The recall vs recognition is one of the primary reasons why I stopped using WaniKani for Japanese learning. All they ever show you is the Kanji and then you either produce the English or the Hiragana sound of the Kanji. I did not like that. Your mind is never asked to visualize the answer in Japanese. If my mind is not picturing Japanese and my answer is not Japanese, then what am I learning to do? Only translate to English? Crazy! I've since begun the method in the book Remembering the Kanji. Once I complete that I will begin making flashcards for vocab practice. The front of the card will either be in English or Hiragana, or both, and asking me to reproduce the Kanji compound answer that I either type out using my IME or written by hand.
As for recall versus recognition - what if is cloze (fill in blank) flashcards (available in Remnote for instance)? I mean those, where you can recall using context around instead of phrase version in native language)? Its much faster to create them (because you dont need to put native language translation into the flashcard) and also you do not waste extra energy during reviewing session (so you just recogize context words, but at the same time - you recall the new word, you need to learn)?
Close is great. But it could be a problem. Some people (like me) learn languages like Japanese in order to be able to speak the language. Learning the written system is not my main objective.
