Hello! As the title says, I finally decided to get back to wanikani after a long hybernation… “I’m afraid it’s been… 5 years”…
So many things happened in the meantime that I couldn’t really go forward with learning Japanese. A lot of my previous knowledge is lost but some is still there. I’m still able to read some kanjis here and there…
Do you guys recommend resetting to level 1? Or do you think I should try some intermediate level first? I’m scared of pressing that red button on the danger zone
You should try an intermediate level first since there is no way to reverse a reset. I don’t know your particular situation but I recommend going back only a few levels at a time. You’ll also want to review any burned items you may have, which you can do from the Extra Study widget on your homepage!
Try to practice the levels one at a time from 1 up with the Item Inspector + Self Study Quiz.
That way you can go from the ‘bottom up’ instead of ‘top down’
When I did that after coming back for ~1,5 month everything looked like alien scribbles, but I was surprised how much came back to me after 1-2 rehearsals per level.
Yes, it’ll take quite a bit of time to do it that way, but not nearly as much time as it’ll take after a full reset. (And imho it’s a big mistake to reset to level 1. It has to be more risky to get demotivated from the slow speed & basic items than having a slightly bigger review pile when resetting to level 5ish.)
Thank you, thats the kind of tips I was looking for! Since I am mostly using the wanikani app from Android now, I wonder if there is a way to restrict reviews (burned or not burned yet) according to the level from the app. Cause it seems like the Item Inspector is only for the browser as far I understand.
Welcome back. Wow! What can I say 5 years ? I was in a similar situation as you when I went away for 2.7 years (not as long but you get the gist.) I think setting vacation mode on during that time helped a bit but still met a pile of reviews on deactivating the mode.
Resetting is never the answer IMO. What I did back then was do my reviews no matter how many during which I started remembering what I had learnt prior to going away. For the ones I didn’t remember their level was downgraded and returned to the review queue.
The other thing I did was take extra study for all my burned items to refresh my memory because I know I learnt them but since I wasn’t active, they became dormant. As I did this, they came rushing back and in my experience anything you’ve “really” burnt is what you already know no matter how long, and for me once I review it, I remember it.
Finally, do not attempt to rush things rather ease into it, get your rhythm and go from there.
If you also interact with Japanese outside WaniKani, you may be more likely to remember Vocab Reading and Kanji Reading exactly, though less exact on Meanings. (Nothing to say about Radical Names and mnemonics.) Double Check / Undo / Anki mode scripts might be an option.
Take time to trim down Reviews, maybe 100 every day, until the level that items become too hard and need reset. Whether the pile decreases is whether items come back.
I can recommend Self Study Quiz, but not sure if there is a native way (website) for this, or in mobile apps (always third-party currently).
Just realized that indeed there is no android app from wanikani… but I’m gonna be reviewing from Android so I’ll check out if any of the third party apps has some useful features for reviewing specific levels’ items.
For the moment, I’m just randomly quizzing on the burned items I have (around 1300 I think). I noticed I get anything between 40% to 80% success rate on any specific session. Not too happy about the result but I’ll take it. As soon as I finish the burned items I will go through the current reviews.
For apps, there are currently two namely Mina (formerly Wani – now defunct and in the process of being replaced) and Smouldering Durtles. The former is in development (closed test phase) so only available to signed up testers. I am the creator of the former so you have two options to choose from. Good luck!
Hi! I’m happy that you’re back. I did something similar where I was away for 3 years. I instantly was so glad that I came back once I did. I maybe am the odd man out here, but I DID reset, and I didn’t regret it. It allowed me to relearn everything what to me felt more naturally. I didn’t mind relearning things because I felt like I really knew them. I would suggest whatever feels the best to you, however!
Great! Didn’t know about Wani/Mina. Does it support reviewing exhaustively all burned items from a certain range of levels? I just tried Smouldering Durtles today and it seems like I cannot do that: I can only get a random sample of 100 items to review at a time for a custom range. For example, I just reviewed 100 burned items from levels 1-5, and when I start a new review I’m getting many of those I already reviewed back again.
I am not sure I understood your question but it lets you study burned items by selecting a range of levels (say 1-5 etc), subject type and SRS stage (in this case burned).
For example, if I have 200 burned items in levels 1-5, id like to review 50 of them now, 50 later in the day, etc: in separate sessions. Next sessions should only include items I haven’t reviewed before.
Thanks for sharing! Glad you made a successful comeback. Hope I can get on it as well and finally reach that 60th. For the moment I will try not resetting and do the reviews
All right, little update, I just finished going through all the burned items! I used the Extra study section. There were 1443 of them
Now it’s time to address my review list, also 1450ish. Gonna take a longer while got these ones as many of them I probably completely removed from my brain
? I was in a similar situation as you when I went away for 2.7 years (not as long but you get the gist.) I think setting vacation mode on during that time helped a bit but still met a pile of reviews on deactivating the mode.
