A yearly or a lifetime subscription?

WaniKani
1

Hi all,

I am now entering level 3 and was wondering already regarding subscription.

Is it possible to learn all Kanji in a year in Wanikani (in terms of their pace/speed of the next lessons)? Or will I need more time?

I know it might depend on my progress, so just to help you answer and advice-
I joined WaniKani Dec 26th ('18), after 2-3 days I took about 3 weeks break, got back to it and today received a message I leveled up to 3. So two full levels in about 3 weeks (177 kanji * 11 more months = 1947 kanji).

Thank you!

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It is certainly possible to do it in just over a year if you rush through it as fast as possible. But if you’re not planning to go as fast as possible, it’ll likely be closer to 1.5 to 2 years especially with burning added on.

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The fastest you can reach level 60 is just about a year. That’s if you do every level at maximum speed, meaning 6 days and 20 hours for most levels until around level 40, and then 3 days and 10 hours for most levels after level 40. This would require a tight schedule and no breaks. That also doesn’t include burning many of the items on WaniKani since you’d just reach level 60 in that year. It’s much more practical to reach level 60 in 1.5 to 2.5 years in my opinion.

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My estimated completion is in 2022, and I joined in 2016 I think? So, if you’re slow like me


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And is level 60 the highest you can get?

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Yes. And “burn” is the term for reaching the final SRS level in WaniKani.

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It doesn’t work like that. The workload gets a lot heavier and the first levels are somehow special.

I think the questions you should be asking are:

  • Will I stick to this for the entire year? If I don’t, I’ll be wasting subscription time (if yearly).
  • Do I have 1h to 2h every day to spend on WK (not taking into consideration all the other Japanese studies u have to do)? Because this is the time you’ll need to go full speed.
  • Can I afford spending 300 dollars on something that I’m not as certain that I’ll stick to?
  • Can I afford spending 300 dollars today?
  • Will spending 90 dollars again next year be a big deal if I end up renewing my subscription?

In my opinion, you should go for yearly and see what happens. The team usually gives a $100 off promo around New Year’s on the lifetime subscription (read “usually”, not a certainty), so it’s not like you’ll throw money away by going yearly.

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And they will prorate the lifetime subscription based on how many months left from that yearly subscription if you choose to upgrade which is nice too.

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As a very uncertain individual, I bought a couple months of subscription, bought a yearly subscription, then traded most of that yearly subscription for the discounted lifetime subscription at the end of the year sale.

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I did annual for one year and then upgraded to lifetime during one of the sales. No regrets. :slight_smile:

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it depends. WK in 1 year sounds like a very time consuming challenge, where if you’re somewhat of a loner and very motivated japanese learner, with something of a deadline, then it would be possible 
 but if kids, gf / bf , loaded social agenda or 24/7 job
 you better think twice 


SRS apps are very unforgiving, so you better watch both sides before crossing that road :wink:

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The annual cost is $90, $270 in three years. The cost of the lifetime one is $300.
The lifetime subscription is a bit more than three years’ worth of subscription.

WK takes about two years to finish on average, but spending even one year on WK teaches you a ridiculous amount. This means that you wouldn’t even really have to spend three years here, so lifetime is not worth it unless you see yourself doing it for more than three years.

You don’t have to forever remember all the kanji WK teaches. If you’ll ever need it in life again, you’ll only need to look it up once and you’ll go “ah yeah I remember this from WK” and you’ll unlikely to ever forget it again. You just need to make sure that you do go out and read/write stuff.

The annual plan is a business strategy. You’re paying for more years than you need (yay for the business, they’ll make more money that way), in exchange for the benefit of not having a deadline (which makes some people either lazy about it or less nervous).

If deadlines kill your joy, make you nervous and/or make you less likely to stick around, go for a lifetime sub.
If the deadline makes it easier for you to keep motivated, you’ll be fine on a yearly sub as long as you don’t go past four years.

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I would recommend the lifetime as it means I can keep coming back to WK even once I reach level 60, reset at anytime.
I think it’s good value.

However, I got the yearly sale deal a year ago, so it was cheaper for me.

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It depends on what kind of person you are. I reset my account twice and have been here for four years. Now just happens to be a more convenient time in my life to truly dedicate myself to kanji than when I started. A lifetime membership for me meant the option to reset without feeling bad about wasted money.

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