Honest Thoughts After Finishing WK, Was it Worth It?

Another day another level 60 forum post, and I’m very happy to share that today I too get to join in that tradition!

I started Wanikani a little over 600 days ago when I was just getting started with Japanese. At the time I was living in Canada and was just beginning Genki 1 to study towards the JLPT N5. Currently, I am living in Japan and studying for this Summer’s upcoming N2 exam. Though there is still a ton of Japanese for me to learn, I believe I have come a long way since when I started, and a lot of that is due to Wanikani.


Going into Wanikai I never expected it to make me fluent in Japanese or be able to read kanji flawlessly, but that it would help unlock other resources for me to learn from such as native media and easier access to look-ups. In that sense I would say using the app has been a great success. On the homepage of the app it reads “2000 kanji. 6000 vocabulary words. In just over a year.”, and as someone who finished the program in around that time I would say the pace required to do this for the average person is way too much, yet the ideal way to use the system. I think if I were to draw Wanikani out another year, the experience would have been much more manageable, but also if you are going to spend that much time learning just kanji there would likely be more efficient or fun ways to do it. For me, my mindset going into this was to be exposed to everything as fast as I could, remember as much as I could, and then relearn/fill in the gaps in my knowledge with immersion once that’s easier to do.

In the beginning of my studies, I found it particularly difficult to remember kanji, and Wanikani became the first tool to really make things stick in my head. That all said, as time went on a lot of the flaws of the Wanikani system started to show, and I really do think the last 10-20 levels may not have been worth all the time they took to complete. Because of so, I wanted to outline my thoughts in this final forum post to break down what I liked about the app, what I didn’t like so much, and some tips/recommendations for those thinking of starting or continuing with Wanikani.

Let’s start with the good! As mentioned before, I had previously tried other methods of learning kanji such as from Anki and textbooks. These approaches were quite difficult for me to use since they didn’t give me much to go off of when learning. There were no radical breakdowns or reasoning to help understand why this kanji was being used, it was just a word with one (or many) kanji, and I needed to remember it. Having Wanikani build you up from radical, to kanji reading and then to how it is used in words was a great onboarding process for me.
It was also nice to know I was loosely following the same kanji order as the JLPT, so the words I was learning early on were all relevant to my studies. Between that and the necessity to come back every day to review was great for building my work ethic, and in this sense, I truly think Wanikani is a fantastic tool for those just getting into Japanese.

As time went on however I came to have more of a love-hate relationship with the program. The deeper you go into Wanikani the more time it demands. That in it of itself isn’t that bad, but if an app is going to ask you for hours of your time every day it also needs to make sure it respects your time, which in the end I felt like it did not.

If I had to boil down my biggest complaint I had with the application it was the lack of any sort of “leech” system. As you get to the last final levels, all the kanji and vocab you can’t quite remember start to pile up, and just become a part of your daily reviews. This is particularly frustrating when the words are things such as specific baseball terminology or scientific terms you don’t fully understand even in English. If there was a system in place that removed items you got wrong maybe 4-5 times in a row and made you retake their lessons, I think this would have saved me a ton of time and frustration.

On the topic of vocabulary choice, I really found the choices Wanikani went with to be a mixed bag. I assumed the vocabulary used would be based on some sort of frequency list, but I completely gave up on that Idea after moving to Japan and realizing I didn’t know the word for cash, 現金. Sure enough, I checked if it was in Wanikani and no it wasn’t. This to me was very strange. I had learned both kanji months prior, and this is a word you will hear daily in Japan, so why was it not part of Wanikani’s vocabulary? I understand its difficult to optimize which words to use and which not to, but when there are so many words we have to learn that you may only say in English once every year or two, having such basic Japanese words missing is very confusing. From then on whenever something like “Pitchers Stuff” and “Sugar Sculpture” popped up, it really did make me question why the words I was learning were being taught to me.

Ultimately in order to finish Wanikani at the pace that I did with my current schedule, I had to get up and do 30-45min of reviews before work, and another 2 hours after work just to stay on top of things, so having those questions of “why am I learning this word and not the ones I see every day” pop up in my mind every time I failed to remember some obscure term really felt like a test of willpower :sweat_smile: As everyone reading this knows Japanese is incredibly complex, and having the majority of my time taken up every day for just this one app seemed to yield diminishing returns near the end for these reasons. Despite wanting to balance grammar, listening, and reading as well, no matter what I did Wanikani would eat almost all my time. If it wasn’t for the fact that I am in Japan now and need to see and hear the language every day, I think this level of mandatory Wanikani upkeep would have worsened all my other areas of Japanese.

The above Image is my average week with Wanikani during the 50-60 levels


The above image is my tracked time learning Japanese since May 2024 (so about 8 months since posting this). This isn’t 100% accurate since I do plenty of listening and watching of Japanese media that isn’t recorded, but this is all dedicated sit down and try to learn time. As you can see, just to stay on top of Wanikani it took 50% of all my time.

Changing toics, if there is one thing to take away from this post please make use of all the great extensions people made for Wanikani here in the community. Without tools like “Wanikani Double-Check” and “ConfusionGuesser” I’m not sure If I would ever have been able to finish. So many words share such similar meanings (cemetery/graveyard, to reply/to respond, shout/scream/yell etc etc) that not having a way to go back and correct your answer makes things far too difficult. Wanikani does allow you to add in your own definitions which is great (especially during the lessons), but when you have 500 reviews a day you tend to want to get through things as fast as possible, and these were a true blessing to have.

