Hello!
An intro stats class I’m taking wanted us to conduct a simple 3 question survey about anything, and I thought this could be a fun way to engage with the community here. The questions are very simple ones about your Japanese learning experience. No personal information like emails or names will be collected.
Besides the survey, how is everyone doing recently?
I’m also kind of curious to hear where you started your language study journey and where you are now.
Starting with me, I started Wanikani completely on a whim back in July of 2019. I think I googled it after seeing a comment about it on reddit 
. The rabbit hole that got me there…lord knows what it was lol.
I got through the first 40ish levels at a pretty good pace, leveling up 3-4 times a month. I was having fun.
Around August 2020, some life things happened and my activity here started tapering off before going completely dead (2021-2022). A 1400+ review queue made it really difficult to get back on track. I tried to clear the queue a few times during 2022 and struggled to keep it below 300. I’d burn out and it would grow back to 1400+.
Fast forward to 2023: I’m back on track and enjoying my studies again. Koichi’s annual New Year’s email brought me back in January this year and gave me the motivation to finally clear that queue 
. 6 months in and still going strong haha. That email was genuinely really inspirational .
I’m redoing wk for the second time to truly hammer those readings and meanings into my 
I mostly spend time doing book clubs/listening clubs or just have fun with the Japanese I’ve learnt. But, IRL stuff, like getting a new job, is taking up mental space right now. So, I take my time and try to balance learning Japanese with everything else going on. 
As for how I got started, check out The long and winding immersion path to WaniKani level 60
FWIW, a survey that does not offer ‘other’ or ‘none of the above’ or similar “escape hatches” for the questions is a bit irksome…
Nevertheless, I completed it.
Just select coelacanth
Does it take you less time to do all the reviews and lessons second time around? And do you still get stuck on the same leeches?
I’d say i’m typing a tiny bit slower to make sure I don’t do as many typos this time round. I don’t use any override script. If I really want to register a typo item as correct, i’ll keep on failing it until I feel my sessions is done, and exit the browser, which resets it for next review session.
I defo have retained most of the kanji and vocab, but I’ve also found plenty of items that really did need a second round memorizing them. The items I’ve encountered in the wild by now, are much easier for example. But, some I have still not encountered, so they remain vague.
I never took very long on the lessons. But, since this is an attempt to better learn and retain items, I try to not do them too fast. A struggle for me. I mostly focus on items I feel uncertain about though. So, several lessons will just be me going straight for the quiz.
I don’t have nearly as many leeches as the first time round. So, doing this over has clearly also helped me better memorize the items. The leeches I do have, ARE the same items as last time, though. It’s usually vocab with irregular readings that are the bane of my existence. >_>
when you finished the first time around did you recognize (without necessarily remembering the meaning and reading) most of the kanji you came across in books or text in “the wild”?
I didn’t start reading immediately after finishing, which was less than ideal. Instead, i stopped doing reviews and just kept up my listening practice. So, once I started reading, I did feel rusty. While I recognized most kanji, I had clearly started mixing stuff up in my head. Sometimes I struggled with the reading, sometimes with the meaning. After restarting doing WK reviews, i felt a lot of improvement, which lead me to just redo most levels.
I think it’s only natural to forget stuff if you don’t use it. it is easier to relearn something already learnt, so at least the process isn’t very difficult. ^^
I agree… sorry about that. This wasn’t a serious survey and we had a very simple template to follow (those options were excluded this time around) just to gather some data for computation purposes. It was just an activity to learn the basic math.
Thank you for completing it anyway, though 
.
I totally crashed last night, so I only just finished reading your level 60 journey post! I loved reading your experience! Cheers to 60 and cheers to your second run through, as well! 
I related to your experience with vocab learned passively through immersion-- I grew up with anime and it definitely helped add context to the new vocab/kanji I was learning.
I laughed out loud at your ちょっとまって – that feels like my life right now .
You just reminded me that I still have Ni No Kuni sitting on my shelf, waiting to be played 
. I also got really busy with work, going back to school, and watching over a tiny level 1 human… I should try to get to that sometime soon, though. Life is a balancing act, right?
I’ve never seen Swedish smörgåstårta before! I’m intrigued and totally saving your recipe haha. Christmas is going to be exciting this year! Thank you!
I’m actually pretty shy, so I’ve been a lurker for the most part in this community, but I’ve always loved how friendly and supportive this space is. I’ve been trying to push myself a little more lately to put myself out there. In that regard, this assignment pushed me to post my first topic here haha. I was actually pretty nervous…but baby steps. I consider this a win .
Thanks! Glad you enjoy the read. ^>^
Reminds me I never finished it for some darn reason. Some IRL stuff that I’ve forgotten about at the moment probably happened, then it just never happened. I really should pick it up again. Also, to replay the whole thing. It’s a lovely game. 
Then again, by now I really should replay Ookami in Japanese, which I game up on 10 years ago. 
It’s pretty easy to make and you can make endless variations. You can make it vegan or vegetarian. Good luck making your own version. 
See you around the forums!
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