I’m lvl 49 at the time I’m typing, and I’m trying to anticipate a bit my arrival to lvl 60.
For all of you that reached the end, and started over for revision’s sake :
What was the timing you waited before resetting your progression ?
The thing I’m curious here is, when finishing all lvl 60 lessons, you’re not gonna get any new stuff, and I’m a bit scared of forgetting things during this time.
Did you wait for absolutely every item to be burned to reset ? This takes like at least 4 or 5 months after arriving at lvl 60, so that’s my concern.
Any tips ? Resetting when every lvl 60 item is guru’ed or waiting patiently till everything is burned ?
The whole premise of the question is wrong. When you hit 60 you don’t start over, you keep practicing Japanese in other ways that reinforce what you learned. In fact, you probably should’ve started doing that 20 or 30 levels ago, but if you didn’t, the second best time is now.
I think there’s serious diminishing returns to SRS which honestly you’re probably hitting in the 50s already, so going for a second time round is less useful than basically anything else you could be doing. It’s time to start trying to apply what you’ve learned in the form of reading or listening or chatting. The words that end up being important for your goals will get revised during use.
I’m sure there’s plenty of items I’ve burned that I have forgotten. If they are going to come up in whatever I’m reading/listening/actually using the language for, it’s going to help me remember them.
If they don’t come up in whatever I’m reading, then it’s a non issue.
I still have no idea what that one vocabulary whose meaning is “A pitcher’s stuff” is supposed to mean. Some baseball thing I don’t know and don’t really care about.
When/if I will ever get the sudden urge to get into japanese baseball, I will probably finally remember that word.
Or maybe not.
But until I actually need it, it doesn’t matter.
You are using the SRS to learn Japanese, not learning Japanese to do more SRS
I hit 60 the first time after about 14 months. It was a crazy sprint man. I hit reset immediately and took it at my own pace, hitting 60 again after almost 3 years. Much more chill and supplemented with other learning led me to the point I’m at today, working for a Japanese firm conducting business in Japanese.
don’t start over, read japanese instead. if you forgot a word, oh well, look it up. idk how old you are, but i forget words in my native language all the time and i haven’t decided to panic about it.
I’m sorry you interpret it this way; I don’t think anyone here is really looking down on you or your learning habits. I certainly am not. People were just recommending what works best for them, but different people are different and what works well for one – doesn’t have to work as well for another…
I think part of the problem here – is that your title is a bit misleading.
The actual contents of your original post clearly indicates that you are addressing those who have done a reset after level 60.
Yet the title suggests that you are addressing everyone who has reached level 60 and asking what to do next.
So, to avoid further confusion, I’d recommend changing the title to something like “For people who have done a reset after level 60 and started again”.
As for the answer to your question, if I were to do a reset after level 60, I’d do it right after guruing everything. Waiting for everything to burn doesn’t make much sense to me, because everything would be unburned after reset anyway…
I’ll go ahead and own up to looking down on your learning habits: I thought you were mistaken and wanted to make that clear. I’m sorry, this was mean of me.
Forgetting stuff is normal. Use Japanese in a practical way (like reading compelling content) and you will naturally remember the important stuff. You will still forget some stuff on wk but it will be stuff that’s OK to forget.
There are many better ways to use your time than restarting.
I don’t think they’re looking down on you, it is natural to answer this way, if someone feels the question should actually be “if” and not “how”.
This is overarching theme in many discussions here - people tend to fixate in how to do WaniKani in “right way”, whether this is about nitpicky complaints about vocabulary or trying to level up as fast as possible. In reality, WK and basically any learning method is only valuable, if it enables you to actually start immersing in language (or just to fill some gaps, like kanji knowledge).
I’m guilty here too, as it would be much better for me to stop doing lessons for maybe even a year, as WK is just eating time which I could spend more effectively. Having SRS system with structured levels and constant feedback loop is just more enticing, than banging head against the wall while trying to read, write or listen to actual language.
Don’t worry too much about forgetting. It’s just a component of how to survive with reading (and listening and other stuff).
Surviving means – use a dictionary if you have to. Forgetting stuff is normal, and fixed vocab list (teaching Kanji or whatever) tends to deviate very far from materials you really choose to read.
I don’t totally advocate mining for SRS or what. Grammar and field experience remain to be a big part of bearing with immersion and also getting passable comprehension.
For the what timing for me, I reset after 5 years, but – 2 years of not reading much + 1 year of reading more + 1 year of Google Sheet for vocab + 1 year of mining Anki (sorted by Kanji), before eventually decided to reset WaniKani for a proper Kanji system (i.e. not for vocab, and I also don’t hope much that WK will teach all readings for each Kanji. WK is for the sequence of Kanji.)
I’m only level 11 because I was very slow on some levels, but regarding reinforcement of what I’ve learned, Star Fox 2026 already has stuff in the multiplayer at my current level.
運ぶ/運びましょう
集中しろ
進行しろ
Yeah, it’s all audio…but real life listening makes some of the stuff I’m coming across a lot easier.
I mean, there’s just as much I have yet to have ever heard or seen just as much as there is I have.
Point is, real world exposure eases the burden some.
Now that I’m home and can properly read and respond to things more, I wanted to add an addendum to my post:
If you don’t remember what a word means and need to, in today’s world there’s always dictionaries online you can look up. Because there’s a good chance you can guess the reading, and if not there’s dictionaries where you can either draw the Kanji involved or do a lookup by radicals - which is definitely a skill in itself to develop.
My low level (side note: I got the lifetime WK specifically because I didn’t want to rush myself/knew there was a chance I wouldn’t be consistent at some point) doesn’t tell the whole story on what I’ve learned or haven’t learned just because WK is if nothing else supplemental to what I have seen or heard.
Vocabulary inherently can’t be learned in a vacuum.
.