I started wanikani 6 months ago in 2020 not really knowing what it was about. I had just only had glimmer of a “i want to learn japanese” feeling then. So i googled “how to learn japanese” and stumpled on tofugu’s guide to learn japanese. I learned hiragana and katakana after that and the per tofugu’s suggestion moved on to WK. However at this time I didn’t really understand it and why i was using plus the feeling of “i want to learn japanese” was still just a glow inside. However over time and researching learning methods and so on that glow has over last month turned in to a fire which i’m very excited about! I’m currently at level 8 but i’m not moving as fast as i would like or as efficient compared to some peoples journey i read about here on the forum.
I think about a month and a half ago i started to take it really serious and have been quit consitent. But still moving slow. I think its because i don’t do my reviews and so at the right time so i can move them from apprentice to guru quicker. But my problem is that my lessions and reviews are available at super sporadic times moved out across 6 different times a day so seems impossible to do them at the time i where i’m supposed to in relation to the srs time.
I read a few guides like this one:
which was super helpful, in terms of kaniwani, the scrips and so on. but unfortunately i’m a bit to dumb to actually understand how to make a efficient scheduelle for my self.
I hope this makes sense i would love for anyone help on this
Two weeks per level is not bad at all. You could be more efficient, but for now, why don’t you try to get into grammar, instead of speeding up? Now you’re only learing words, but you can’t say a basic sentence yet, if you don’t know any grammar at all.
Thank you for your quick reply saida. Yes i guess it ain’t too bad. I thought i had to get a bit further before starting on the grammar which my reason to wanting to move quicker aswell. I feel like most the words i’ve learned to so far on wanikani aren’t that useful, and i won’t be able to understand much from any sentence with my vocab so far, which i got the feeling i should before going into grammar. Some people also saying grammar and learning books are largely unuseful. Which has got me confused. Howeveri have dabled in grammar. So far used Tokini andy to who teaches the genki books very well. I’m conisdering getting the books and follow along properly instead of just watching the videos. I also just started using satori reader reading the most basic stories. However i think rarely can i understand the the word in the sentences which makes me wonder if i should keep at wanikani for a while to get a better vocabulary? What would you suggest?
Who said this? The only thing you need to think about is that beginner textbooks are often geared towards classroom settings, and working with a teacher. So you will have to think about how you will get that interaction going on your own.
Also, grammar books will often include a wordlist that you can use with the grammar you learn each chapter. So you can use those for useful vocab to aid in learning.
Yes, I started around the same time as you, with very similar feelings and motivations!
I came across a very useful tip right here in the forums and I’m thankful for it every day since then:
The idea is to do your lessons first thing in the morning. Say between 7 and 8 am. That way your first review will come at 11am and the second review at 7pm. Stick to these times and your whole WaniKani experience will become very consistent and predictable.
So this leaves me with a typical day of 30-45 mins first thing in the morning, 5-15 minutes at 11am, 5 to 15 mins at 7pm and around 45 minutes last thing at night (around 10:30pm)
I am on this pace by taking 5 Kanji lessons or 15 Vocab lessons per day. When I’m doing Kanji Lessons I take a good half hour to learn them. With vocab Lesson and Reviews, I don’t really try too hard, I’m happy to keep getting them wrong until I start getting them right.
I think the 1:3 Kanji to Vocab ratio is good. I play around with it a bit if I’m making good or bad progress, sometimes I do lessons in bunches of 6 and vocab in 18s, other times 5 Ks to 20 Vs.
I feel like most the words i’ve learned to so far on wanikani aren’t that useful, and i won’t be able to understand much from any sentence with my vocab so far
I think the Tofugu guide says you should know 80% of the vocab being used when learning Grammar. At WK level 7 you should have 80% of the N5 kanji learned. I started Genki 1 around level 8 with very few issues.
Some people also saying grammar and learning books are largely unuseful
I think the consensus is that no one grammar book or course will definitively teach you everything you need, but for beginning grammar basically anything you can get will help you to form sentences and give context to vocab you’re learning even tae kim’s guide so don’t let that hold you back. When you have the basics down via whichever textbook you choose, you can always try another one or get more insight via YouTube or dedicated grammar blogs/dictionaries.
Thank BM69. maybe i have misunderstood the 80 % understand of the vocab, and what its in relation to. Cus i definitly don’t understand 80% of the vocab being used in any sort of normal text. Would you recommend me start G1 now? like you did?
This is the one I referenced in the first post! And i recognized what oneone said aswell. I was just not quite clear on how to start this scheduelle when i read “my journey”. So it was good to have someone put very easy for me
7 day and 8 day schedule examples. didn’t do the math on the 8 day schedule one (feel free to correct me).
you can shift the times around but you have to do it with all lessons and reviews.
you only have to keep this schedule two times a week (for critical reviews and lessons), on another two days (a week) you’ll only have one critical review and the rest of the week you can do your reviews whenever you want.
install the userscripts from the guide, one of them should show critical reviews in your forecast on WK.
I knew that my guide would bring value to every new user of WK, so I had to market it a bit to reach the most amount of people possible In reality, the guide’s pillars are mostly about creating a routine, habit-building, and helping people with decision-making on WK. I do teach how to go beast mode, but that’s a small part of it
i’m sorry to be daft. but there’s so much info i’m trying to take in that sometime the most simple is hard to understand.
I have a few scipts setup from the guide. Which ones is you are talking about?
Also in terms i can see that at 0600 (i’m by no means up at this point btw) is blue i assume for radicals? and purple at ten for vocab, then orange and yellow i don’t know what is?
Are you doing 2 lesson sessions a day? Or is it that the reviews are just coming at different times? Because technically 1 lesson session leads to 2 reviews sessions (+4h, +8h). Every other review that gets available outside of those 2 can be done during those 2 review sessions.
And don’t worry, tell me if there’s something you don’t understand and I’ll try making it clearer for you
Totally get it, and I think your efforts and contributions are wonderful. There was a time when I would have been all over it, and maybe even made my own guide!
you don’t have to start 0600. you can change everything, the only thing you have to keep is the interval. if you want to start four hours later you shift the whole plan by four hours.
well i’ll admit i’ve done it quite studpidly so far. What i have done was when i reached a new level and all the lessons came up i would do about half of them at once, and then go through them and get them wrong or right. i would do them a different times of day, and if not busy go through them as soon as say ten new reviews came up. or if i was busy i would do them once in the evening but have like 100+ reviews come up. which tbh hasn’t been bad. (so far)
I really just want to have a set way that understand how to do that makes sense.
There’s some more recent discussion about creating a schedule around the SRS intervals here: 
In reality, the guide’s pillars are mostly about creating a routine, habit-building, and helping people with decision-making on WK. I do teach how to go beast mode, but that’s a small part of it 