I did it guys. It took 6 years, but I’ve finally managed to burn every WaniKani item in the database (until WK inevitably adds more). I started using WaniKani in 2017. The WK workload dropped substantially after the first 3 years, and I continued my studies in other ways, but I kept up with my WK reviews until the end anyway. It took 6 years because I tried to burn all words “naturally” without “cheating”.
In case you were wondering, this is what the UI looks like when everything is done and burned. There’s a lovely easter egg message from Koichi (presumably).
@Cathm2 Respect. I can understand how much work and commitment you’ve put into it only because I’ve done the same. It’s hard to imaging otherwise. It’s also crazy to think about how much there is still to learn. The Bunpro website keeps reminding me of how much I still have to learn
@TofuguKyle I don’t plan on resurrecting items. I’m more focused on English-to-Japanese, aka “reverse WK”. I still practice kanji (Japanese-to-English), but I do so via an Anki deck that links back to WK item details pages. I’ll continue to use WK as a dictionary for many years to come, but it’s time to move on. I don’t feel like resurrecting items would be the most efficient or fun way for me to continue my studies. I’m practicing grammar via Bunpro. I’m also reading graded readers and watching anime
@noogin87 I mean that I tried to avoid using the “Ignore Button” user script to correct answers unless the cat walked across the keyboard or I had fat fingers (on my phone). I actually tried to learn the exact phrases and tenses that WK expects. It’s probably a silly waste of time to be so particular about small details, but that’s what I did. Even towards the end, when I had less than 100 unburned words left, I still accepted mistakes even though they pushed back the finish line by many months. I got most of the way to the finish line in 3 years, and it took another 3 years to get the last 20% (or something, I didn’t do the math).
Is that a good idea? Unless you’re planning to be a translator, I think it’s preferable to cut the English training wheels off entirely and switch to monolingual thinking as much as possible. With my italki tutor I currently write a paragraph a week on a random topic and she gives me corrections. Of course I do need to look things up in English on occasion
But when you try to recall words, it’s harder, since wk makes your brain suited for JP-EN only. I learned that whenever I try to translate a word from English, it’s harder than from Japanese.
I know, but I don’t think the solution is to do it the other way around, that just entrenches you farther into bilingual thinking. I think the best way is to gradually increase your immersion and avoid bilingual dictionaries as much as possible. When I was learning English past the first year or so my teachers never used Greek to explain concepts, they just used simpler English. As a result, I actually think in English directly when I use English, I don’t have to translate it from Greek in my head.
