Dissatisfaction with progress

[Szymon_Atan]

In early levels progress was fun and natural. I got 20-ish radicals. I completed those in 4-5 days. Then they unlock related Kanji. I completed those in another 4-5 days. If my memory served me well I was within tolerance and advanced to next level. If I made too many mistakes I still needed 1-2 days to catch up.
In latest levels (I am lvl 16 now) it became annoying though. Right at the beginning of the level I unlock 30-ish Kanjis and 5 radicals. I complete those in 4-5 days. Only then I unlock remaining 5 Kanjis related to new radicals. For 4-5 days, I am stuck havening completed 27/30 Kanjis needed to advance to the next level.
It feels like I am wasting half of learning time (4-5 days working in big batch of 30 Kanjis, then 4-5 days wasted on small batch of 5 Kanjis).
Maybe entire progress could be based on WIP limits (e.g. There are X items in apprentice phase. Once you push some to Guru Phase, you unlock new items).

[Gacee]

Without chiming in on the speed of unlocking stuff with vanilla WaniKani, I do know that there are a couple threads here in the forums that have basically worked the math out on how to min-max WaniKani and get to level 60 as quickly as possible. If I remember correctly, there are some scripts that you can download that will facilitate this (reordering scripts, I believe, but don’t quote me on that).

My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK )

The Ultimate Guide to Wanikani Become the best version of your Wanikanian self. For newbies: Please read the WaniKani User Guide first before reading this. WK’s User Guide teaches you the very basics. My Guide turns you from a newbie with basic knowledge to a master. However, first, you need the basics. This Guide is really longgggggggg. You can read it all in one go, but there’s no need to if you don’t want to. Think of it as the place to come to when in doubt/need of help. Thanks …

I’ve not read through it entirely cause I’ve got no interest in going faster, but there may be something useful there for you

[ekg]

@Szymon_Atan

It feels like I am wasting half of learning time

Maybe, from the sound of it, you are in a way. Clearly, you’re making time during each level when you don’t have pending lessons. Great!

That’s the perfect opportunity to spend time to learn all the other aspect of the Japanese language: grammar, additional vocabulary, listening comprehension and production.

Eventually, though, it’s going to be less time to do anything but keep up with reviews if you try for max speed. You’re more likely to acquire leeches for one…and so, those will start clogging up the review sessions as you progress to the latter half of WK. Burn-reviews will also ramp up and failing those will again clog up the review sessions a bit.

[FireSide_01]

Usually what I do is study all of the kanji in a level at once, including the locked ones. I’ve made Anki decks for the kanji of each level, so that makes it really easy to study them. I usually abandon a level’s Anki deck once I get to 2 levels after it, meaning that I do the reviews for the current and previous level. If you want, I can share these decks, though they get quickly outdated due to the frequent updates. The code used to generate them might be more useful.

[jprspereira]

@Gacee

I’ve not read through it entirely cause I’ve got no interest in going faster, but there may be something useful there for you

Just as a heads-up, the guide isn’t just about being the fastest possible. It teaches how to build a good schedule and make WK as comfortable and consistent as possible no matter the speed It offers advice for those wanting to do it in 2 years, etc.

Thanks for sharing the guide btw

[evandcs]

this happens with every tool we use for learning, at least always happened in my life and japanese was no different.

Full of ups and downs, interesting that just recently I learned one of the vocabs for that (起伏).

[kewms]

That’s the thing. Learning is hard. Learning a new language is especially hard. (For complex cognitive science reasons that boil down to your brain being lazy and thinking one language is plenty.) Fundamentally, the “best” learning strategy is the one that you’re able to stick with for the long haul, because there is no quick fix.

[amagi]

Welcome to language learning. Any time you move to the intermediate level the fun and newness wears off and it feels dissatisfying. Find a way to make WaniKani Automatic. Take on 10-20 lessons a day and just let it run it’s thing.

Don’t do more than a hour of WaniKani a day. Go and find something to study, listening to native Japanese or reading native Japanese at least.And then that will get dissatisfying too, and you just keep doing it.

[ctmf]

@Szymon_Atan

Maybe entire progress could be based on WIP limits

It’s the same thing because WIP is totally a function of your lesson rate. (and accuracy, but I’m assuming that isn’t a problem otherwise you wouldn’t want to speed up).

If you want to go super-super-fast, just page through each level’s kanji page reading the mnemonics and making anki cards. Call that your “lesson”. When you feel ready for the next level, do the same thing. Nothing’s stopping you from looking at the kanji you haven’t unlocked yet.

Caution: Wanikani is speed-limited for a reason. But I guess some people have to find that out on their own.

[kewms]

@ctmf

If you want to go super-super-fast, just page through each level’s kanji page reading the mnemonics and making anki cards. Call that your “lesson”. When you feel ready for the next level, do the same thing. Nothing’s stopping you from looking at the kanji you haven’t unlocked yet.

Or from using a system without “unlocking.” There are plenty of Anki decks out there.