal world, I’d learn all those words and kanji while doing the exercise. But there are so many and they seem to be somewhat random. And that throws off my rhythm and focus.
Therefore: Is it appropriate to focus on just the kana in the kana exercises and the words in the vocab ? Will later levels bring all this extra stuff back to me? Or am I expected to learn all these words and kanji now?
Not at all!! You can always take it at your own pace. Renshuu is all about customization and doing what works best for you! Go ahead and do whatever helps you learn best.
The whole point of spaced repetition systems is that we forget things over time and need reminders. So don’t worry about getting everything right the first time. You’ll be seeing it again.
You for sure are not expected to learn the example words in the kana and kanji exercises. They're just examples.
As for kanji, it depends on how you want to learn. Let me go over the structure of Renshuu's recommended mastery schedules real quick.
You have 6 levels with several mastery schedules:
Basics
Hiragana
Katakana
Vocab
Grammar
Beginner (N5)
Vocab
Kanji
Grammar
Sentences
N4, N3, N2, and N1 repeat the pattern of N5.
In basics, you should see all the kana first before moving onto vocab
You only need to study the kanji at your current level. So in basics, you're expected to study none. In Beginner (N5), you study the N5 kanji. Etc. You can study them at the same time as vocab.
But remember how I said it's up to you? Instead of studying kanji at the recommended time, you can make a kanji helper schedule from a vocab schedule. The helper schedule automatically fills with the kanji found in your vocab words. I find this helpful for studying vocab and kanji at the same time.
As an aside, Renshuu expects, but doesn't require you, to do all the vocab in a level before moving onto the corresponding grammar schedule. If you ignore this, grammar reviews will be a little harder. I'm not sure there's a suggested order for sentences. You can try studying them at the same time as vocab and see how it goes.
You can start with Kanji if you find your own suffering funny!
It's fine to start with kana. Don't let the kanji throw you off. That's why the furigana (Ruby text/pronunciation guide characters at the top) are there.
When I find a character I'm interested in learning, I go to the dictionary for the stroke order and reading guide and write it down on paper, so I have kind of a glossary of my own. That genuinely does help me remember them faster, if you're fixated on that, but it's genuinely fine to forget stuff. It doesn't mean you're not learning. Forgetting and then recovering information is just part of the process. You forget less over time.
What you're doing now is cutting a new path through a field by scratching the dirt with a toothpick. First couple dozen times you go home and come back, you won't see where it is right away. That's fine.
