Been here a year and feeling the grind

WaniKani
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Not usually one to post very much but Wani Kani reminded me that I have been here for a year. Since then, my ability to read kanji has grown tremendously. However, if recent progress is any indication, the remaining 17 levels is going to take a while (so glad I got lifetime!) - from averaging 8 days or so per level, my last three levels have been 21, 12 and 17 days respectively. Words are also becoming less familiar, even with my background in Chinese. I think that I am burning out, and real life and work life isn’t helping.

But then I saw this thread and I remind myself that this is not a race, and that some or slow progress is better than no progress at all. I still hope to hit level 60 before the end of the year, but recent words have been getting fuzzier in my memory. Still I think that I gotta find my motivation again.

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It’s all or nothing. If you aren’t level 60 then you wasted your time.

But honestly, if you feel like taking a brake then do it, just make sure that it’s not too long. It’s all about consistency, keep it up! :smiley:

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This happened to me too, I went from an 8d10h average to taking a 54-day level some time ago. Take it easy and don’t fall too much behind on your reviews, and you’ll be back on track soon, I’m sure.

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Haha, thanks! I am actually okay on the reviews (i always clear them) and lessons (have about 50 lessons - all vocab). But it just feels like a grind of late. I guess everyone goes through this phase at some point.

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:roll_eyes:


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And tell yourself that “level 60” is only the end if you want it to be.

Literally it doesn’t mean anything other than that you have exhausted the resources that WK has given you. If you are aiming at reaching Kanji N2 level (the level you are considered to be employable for most jobs), you could technically stop at level 48. if you want to reach N1 level, you will have to go beyond WK to achieve that.

You are your own sensei, decide what is good enough for you. As long as you remember that level 60 by itself doesn’t really mean anything.

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I disagree. Even at levels much lower than 60 you already know a fair amount of kanjis to get by, and I much prefer to go a bit slower but also learn grammar and practice leastening/reading then end up level 60 and still don’t knowing practically any Japanese


I will definitely hit level 60 one day, but I would say that it shouldn’t be anyone’s main goal, unless they already have very good overall Japanese knowledge.

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You guys will laugh but I’m just at level 10 and I can already relate to @ginliao. Some words are turning fuzzy for me too. So when a Guru word pops up that I haven’t seen for a while, I struggle. Right now, I just came back from a month-long break from WK and I have to master around 70 new lessons.

How do you guys manage the cognitive load? It can be kind of overwhelming.

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I don’t see why everyone took me seriously, it was obviously a joke. Come on guys
look at my level :smiley:

@Walter-it For the moment I am aiming for JLPT N5 level, so level 16 is my first goal lol

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Oh, no worries. I didn’t take it seriously :slight_smile: That’s why I didn’t extent myself. It’s just that being low level and talking about reaching level 60 like it’s an easy thing to do might come as a little condescending around here (mainly when the thread’s title is “Been here a year and feeling the grind”). I’m not saying that you were, I’m just letting you know how the community works :stuck_out_tongue:

A lot of users have come here to the community, bragged about how they would achieve level 60 in 1 year (super fast speed btw) and then days/weeks later they were gone, just so they would never come back.

Again, don’t get me wrong. You seem like a great dude and I like your confident attitude. It’s just that this community works in a “Prove with hard work first, talk about it later.” :slight_smile:

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Sounds like it’s time to mix it up with something fun which reminds you why you are learning Japanese in the first place. Enjoy the manga/anime/etc of your choice. Let that be what motivates you to keep going, not just the idea of reaching some WK level number.

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Yeah I should have added an emoji or something, I didn’t realize soon enough that it seemed arrogant, my bad. I meant that if you went through all that grind then you might finish the journey as well.

I am 100% with you on : action > talk and that’s how I am right now. Though I still talk to hold myself accountable and to motivate other people as well (look at that level 2 speaking like he is something, I am way above him I should be able to do it
something like that :smiley: )

And thank you, you seem like the sensei here (either I see you commenting or I see people mentioning your name) so nice to meet you 慈生.

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To answer your question:

Use the clock feature when starting reviews. It lets you do batches of 10 instead of the entire load. To me it has two distinct advantages:

  1. You can do small steps while seeing your pile decrease steadily. No more looking at that big pile of reviews, making you want to give up.
  2. You can do batches of 10 in 5 minutes, making it more easy to fit them in between tasks.
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one year? It’s taken me 3 years to get to my level.

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Respectfully, I completely and whole-heartedly disagree with this. Life is about the journey, not about the destination. This assertion would disregard the fact you benefit far more from the knowledge gained in levels 1-30 than 30-40 or 40-60. There’s still a plethora of useful kanji in those levels, however kanji learning is subject to the law of deminishing returns. As you learn the majority of the most frequently used vocabulary and kanji, the need to continue learning less common words is reduced.

By learning the kanji up to level 35, you’ll know 95% of the kanji in the JLPT N3. As reading native material becomes easier and the kanji in higher levels can be more obscure/less commonly used, it can be the case that just by reaching N3 proficiency you may be able to read whatever native text you wanted to read. Sure, you won’t know every kanji, but there comes a point where you’ve progressed far enough that you don’t need to progress anymore: if you’ve obtained a skill level and knowledge base that enables you do what you set out to. WK doesn’t even teach all 2136 of the official Joyo kanji, so that’s something worth keeping in mind.

Ultimately, it depends on what your goals are for learning Japanese. If your aim is to be completely fluent, even being level 60 in WK is not enough, as WK doesn’t teach grammar, doesn’t help you practice speaking, nor does it help you practice listening. If your goal is to simply read some manga, or perhaps light novels, you may find that progressing to levels 30-40 is sufficient to allow you to do so. Finally, it’s important not to impose your own goals onto others, and to avoid judging their progress according to your goals.

I can see that you’ve said you were joking, so I just wanted to clarify that I didn’t write this with any ill feelings. I just wanted to set the record straight and offer my own thoughts on the prompting. I’m sure there are people out there who truly do believe that learning a language is all or nothing.

As a final note, If may offer you a piece of advice that will hopefully be of some use to you in your future on WK, remember that while all jokes may be jokes, not all jokes are in good taste. :stuck_out_tongue: To add to what @jprspereira said, for a lot of people here on WK, their progress in learning Japanese is a deeply personal, emotional and significant entity in their life, so it’s natural that some people may be sensitive towards such jokes.

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As they say, you start by failing before becoming successful so I am glad I failed when I am at lower levels :blush:

Otherwise I agree with you, it’s all about the journey, Japanese is my 4th language so I know that pretty well. I wanted to give him a push but I guess I didn’t express myself well enough
it appears I am still not that fluent at English :smile:

The funny thing is that the main person never said anything about my comment so I don’t even know if I offended him but I will try to be careful from now on. This isn’t even my first fail on the forum lol.

Thanks for your comment, hopefully I can make better jokes before people starts to hate me ending up in Koichi banning me from WK :wink:

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I’m very glad I was able to help, friend.
Keep at it!!

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Kanji is a grind. Been here three years, mate. Finally the end is in sight though.

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definitely is a grind. making it fun sounds challenging. making it a habit and just doing it without thinking is a healthy, realistic goal though.

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