Hi ,
I am not an active typer but I decided to make a post about taking it slow on WaniKani. I have started on the 10th of May two years ago (yay! ) and am incredibly proud to have reached Level 9.
I used to feel intimidated by how fast many people are going through WaniKani. For some time I felt really unskilled and my slow progress frustrated me, especially when I attempted to read something I was interested in. During these times, I tried to learn more and harder, and I just ended up with an amount of reviews that did not fit into my live. I ended up overwhelmed and even stopped for a while.
About five months ago I made peace with my slow progress and looked at how big of a workload I could realistically handle. I do not let my Guru Vocabulary go over 100, and keep making sure that my review forecast amounts to something between 100 and 120.
It was the best decision!
I enjoy doing my reviews and they do not clash with my day to day life anymore. To my surprise, I am actually even advancing slightly faster, since I am making less mistakes.
All in all, learning languages is tricky and depending on our circumstances and how easy we learn, the definition of what is progress will be different to each of us.
I hope everybody can take pride in what they have achieved and I recommend to keep celebrating each hurdle one takes.
I know, I will be popping a bottle of champagne when I clear Level 10.
I stopped doing my daily reviews during a hectic month late last year. After that, my I only practiced WaniKani sporadically. About a month ago, I started rebuilding the daily habit and am starting to feel some momentum.
Having low accuracy is really annoying to me. A month ago, I had a stack of 900 reviews and had forgotten so much that I was getting things wrong over and over. Missing 5 out of every 10 feels much worse than missing 8 out of 10.
Most of the time, if I can’t think of the answer right away, I’d rather just get it wrong and move on. There are a lot of times when I can think for a minute or two and then remember. Maybe that’s better for learning, I don’t know. But stopping to pause like this (especially when my accuracy was low) meant that I would sometimes do 30 minutes of reviews only to get through 20 cards, which feels terrible. Now, if I don’t know it, I just get it wrong quickly and remind myself what it was and revisit it again another day.
I’ve still been getting better at Japanese through other types of study. My kanji learning has slowed, but it’s not the complete picture.
Congrats on level 9!! I’m sure you’re able to see how far you’ve come since the beginning of your Kanji journey.
I think it’s amazing people are able to go through WaniKani pretty quickly, but I also think there’s no shame in taking your time to not feel burnt out. I too have been on this journey for a couple years now, and finally found a sweet spot of 5 lessons per day.
If you ever want some cheerleaders on your journey, there’s a group/thread called Let’s Durtle the Scenic Route, where we all slowly go through WaniKani at different paces
I’m very glad you’ve managed to find your pace!
This is what I’ve always said – the important part is to find your own pace and go with it.
It doesn’t matter if it feels too slow – you are not doing it for someone else, you are doing it for yourself!
High learning speed can look impressive, but it’s not what get things done. Consistency is what get things done. It took me 8 years to reach level 60, but I did it and I know you can do it too!
Also, you probably already know this, but it is usually a good idea to diversify one’s studies. So, in case you haven’t done so yet, I recommend studying grammar in parallel. Also, soon you will be able (or maybe are able already) to read simple Japanese resources like
or
And there’s also a great resource called
which makes reading Japanese as easy for a beginner as possible. Unlike the previous resources I’ve mentioned, it’s not free, but it is well worth it, so I’d recommend at least trying it for free.
Hi,
it was similar for me. When I had accumulated a large amount of reviews I tried to go through them quick, because I had no time for them and made many mistakes, that in turn would enlarge my workload.
I got through it by taking ten minutes everyday, going through the words slowly and looking at the explanations to re-learn the words after my break. I think it took about two weeks until I had cleared all of the reviews, but it allowed me a somewhat clean way back in.
That little bit of reinforcement sounds like it certainly helped! It sounds like you’re well on your way now, because being able to stick with it when it’s easy is one thing, but when reviews start to pile up and you find a way to overcome that effectively is something to be proud of. Just keep working at whatever pace is best for you and you’ll get there!
Congratulations on level 9! It’s good that you found a pace that works for you. It’s not a race to learn a language; it’s more important that you’re learning and enjoying it.
Keep going strong!
Thank you so much for your advice and encouragement! I do study gramma using みんなの日本語 one and two.
I am familiar with Tadoku. I also tend to buy some easy children’s book (and some hard children’s books ) at the local Japanese bookstore. I am fortunate to live close to a large Japanese community.
I really love to read, which added to me being a somewhat impatient Kanji learner at the beginning.
Diversification is honestly a good idea, ofc, imo. But even a focused way should end up practical too. I am not against going slow and steady, but that’s not just keep doing WaniKani to the minimal.
To borrow a word from someone recently, thinking of Japanese language as three pillars which support each other – Kanji/vocab, grammar, and practical skills.
I have my JLPT N3 in July, so to make sure I was able to target all of the key vocabulary that I’d need to know for sure. I speed ran the first 45 levels and then realised that I should actually finally focus on the vocabulary side.
In the last two levels I have probably learnt more than any of the other 44 levels.
Speed running WK is like ego-lifting, it looks good, and you still get some gains out of it. But actually putting the reps in and focusing on the complete package has been 10x more beneficial to me.
Your only competition is yesterday’s version of you, steady as she goes.
) and am incredibly proud to have reached Level 9.
