I don’t really have a whole lot to say. I started WK on Dec 1st of 2023 and I just hit level 10. I assume that I’m going at a fairly average speed. I just want to say that I’m having a blast. I hear that a lot of people don’t like WaniKani’s sense of humor, but find myself laughing out loud all the time due to the crazy mnemonics. WaniKani gives me an effective way to learn Kanji outside of my immersion and figuring out grammar based on the bottom up way my mind processes things (thanks Cure Dolly, may you rest in peace).
Anyway, give me another three months and we’ll see where I’m at.
I would only caution you not to exceed a sustainable pace. It can be tempting to push hard, especially at earlier “easy” levels: you’re having fun (hopefully), and the progress feels really rewarding.
But the reviews will catch up to you as things get harder and everything takes just a little bit longer, so you may find yourself overwhelmed with reviews coming back for revenge piling up. Just stay steady and you’ll keep making progress.
Logically that makes sense, sure. It depends on the person(ality) I suppose. Me, I got addicted to those sweet, sweet progress endorphins, so that the idea of slowing down once I’d established that pace repulsed me on a visceral level.
I’ve been good about keeping it around 100, though right now I just passed off a bunch of vocab and kanji at once so it’s around 50. Time to do some more lessons.
It’s just that the kind of person who gets really excited about a new hobby at first and will put a lot of effort into it but will have trouble keeping the rythm when the novelty fades away. So in my mind it makes more sense to take advantage of the initial momentum.
I’m kind of lazy about doing lessons at the moment. Haven’t even done level 10 radicals and first batch of kanji yet!
I kind of feel brenty on this one. Slowing down is not something I want to do. I guess I don’t see Japanese as a hobby. I see it as a means to an end. I want to be able to read and communicate. That’s why I don’t have any aspirations towards (or even pay attention to) JLPT or its so-called levels. I didn’t learn Spanish by studying preset grammar points for a test. I learned it by reading native material and talking to natives. I mean, I did study grammar, but not in any curriculum. I learned what I wanted to and needed to as I went. That’s a little harder with Japanese because I need to learn Kanji before I can really read and I don’t live in Japan, whereas I lived in Guatemala while learning Spanish. But my point still stands. I think that treating Japanese like a hobby or something I need to study for in order to pass tests would disincentivize me to a large degree. When I find something I don’t understand, I look it up and try to figure out what’s actually going on. When I want to say something, I figure out how to say it rather than taking in random grammar points from a textbook. I tried a textbook and I felt like I understood the material, but I felt no joy and no compulsion to continue.
Nice job! I started December 17th, and i’m at level 6, almost 7. But I think that level 10 is quite fast!! Great job. How have you been going through Cure Dolly’s videos? Via the “from scratch” series? Any tips for what made it work best for you? I’m around video / lesson 15 in that series. Would appreciate any knowledge that you can share!
Wow if that pace is average, I’m going at a much slower pace. Got to Level 10 after like 10 months. To be fair, I started also learning Mandarin/Cantonese Chinese at the same time (not the best idea but here we are).
That’s understandable, really. I started my studies last July. Met someone during the Summer who will visit again next year, and decided to make being able to speak with them my goal within that timeframe. I’d always wanted to learn the language, I love a lot of the media and culture. But never really felt like I a had a concrete goal, with a set timeframe, until that point.
I’m level 21 here now, likely to level up again tomorrow. And am communicating with that person solely in Japanese online now. Immersing in the language these days is entirely possible to a larger degree it was in the past, though you really do need to be creative with where you look. It’s entirely possible to watch anime in Japanese with official JP subs, play the Japanese versions of games with minimal hassle and no import fees through digital versions, setting your OS and social media site languages to Japanese, read manga in the original language, and find Japanese people to interact with. (Preferably not through language exchange places, but maybe that’s just me)
That sort of immersing can really make you fluent at speeds previously only possible by actually going to the country. So if that’s your goal, then I think Level 10 is the moment where you can really make a lot of it click together. Good luck!
