I know that this is a strange topic cause the people who can answer are already gone but in case there are some old lvl 60’s or below who still hang around the forums, maybe you can share your experience?
I reached lvl 60 2 weeks ago and I’m starting to feel like I want to leave WaniKani + KaniWani and just stick to my J-J Anki Deck with Sentences. I’m tired of studying words in isolation and at this point the fun of WaniKani is beginning to fade away. Most of the time my attitude is like “I could be reading something right now but I’m doing this…”.
I guess that as I’m writing this I understand that I should finally stop. I would just like to hear what others have experienced after they left WaniKani. More time for other things? How many items did you Burn? Did you regret that you stopped reviewing too early?
I haven’t even left WaniKani yet and I’m already feeling this. Every day I spend so much time on lessons/reviews where I feel that I could be do something far more useful like studying vocab, brushing up on grammar, practicing listening, reading. It just feels like WaniKani isn’t providing as much benefit as it once was. Even on my current level there’s 11 kanji that I already knew previously. I want to just get through the rest of WaniKani as fast I can so I can finally quit and put my time to better use.
There’s nothing wrong with stepping away from it as this point if you’re burning out and aren’t getting as much out of it. By now you should have a pretty solid kanji base to work off of to apply while reading (which is the whole reason why we’re here in the first place). It will still be there where you left it if you decide you want to pick it back up again.
Yeah I completely understand. I never truly felt like the reviews where a nuisance until a few days ago but around lvl 40/45 I also understood that my time could be better spent elsewhere but I was determined to get to the end of WaniKani so I stuck with my initial promise.
Your right, it’s not so much about burning out but I’m just starting to feel like I’m wasting time in a way since I CAN read and I am enjoying it a lot. WaniKani has just been with me from the beginning so it’s hard to let go
I think I’ve made my decision. I’ll quit reviewing after today… and tomorrow I’m a free man.
Yeah I get that. It’s such a time commitment and it becomes a big part of your routine so it’s hard to just suddenly stop. Some people also feel like they have to “finish” it, but ultimately, everyone has their own stopping point. As far as I know, most of us are here learning as a hobby so there’s nothing wrong with focusing on the parts you find most enjoyable. Good luck in your studies!
Since becoming level 60 over a year ago, the amount of time I spend on WK has decreased dramatically. In fact, I started with a long vacation break from WK to focus on other aspects of Japanese before eventually restarting reviews on a more intermittent basis.
I feel that once people get to the higher levels and begin to really start being more independent with their own ability to develop their reading skills, their motivation to continue WK as it currently is declines.
Perhaps you’re already intending on doing this, but when you stop, put your account on vacation mode because you might want to pick up completing WK at a later time. There’s nothing that kills motivation more than coming back to an insane stack of reviews.
Besides, the forums are always here to distract you, if you so wish! I’m sure your studies will continue to proceed forward even in the absence of WK reviews!
Oh the studies will go on for sure. I have a +1 sentence Anki Deck with currently 3000 cards. I’m aiming for 10,000 and then I’ll probably leave SRS forever.
Thanks for the heads up about vacation mode!
I’ve been 60 for a few months now — I want to burn everything so I haven’t stopped reviewing yet, but it’s not because I think it’s necessary per se, I think it’s more just stemming from me being competitive with myself and wanting to see this through to that last possible review (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
Since I took the last stretch of WK at max speed, reviews stayed pretty consistently intense for about a month or so, but then once the reviews started slowing down, I started only spending about 10-15 min per day on WK, and nowadays more like ~5 min (if that, started to have to wait days between reviews :o) so I don’t see it as taking away from any other areas of Japanese study since it’s such a minimal daily effort
As expected, I’ve been able to spend even more time on other areas of Japanese study, and even with keeping up with burning the remainder of my items, I don’t view it as a hindrance at all
I think it’s fine to stop WK shortly after reaching 60, maybe preferably once you guru the newest items or something, but even that is up to personal preference of course — as long as you’re reading and continuing to improve other areas, there’s no reason to regret stopping WK “early” ^^
Haha I have the same situation you had I think. I went full speed + did all my vocab lessons at once during the fast levels so I keep getting 70+ review chunks here and there and will probably be getting them for a while. They don’t take long to finish but I can’t see another 大佐 or 中尉。The vocab is just a bit dusty/specific and I would rather learn such vocab from context to brighten them a little bit (just personal opinion, I’m not huge into military stuff).
I totally believe that you will Burn every single item and I am supporting you all the way
My workload dropped significantly, I have maybe 20 minutes of WK reviews per day. But I also feel that the point of SRS in general fades when there are months between reviews, and the vocab to burn on the later levels isn’t too exciting either.
What I really need to do is to look up words in context, but using WK as a cue is just too random. I started reading more recently, and looking up what I actually need is more exciting. I’m not aiming for 100% recall of everything in WK, it’s good to have many things in “latent memory”, but completing WK just because it’s there is not required.
Still, I paid for one more year anyway, so I plan to unburn batches of kanji at a time and write them like 10–20 times when they come up, and just browse a bit for their etymology. For the vocab I fool around a bit in KW, maybe using handwriting input (this is far off, though).
I have on average 150 reviews everyday and it will probably stay like this for a few more weeks it seems (due to stupid behaviour mentioned in my last post). I used to deal with 300+ a day and love it but the WaniKani spark is just fading I guess.
It makes a huge difference not to pump more items into Apprentice and Guru, I was slacking a bit but after three or four weeks into level 60 you should be a steep decline (if you don’t mess up lots of short-term items that is).
It’s good to know how legal or medical terms look in general (the bacteria are always quite descriptive ), just burning them is overkill (if you know the readings of the kanji well already).
Unless you study or have a job in certain fields there’s a lot of vocab you probably won’t know in your native language. I know quite a bit of electrician/construction terms because back in high school (I went to a vocational school) I took electrical technology. Now I’m into programming so I know lots of vocab regarding that which people who don’t wouldn’t know anything about.
It’s even the same when you study a language, ask pretty much anybody who isn’t a teacher or studies linguistics what a transitive or intransitive verb is and they won’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
I reached 60 before my 1st yearly subscription was up, but I had already made up my mind to give it it another year so that I could really nail down some of those pesky kanji. (The vocab not so much. Like you said I don’t give a flying flip for another 大佐 or 中尉). I canceled the auto-renew so yeah after that I’ll be done with WK, whether I burn everything or not. . (The forums really are a good source of info though.)
It’s kind of the approach I’m taking with Bunpro, as well. Bought a year subscription while it’s cheap, figure I’ll have my grammar routine more solidified by the time it comes to renew so there’ll be no need. Or else I’ll find it pretty useful and then, fine I’ll keep going.
Definitely starting to transition to more native material. I’ve been watching more anime with Japanese audio/subtitles, even watched a couple without it. Nowhere near to understanding everything, but I figure if it’s funner than staring at a wall for 20 minutes, I must be getting something out of it.
I’m only half your level and already feeling this I haven’t been able to bring myself to do a new lesson in more than a week now, and I’m barely keeping the review pile under 120 (and currently failing). Still studying grammar and whatnot on the side, but starting to wonder if I should start dropping vocab reviews here so that I can dedicate energy to native material . . .
ありがとう！( ・∀)つ 
), just burning them is overkill (if you know the readings of the kanji well already).
I haven’t been able to bring myself to do a new lesson in more than a week now, and I’m barely keeping the review pile under 120 (and currently failing). Still studying grammar and whatnot on the side, but starting to wonder if I should start dropping vocab reviews here so that I can dedicate energy to native material . . .