I was determined to get through level 5 because I read the post about it “breaking” someone and thought, at some point, this will happen to me if I am not careful. I feel like I can often pull a reading or word from somewhere in my brain and wanikani lets me keep moving forward, but I wouldn’t be able to use the information in the wild. So, I wanted to work with some of the vocabulary before moving on. If I keep up with reviews, will the wanikani algorithm punish me in some way?
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Yeah if you go too slow @koichi will come stand outside your window and bark at you until you do more lessons.
But really, I think it’s better to go slow. As long as you do reviews every day, WK won’t ‘punish’ you in any way. A good approach is to pick set amount of lessons to do every day, e.g. two kanji and four vocab, or three kanji and seven vocab.
Regarding your issue with not being able to use things in the wild: I see you joined about two weeks go and you’re already level six. That’s pretty fast. Do you have any grammar knowledge? This is a good time to learn N5 grammar. Once you know some grammar, and are about level 10 on WK, you can start reading easy manga, like something from the Absolute Beginner Book Club. Once you start reading, your problem of not being able to recognize things in the wild will ease up.
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Thank you! I actually started about 2 months ago. And I was initially super slow because I didn’t realize that if you made a lot of typos you ended up in review hell. I probably have about N5 grammar, but had almost no Kanji except the numbers because visual things are not my strength and I was just going to try to learn Japanese without learning any kanji. But, now I want to study in Japan in a school, so I will need some Kanji.
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If only this was possible 
If you’ve already got N5 grammar, then I recommend joining the Absolute Beginners Book Club soon! We’re actually voting on our next pick now, and it will start in December. A big advantage of the ABBC is that all their picks have full furigana, so looking up unknown words is easy. You can also pre-learn some of the vocab on Manga Kotoba, if you choose.
It’s so cool that you want to study in Japan, I hope you have fun 
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Only good things happen if you go slow and make sure to learn the materials properly. You might even outrun all the speeders who trip and crash and run away for years. The turtle did actually beat the rabbit.
You also want enough cards to feel challenged but not overwhelmed and drowning in cards. You want it to feel sustainable like you can do this for years. You also don’t want to be here forever. 10-15 is the sweet spot for 3 years and 2 years in here.
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I totally agree. I think it’s better to go slower so you don’t have hundreds of reviews to do all the time. I try to keep 50 to 60 items in Apprentice, and that works well for me. With 50 to 100 reviews a day, If I get around 90% correct in my reviews, I level up about once every month. It’s not very fast, but I think I’ll be at a point where I can read easy manga within a year of starting WaniKani. I just wish I started practicing grammar sooner.
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I think it’s perfectly ok to slowdown whenever you feel it’s needed.
The important thing is to go at your own pace – which is variable and can depend on many things: how many reviews you have, how tired you are, how many other things you have to do outside WaniKani, etc.
So, slow down when you start feelign overwhelmed and speed up when you start feeling underwhelmed. Only you can determine the right pace for the right time for yourself.
In any case, best of luck with your studies! 
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