I’ve seen a number of posts in the last couple days of people not sure how to get back into WK after a long break. I know there’s been tons of these posts in the past, but, hey, what’s one more?
I started learning Japanese back in 2015 and quickly found WK. It was a great, and one that I held up as my golden study tool. I’ve probably used over 100 different study tools over the years, some just to try out, others for longer. But I always came back to WK as “The Best”. (In the past I would’ve put 最高. Oh, how the years have changed me.)
I was a long time WK community member. From back in the pre-discourse day. I remember spending days tied with @Kumirei fighting for #1 time spent most read on the forums and late night chats with @AnimeCanuck (Pinging you guys for old times sake. 
I’ll throw @trunklayer in there for good measure. :P) WK was just a thing I did, instead of learning Japanese.
I kept up with using my Japanese but ended up taking a 5 year break. Occasionally I’d pull it up and plan to get my 2000 reviews under control, but then lose steam after a couple hundred. Much like @Zombice I’d do a ton but then drop a ton back into Apprentice and the pile would get worse and frustrating. Rinse and repeat for a couple years.
So, if you’re interested, here’s how I came back from a huge review pile.
● Recognize that WK is an great tool for learning Kanji, not Japanese. You need to supplement your studies. You need to realize that some common words you won’t learn and that a lot of words you DO learn aren’t spoken or used very often. The vocab words are meant for you to solidify your kanji recognition.
● Now that I’m back to WK there are words I learned over the past 10 years that are popping up in WK and feel like I’m cheating since I already know them.
● Use the words you learn to the best extent possible. Whether that’s a friend you can talk Japanese to, or reading that you can practice.
● If it’s been awhile since you studied, DON’T reset to level 1. I made that mistake for you already. It starts out super easy and builds up fast with reviews on words you already know. Reset 1-3 levels. This removes the words that you didn’t spend a lot of time with in the first place.
● Use a userscript or an app like Smouldering Durtles. Select priority for older levels first. You’ll start burning items and you’ll have less wrong as you work through the levels. (Which is good motivation) DO NOT do lessons until you clear the review pile a couple times try to get under 1000 items outside of Burned. Less than 100 in Apprentice.
● Don’t worry about leveling up. Just focus on learning. I even prioritize lessons on Vocab ahead of Kanji and Radicals so I can try to stop myself from leveling, just so I don’t get overwhelmed. But now that I’m back in it, I still level up in 10-14 days. You can’t stop progress even if you try.
●If you can only do 10 reviews in a day, that’s ok. Any progress is progress.
As you can tell, you’re not alone when this kind of thing happens.
These posts are just within the last few days.
@Zombice @Alucinor_wanikani @AlexR1der
So don’t give up.
It’s possible to get things under control.
Sincerely
Justin Crabigator - The True Believer
Thanks so much! Best to your studies as well. (Since I assume you have something outside of WK.)
