I started using Wanikani in 2018. Yeah… uh… as you can tell I have not been the most consistent. Last time I tried to get back into WK was in 2023, when I reset to level 3 so I didn’t have to deal with the huge pile of reviews. Fast forward 3 years and I’m back in the same place.
So I’ve been studying Japanese for 10 years and just last year I went on exchange to Japan, where I did 2 classes completely in Japanese and got A’s in both of them! Now I’m studying for the JLPT N2 and I have realised that kanji is very much my weak point.
Every time I’ve tried to develop a routine and actually do reviews regularly, something has gotten in the way and led to me not using WK for an extended period of time. First it was high school pressure, then mental health issues, then uni pressure, then physical health issues…
Here’s to hoping I can actually stick with WK this time
Hello, same problem here, been studying since 2018 (at a slow pace) and I have a huge vocabulary, but never really consciously studied kanji. I’m now focusing on Wanikani as well as trying to start reading more with tools that give me a pop-up dictionary in manga and in video games.
I have some physical health issues too, which is one of the reasons why i do Wanikani in Anki mode. It makes it easier to do your reviews consistently without all the typing.
nothing else to do but to keep persevering. i think the key is to find something you genuinely enjoy and is important to you, and strive towards that specifically as your goal.
“know japanese” or “learn japanese” are huge general goals that - for me at least - are difficult to turn into concrete work plans and consistent motivation.
on the other hand: “must improve my conversation skills until my trip next year” or “must be able to read murakami’s novel” are concrete goals you can actually measure yourself against and see your progress — and unlike general study (which WK is, ultimately), every extra kanji or word or sentence you are able to get familiar with — which is relevant to your concrete goal — brings you a little closer to it.
so i was onloy able to truly focus on WK once I established these concrete goals for myself.
Something like 11 years at this point. Gave it what I thought was a really good go, and it turns out that I only did it for about a month but just have really strong and fond memories of it.
Back now - already further along than last time and hoping to be able to keep it up.
Wow, I’m impressed. You must have learned some decent amount of kanji to have passed N5, N4, and N3.
I started WK in 2020. My assumption (which we’ll return to) was that learning kanji (and thus able to read Japanese) would enable me to learn Japanese so I could converse in it. As I recall I got up to WK 13 and got frustrated that I was consistently unable to do very well on reviews of much earlier WK lessons.
So, I reset it and started again, vowing to do better. I think I got back to WK level 10 and then learned that my assumption about learning conversational Japanese via reading was dead nuts wrong. So, I punted again.
I tried any number of apps, all the usual suspects. I settled on Pimsleur. It promised that if I did a lesson/day, well… with 150 lessons total I’d be relatively fluent in six months!!! Well no. Once again, although I was making good progress I found that I would forget earlier lessons, so what good was that.
Anyway, I HAVE learned a lot. And the biggest lesson is that I cannot rush it. Unlike how I studied through electrical engineering, MBA, etc., I need to slow way down, be patient. It’ll come on its own time with diligence and focus.
So now I’m about 30 lessons (1/5) of the way into Pimsleur, writing ばめん with practice dialogue, and other reviews. I restarted WK a couple of months ago and am finding that it’s a good adjunct to my other studies. And I’m surprised to see how much I have retained.
from back in 2015 here - i think this is my third or fourth reset, but i’m not really counting. my biggest hobby in life is running, and unfortunately i have ended up with an injury - i thought that would be a good time to start wanikani again since not using it since 2021 lol
good luck to you, hoping that you can stick with it this time!
i’m glad me back in 2016 decided to go lifetime - i really hope to go to level 60 one day
Hello fellow travellers, I’m also back after a very long break. I signed up for Wanikani at the end of 2017 and spent all of 2018 pretty much obsessively racing to level 60. I scheduled my life around it and gave up too much sleep for it, but I got there within a year. However having achieved that goal, and having managed to pass the N3 exam, I succumbed to burn out and wasn’t able to tackle the thousands of reviews that taunted me every day.
Anyway, after a few years’ break from seriously studying Japanese, I’m decided to plunge back in and have reset WK to level 1. I intend to get more out of it this time and go at my own pace without racing.
Thank you so much for letting me know there was an anki mode. This is going to save me so much time. Already activated it for bunpro so idk why I never checked if wanikani had one too.
Good to know I’m not alone, been here since 2019 with multiple resets. I’m currently in my kanji only (and grammar elsewhere) phase, doing very little vocab and this time I see myself reaching 60, my plan is to learn vocab based on songs I listen to or manga I actually wanna read rather than just learning everything WK has and burning myself out again. You’re already way ahead of the curve so I’m sure you’ll make it one day.
Some comments here have concerned me that Wanikani never stops. When you get to level 60 they send you a mail to say its time to move on to other thing. So Ive heard. It might even make sense sooner. I use the app more and more just look up kanji I come across. Could you eventually get there that way - just looking up kanji you come across reading ? Something to think about.
Went to japan in 2023, got discouraged at my level, never unpaused wanikani when I came back, and now I’m giving it another try from scratch for the cheer joy of learning
