Hi there !
365 days ago I created my account on Wanikani. Since then, I have consistenly studied almost every day. I will tell you my progress so far, but probably one picture is worth a thousand words:
Considering that I have a full time job, daily projects, and social things that keep me busy, reaching level 18 is a great achievement.
By the way ! My last post talking about my progress was when I became level 4, you can take a look if you’re curious Finally level 4 ! My experience
My advice to you:
If you are an adult with responsibilities, 30 minutes a day is good enough. As long as it is every day, your reviews won’t stack up. Discipline is key here. Most of the days I spent between 30 - 60 minutes.
When those busy or depressing times come, still don’t give up on the idea of not studying. Even 10-15 minutes are OK. There is a huge difference between “studying little” and “quitting”. You probably may think that 10-15 minutes isn’t much, but to your brain it is the big deal, because depending on your review speed you can do, let’s say, 10 to 40 reviews in that session, that will become a good amount of kanji your brain processed in those days or weeks you couldn’t devote more time to your studies. If you’re depressed, this can also help since it keeps you away from the feeling of “failure”, and also it’s a good way to keep you active.
One last thing, it is super recommended to study grammar along with Wanikani. However, if you are very busy like I am, you can leave this aside for the time being. It will be enough if you read basic stuff from time to time, like particles or tenses, or perhaps if you watch anime you can remember certain expressions and then look them up on Google… . Remember, what’s important here is to get you into the pace of studying. Once time goes by and you succeed in your discipline, then your conviction will be greater and you will end up devoting more into your studies.
What about my reading skills? Can I read manga?
When I was level 5 or under, I always saw users with superior level and thought…can he/she read manga? So the answer is not yet. However, at this level I recognize a looot of kanjis when I try to read anything. If I were to read simple stories, I would understand plenty. But manga? Too difficult.
Am I disappointed? Of course not. I have also studied English and French (my mother tongue is Spanish). I already know as a fact that one year isn’t quite enough to read a book or watch a movie, at least for a great deal of humans, and especially if you are a busy adult. It is important to recognize that it just takes time, whether there is kanji involved or not, we need to remember that our brain needs time to process new information.
Having said that, I’m feeling quite confident that if I spend another year with this pace, I will be able to read certain types of manga.
Talking about manga ! I did try some websites like Bookwalker or Sokuyomi
My problem is that kanjis are so small, my god. I can’t read them !! Not sure if this is a problem that everyone has, but I would like kanjis to be big when I read.
I found… Toomics. Bear in mind that there is a lot of erotic and hentai material in there, you can turn that off easily and read normal manga with “safe mode”. This isn’t a free website, but the price is quite low. One important thing to keep in mind is that you pay your suscription for one language only.
These mangas have a “korean style”. I say korean, because all korean mangas I have read are vertical and you scroll down; the great thing about this is that there are not many pictures in a single page, which leaves space to make kanjis bigger (much bigger).
Of course the disadvantage of the website is that mangas are “originals”…so you won’t find demon slayer, my hero academia, or other popular mangas in there…actually, you won’t find anything.
That’s it for this post !
Hope it has been useful for you
Have a great day !