HELP! Can I finish WaniKani in a year? šŸ˜°

He said he has being studying grammar for the past 14 months, so he should be alright. Reaching level 60 is not necessary, and if he really wants to he can just buy a couple of months after the end of the yearly subscription. Itā€™s not an ideal situation, but I think he can learn a lot in one year, so itā€™s worth it.

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Do you at least passively know the languages?

I recently spent about 2 years in France [more than 10 years after my last French classes]. I donā€™t believe my high school French helped me. I more or less had to start over from scratch. Itā€™s possible that my earlier exposure made it easier to learn a second time but I never felt like I ā€œunlockedā€ my previous French level or was able to do any bootstrapping.

While I was studying Arabic I studied abroad in Egypt. By the time I left, I was very comfortable in day-to-day interactions and basic conversations. While living in France I spent a week in Morocco [about 8 years after studying Arabic] and by the end had recalled a few expressions (ā€œI want to drink some waterā€) but that was about all. Arabic script is pretty easy to read and I havenā€™t lost that abilityā€“although Iā€™ve forgotten all but some basic vocab and grammarā€“even passively.

And the same with Japanese. I didnā€™t think my Japanese level was very high, but after self-studying genki 1 and a year of wanikani, I was unable to read an essay I wrote near the end of my Japanese studies [in university].

At least for me, the matra is true: use it or lose it. :scream::scream::scream::scream:

Speaking of which, my somewhat conversational French is about to take a dive into the toilet, now that Iā€™m living in Japan.:cold_sweat:

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Thatā€™s so interesting, though! Must have been amazing to live in so many countries, visit different places and speak those languages.

Use it or lose it is definitely true. At least for me. I studied Swedish for like 10 years and while I can understand a lot, trying to hold a basic conversation is a struggle. :'D Same with German, I studied it for three years in high school, didnā€™t use it at all in uni and have forgotten most of it.

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Very interesting, glad Iā€™ve learned this the easy way.

Lesson definitely learned, thanks for sharing your experience.

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I agree. I spent lots of years in school having to learn French since I live in Canada, but since nobody around me actually speaks French it just kind of sat in my brain and disappeared. My goal with Japanese is to be able to read most higher level texts and watch anime without subtitles. Iā€™ve got ahold of some manga thatā€™s actually in Japanese (Fullmetal Alchemist) and I have a few books in it too. Iā€™m determined not to forget what I learned in Japanese because I actually have a passion for it, unlike French, which I always kind of hated because I could never get my mouth to make all the sounds.
I mentioned to someone else above that Iā€™ve been studying grammar, sentence structure, conjugation etc. for over a year now so I think Iā€™m good. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Whoops, that was a pretty major fact to miss. :flushed: Sorry OP.

Basic answer - you can definitely learn enough so go for it! Just make sure you get enough exposure after.

And yes, despite growing up in Montreal my conversational French has been fairly limited since Iā€™m mostly around anglos, which is a shame. My friend otoh grew up in a French speaking house which made a big difference.

Thereā€™s lots of bragging about 7-11 day level upsā€¦ it hardly makes it average. (Average people just give up and never reach these levels) One time I checked a few people in the archives who bragged about fast leveling up and found that, they had progressed very little compared to what they were bragging about. Yes, there are people who can muster this pace, but this is only doable if you are a very good memoriser and keep on top of leeches AND can dedicate the time. At some point, your burn rate must at least equal your lesson rate or workload will grow.

Speaking personally, I let leeches get out of control and my last 20 levels probably took a month each. I am NOT what I would consider a good memorizer, and have somewhat limited time to dedicate to getting things done. I am, however, very tenacious. Level 60 took me 3.5 years to reach, but I did it. Now Iā€™m in the process of resurrecting kanji and re-learning the ones Iā€™ve forgotten during that time period - itā€™s much easier the second time through! For me a lifetime subscription was worth the money - Iā€™m still using WK daily and about to cross my 4 year anniversary.

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That is cool bro! I canā€™t wait to finish my Japanese myself I love it

You can reach lvl 60 in about 355 days at the fastest pace; so you could actually have everything at least gurued by the end of a year, but itā€™s just insane, that pace demands you to wake up in the middle of the night to do some reviews.

What most people with a fast pace do, is doing normal levels in 7 days (so you have 4 hours leeway) and fast levels in 3.5 days (2 hours leeway) that pace also guarantees you reaching level 60 in about a yearā€¦ With the difference that you get to choose exacty at what time you level up so it doesnā€™t compromise with your current lifestyle. So if you follow said routine, youā€™ll be at lvl 60 in May next year, yet youā€™ll need at least 6 months to burn everything, but this is something that shouldnā€™t be a problem even if you begin learning arabic, because youā€™ll have the means to help yourself.

Iā€™m myself trying to get to lvl 60 in exactly a year, so far i still have 3 days freeā€¦ i imagine them like timeoutsā€¦ and you shouldnā€™t use a timeout in the first half of the gameā€¦ since the last 12 levels are short, thatā€™s where i believe pressure builds up.

Anyway, go for it. Youā€™ve time

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Hey @tmahrt itā€™s your cakeday soon. Howā€™s the move to Japan, I hope youā€™re enjoying your new country of residence, your job, your colleagues, the local food, but most importantly, the local language!

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Is this necromancy I spy >_>

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@plantron HEEEEEELLLLLOOOOO!!! Thank you for the kind words. :slight_smile:

Itā€™s hard to believe Iā€™ve taken a 3 month hiatus from the forums! I think my days of actively posting are over. :cry:

But, I have so much to share! Iā€™ll make a new post about it. :slight_smile:

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even though this reply might be superfluous by now, but if you work on your japanese for 1 year, you can start on arabic without fear of losing progress. japanese will have settled down in itā€™s own language center in your breain, and as long as you feed it bits and pieces on a regular basis, it will be content and purr.

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Thanks ^^
Wow, I had completely forgotten about this topic. Heh, I was a lowly level three and look at me now ā€¦

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