So I’ve been using WaniKani for a good 4 or so months now, and I’m only at level 4. I’ve heard that people go through levels at a rate of once a fortnight, but for me it’s been closer to once a month.
I think it’s because I’m very slow and meticulous when I study, I want to be able to get everything right before I continue, coupled with the fact that I’m not the best at absorbing new information in large amounts, so when lessons come up I do them very piecemeal instead of all at once, so I’m sitting on about 35ish lessons right now.
Does anyone else have the slow learning issue like I do? If so, do you have any methods or mantras that speed the process up to a more comfortable level?
Your rate is better than mine: I started WaniKani around 6 years ago and have never reset my account. Granted, for the past few years I have focused more on iKnow and Bunpro, but I wasn’t very fast before that either.
You said absorbing lots of new information at once isn’t easy (I’m the same so I understand), so aren’t you at a comfortable level already? If you sped things up, wouldn’t it become uncomfortable?
My tip would be to focus on grammar and other parts of the language too. I wish I had already known about iKnow and Bunpro when I was 4 months in (well, the latter didn’t exist ).
Yep, it’s taken me about 2 years to get to level 13.
According to WK-stats, my average level-up is 37 days.
And it’s not like I’ve been slacking… I’ve done over 60,000 reviews!
But some of us are just ‘slow’, that’s all there is to it.
But we’ll never be as slow as those who stop!
Yeah, I can understand that WK puts you in at quite a pace. If you have never studied or seen kanji before, the task can be daunting, given all the new symbols and multiple readings, which I think are the hardest to learn independently. If you have lived in Japan or read a lot of material, a lot of these alternate readings are known or you have heard them many times. I myself have studied Japanese for more than six years total and just started WK recently. Even though my vocab is quite large, I still I am only averaging around 8/9 days per level as I mess up the reviews quite a bit. So don’t worry, just stay true to your own pace and try and get some exposure outside of WK so you don’t crash too too. All the best.
If you feel you can go faster try it! Try to stretch your limit, just slightly. I think that going a little bit faster and getting some things wrong (and therefore more reviews) is NOT necessarily a bad thing, it means you will see them more often and you will eventually have them in memory. Luckily reviews don’t take too much time.
One thing I do really slowly (like reeeeeally slowly) are lessons. I stay on some kanji/vocab words for 3/4 minutes. And when I get them wrong I stay on those kanji/vocab for one minute (during the review).
If you’re studying 5 new kanji or 10 new radicals/vocab every day I think you’re already doing a good enough job. If not, my suggestion is to try and reach those numbers.
P.S. Some of the people here have previous japanese knowledge: some have a minor/master in japanese, some already know a lot of vocab because of a lot of anime/other media, some have simply studied in other ways, some live in Japan… Not all the people who go fast are starting /have started where you are, so they may not be fast learners, just people who have invested several years in the Japanese language. Keep that in mind before comparing with others and getting down for no reason
I’m about to hit 5 years in December and I’m just at level 41, though my biggest problem is that I’m fairly inconsistent leading to several points with over a 1000 reviews, so even if you go slow try to keep it continuos. Good luck
I may be slow but I won’t say I’m slow because what slow for me could be interpreted as fast for others. And I may not be fast though I won’t say I’m fast either because ニャー。
\color{red} \text{quadban 先輩 is my inspiration}. I read it over and over and over and I knit in my heart what I One of WK context sentences that I wrote copy pasted on my profile that someday I’ll finish WK too. cc @Omun@OmAn
So this is an actual time frame. Can’t wait to confuse people with it.
On topic: 1 level every month means 5 years until level 60. While you should go at your own pace, you should also keep your goals in mind. A 5 years process is defenetly a long term comittment and you might just forget things of the first levels before you’re done.
Currently, I am going at a decent pace but I am in the process of ordering grammar study books and writing practice books, so my time here will most likely slow down once I start sprinkling this in, along with other media.
Go at what is most comfortable! If you still remember everything just fine, even months down the line then it’s obviously working for you!
I am an extremely slow (reading/writing/language) learner and extremely busy. I started WK in 2014 and have learned when I can and have always done reviews but with a full time job, a spouse and 3 kiddos my time is limited to say the least. But I refuse to give up on learning Japanese as it is a place of Zen for me if you will. When it comes to reading and writing I grew up with a mild disability (not quite dyslexia). I have many ways to over come it now but, learning another language makes those challenges rear their ugly heads once more. I have currently come back to re-assess my Japanese learning and I’m really struggling to come up with a schedule to balance WK, Genki 1 and Anki with all I have going on (if anyone wants to give some pointers with a busy schedule, learns me! All advice welcome lol). I realize that it will be really difficult to learn Japanese with a longer drawn out time frame unlike the amazing power learners in this wonderful community. But 1 year, 2 years…10 years, I don’t mind I’ll get there.
Point being, just push through and never stop. Push your limits slightly each time you get comfortable. Once you get comfortable, push a little more. When it comes to practicing, I stress myself out all the time because I want to get it perfect. But reality is, you just have to do it and get it wrong if you get it wrong. Humans learn the best through mistakes. It is easier said than done but you will feel liberated once you let go of the perfection and start focusing on just learning and trying. If you get discouraged, lean in on this community. They are amazing and wonderful. There are many posts on methods, practices, resource and people to talk to. You got this! 頑張って! (がんばって！)
I’ve been here since March so I guess I’m going at about a level per month. I’m glad to see others are going as slow as I am!
What I’ve started doing is that I’ve lowered the amount of lessons I do at once to three. I try to do at least one “session” every single day with enough time for me to see the review again that day. So I’m only adding 3 words to my review pile every day (for the most part). It’s slow, but I feel like it was faster than what I had been doing (which is add as many lessons as I can handle and then struggle for the next two weeks without adding any new lessons). If anything it just makes it feel more steady.
I’m becoming a slow learner.
The first few levels went by faster because I knew most of the items. I’m not new to Japanese after all.
But it has been getting harder, also because I’m combining Wanikani with other study methods. It’s fine though, we all get there eventually. It’s also supposed to be a fun experience.
My suggestion would be a combination of discipline and trust.
Study every single day at the same time frames (before going for work, before going to bed, etc.). Make it a mandatory part of your day, like brushing your teeth.
Trust the system. Go trough far more lessons per day, review more per day. You will fail MORE but you will also see those failures show up more, and they will be ingrained in your brain. SMS works, but it should be used in an agile way, right now you are not taking full advantage of it.
I personally cant go any slower, because this is just one of the steps in the entire “Understanding and communicating in Japanese” project. I want to be able to READ all Japanese before tackling more language-grammar oriented steps. I cant stay on this 3+ years, I have a deadline of 2 years or less.
).
