I’m getting old. Are there any 50 year old or older that ever successfully used wanikani to get to level 60? I like to hear your story.
I feel like I’m 6 years old again in a Japanese kindergarten classroom.
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Fifty is young! I’m older than fifty and have been happily using WK for two years now. Earlier this year a 60 year old posted his Level 60 post. I’m pretty sure lots of older users have “graduated”.
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I reached level 60 at the age of 61. I started at the age of 59 when I retired.
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Reaching the skills of Japanese kindergarten kids would be a considerable achievement - as they already understand Japanese. They only have to learn the reading and writing, and some more complicated words. Don’t forget that they have been learning Japanese for 5-6 years!
Is this the first foreign language you are learning? Starting to learn a language other than your native one is always difficult, Japanese has the additional difficulty that you can´t even read the words you don’t know (at least in the beginning). I see that you joined wanikani just 4 days ago. What did you expect after such a short time? Of course you have to start with the basics.
I went to Japan when I was at wanikani level 5 and I was happy to see some kanji that I could already read (e.g 止 painted on the streets at crossings, which you will learn at level 2).
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I was really surprised to hear that. I think you started at a similar time to me and I assumed for some reason (possibly based on Discourse readings) that you were maybe 30!!
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If the goal is to get to level 60 you are thinking about it wrong. If the goal is to learn a little bit each day, or each week, or each month, or each year, does age matter? Next year you’ll be a year older, what will you look back upon? Sitting in front of the TV watch Seinfeld reruns or will you say, I finished one level a month and now I know about 300 kanji and 1000 vocabulary words. Would that be a successful year? What about the year after that?
I originally hit level 24, reset to 0 and am trudging through again, quite a bit easier this time. I still don’t regret the time spent on WK and my years are, as yours, numbered.
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older people might have a harder time learning a bunch of new items fast, but they excel in experience, making the process of learning much smoother. especially self directed learning outside of class room settings. young brains and old brains are different, but both have their strengths.
japanese is one of my retirement projects, too ^^
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We met in several book clubs here, perhaps reading children’s books together, but I never pretended to be such a youth 
.
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I am chinese born in USA. I know how to write basic kindergarten level chinese. Therefore I know the meaning of most JLPT n5 japanese kanji. When I look at JLPT n4 kanji and higher level, I don’t know their meaning.
I’m probably around JLPT n4-n5 in japanese level right now, so I know about 1,500 japanese words according to an anki deck. I was thinking of using wanikani to start learning kanji. on’yomi reading of kanji seems hard but I’ll start from scratch.
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I’m 61, I started paying for WaniKani in late May, about to finish level 20 - I’m sure it would have been faster when I was younger, but I’ll bash those characters into my brain eventually.
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Yes, you are correct. My goal should not be level 60 but to learn a bit everyday/week. I’m mostly wasting time on tiktok, netflix, various mobile games, and sodoku puzzles. So I’m hoping learning japanese and kanji will be a better use of my time.
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well….seeing as i turn 48 literally today….it’s fine. it’s all a matter of how comfortable you are learning new things. I’ve always been far more fascinated learning things than not so it wasn’t a big deal for me over the past 10yrs of really studying the language. I knew a handful of the language from my teens in the 90s because of having an exchange student in our senior year of high school but it was a long time before I dived into the language properly. even in college I took spanish since that was the more “useful” thing back then.
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Thanks everyone. I’ll give it a go. Lets see how far I can get in 3,6,9,12 months.
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57 here. Retired in May, started WaniKani in June. Currently on level 10 and have finally started burning items last week. Took Latin in high school, so this really is my “first” language.
My goal each day is to stay “in the learning zone”. Anything else is a bonus. I skip new lessons on days when my reviews get overwhelming and start lessons again when I feel like I’m making progress (e.g., less than 100 reviews / day).
I’ve recently started trying to read easy news. It’s still not easy, but I do get a kick out of recognising more than half of the kanji. Figuring out how the rest of the hiragana fits in is a completely different problem, but I can generally get the gist of the article.
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Hi I’m 54. I started wanikani 3 years ago (I got the lifetime deal at new year then) and am now at level 30. I also have been doing Kaniwani in parallel from the beginning (essential I think). I have been taking it slowly - I started on 10 lessons a day and after a year or so dropped to 5, due to time restraints Sometimes I would stop lessons, but always try to get the reviews done - occasionally using vacation mode. I’ve currently stopped doing new lessons as I’ve signed up for Bunpro lifetime cheap deal to start focusing on grammar but am continuing to do the wanikani and Kaniwani reviews, which are gradually reducing in number. Once they reduce significantly, I will start doing new lessons.
I generally spend about 45 minutes a day doing all this.
I don’t know how old I’ll be when or if I get to level 60 but have found this system perfect for my learning style and it’s really deepened my understanding of Japanese.
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I’m old enough (I was in elementary school when John F. Kennedy was assasinated) that I should probably consult a life expectancy table before considering whether I can make it to level 60, but while my mind is not as nimble as it was 20 years ago, I’m now at level 21 after one year of WK. If I can just reach a point where I can read with some ease I’ll be happy.
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I reached level 2 and bought the lifetime plan. Lets go!
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I’m 68 and am on level 34. I’ve finished level 35 but I always now go back 5, forward 10, back 5, forward 10 etc.
During my “back 5s” I find it really easy it and it definitely consolidates it for me. I’m looking to hit level 60 by the time I turn 70.
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I’ll be 76 in a month and have been learning Japanese since I was 68. I reset WK twice but don’t think I’ll do it again. The study goes easier nowadays. I have a Lifetime subscription because I figure I’ll die before I get to Level 60, but will keep studying until that time comes. I keep studying because I love Japanese and it is fun.
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71 here. Started during covid. I’ve guru’d through 60, but use WaniKani for review.
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