The final con I wanted to talk about was not so much an issue with Wanikani, but single-word SRS flashcards in general. When learning words this way its very detached from how the words will be used, and so its not clear how to use any of these vocabulary. Countless times when speaking to my Japanese teacher I used words I picked up on Wanikani only for her to chuckle as the word was very misplaced within our conversation. You could argue that Wanikani DOES have sentences that come with each vocabulary, but I really found these to either be far too simple or way too complex for the purpose of teaching a single word. That, and when you have to do your 500 reviews a day chances are you aren’t going to take your time and read each sentence as they pop up.

With all this in mind, I still think Wanikani was very good for me overall. Despite being far too overwhelming and packed with questionable words near the end, I do owe it my ability to read most kanji I know, and for expanding my vocabulary greatly. It is because I think it has so much potential that I want to be hard on it, and I wouldn’t have finished it If I didn’t see the value in it, but I truly wish it continues to improve itself and take some of this feedback into account. As it is now, I’m not sure I could wholeheartedly recommend this experience to anyone other than those at the very beginning of their Japanese learning Journey and those who have several free hours of time a day for the next few years. If this isn’t you, prepare for a tight schedule, constantly turning down invites to do things with others, and very literally revolving your entire schedule around Wanikani for years to come.

I am incredibly glad to be finished, and to those still working their way through Wanikani, stay strong, good luck, and can’t wait to read your level 60 post <3
ramlethal-valentine

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I agree completely with most of your remarks, especially the generally poor kanji and vocabulary decisions on the tail end of the course, but I’m really confused by this:

Personally, with the benefit of hindsight, I would say that the “ideal way” to use WaniKani is to go through the first ~30 levels as fast as possible to build a decent kanji foundation and then focus on other resources or simply reading Japanese after that. I really don’t think that going through WaniKani in a year is a good way to study Japanese, even if you have the time and dedication to do so. It’s too lopsided.

That’s really key and why I thought that WaniKani adding kana vocab was nonsense. Wanikani doesn’t teach you vocab, really, because as you point out vocab often only really makes sense in context. WaniKani teaches kanji, and the vocab is here to reinforce the understanding of the kanji.

That’s also part of why those later levels are frustrating: going kanji-first makes more sense when the character appears in all sorts of words. You learn vocab through kanji. But as you reach low-frequency kanji and vocab, often a kanji will be used in only one or two semi-common words, so at that point it feels a bit silly to go through so many steps (radical → kanji meaning → kanji reading → vocab) when you could just learn the word to begin with.

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congratulations sir and best of luck with nlpt2

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this was very interesting, thank you for sharing your thoughts!

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Congrats on reaching Lv. 60! :partying_face:

Regarding vocabs on WK: WK teaches readings, not words. I also struggle with military words and baseball terms, but the scientific ones I like. Depending on what you intend to read or what you do for work, you’ll always encounter specific words which are not useful to other learners. That’s why I don’t mind those few odd ones. Unlike you I did think the higher levels are useful too! Some kanji regularly came up in a game I played at the time :grin:

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Yeah it will always be a person-to-person thing, and I think you are right about WK being for reading only. I guess it took me a long time to wrap my head around knowing a word’s reading so strongly, but then not fully understanding its meaning/use.
I think there could be a happy middle ground in there somewhere, but WK is very forward with its purpose so I guess that would be on me :sweat_smile:

Sorry, I should have explained this idea better. What I basically wanted to say was that I never expected to retain 100% of the kanji I learned just from WK, but instead, I wanted to be exposed to as much as possible so that when I encountered it in media (or even textbooks for that matter) I had something about it that was already familiar to help me remember it.

Because this was my thought process, stretching WK out for more than a year and a half seems to me like it wouldn’t be worth it, and there would be other ways to do this. That year and a half would be intense, but the best way for me to more comfortably unlock more ways to learn Japanese.

I think your suggestion of going fast through the first 30 levels and then slowing down after makes a lot of sense. If I could go back I would probably go to level 30, switch over to a trusted anki deck, and then sentence mine/find a list of JLPT words and add it to the deck as well.

Again I still don’t think Wanikani was bad by any means, but the amount of time it takes really gets out of hand. The cynical side of me wonders if it has to do with the fact that its subscription based, but its probably just the reality of learning more advanced kanji

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Thank you! And good luck with the rest of WK, you are closer to the end than you think, the fast levels are right around the corner :smiley:

Thanks! I hope this doesnt turn you off of WK, but perhaps it can help you understand where it can or cant fit into your study routine

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You make some really good points. Maybe after level 30 I will just speed-run it and focus on clearing radicals and kanji.

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Great write up and a big congratulations! Fantastic achievement, especially given the time you flew through it in.

Totally agree with many of the points that you have made (these last few levels are a true test of one’s perseverance).

Best of luck on your future 日本語 endeavors!

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Congrats on making it to level 60! And excited for you and your next stage of using Japanese.

Also, thanks for the cons you ran into using WaniKani. I always find insightful personally, and I’m adding this one as a feature request for the team.

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Hi Michael, Thanks so much for the comment! Im really happy to hear that, I think its great that yourself and other members of the team are so active on the forums here :slight_smile:

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Congratulations!:partying_face:
I’m also a Canadian that’s currently in Japan and getting ready for the N2 in the summer😄.
Best of luck to you friend!:hugs:

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you are so close to the end, stay strong <3

Ha small world! Best of luck my fellow Canadian! How have you found the language barrier so far, eased into it yet?

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Thanks! It has definitely had its ups and downs😄. I came to Tokyo last year in July with essentially no Japanese. I kind of naively thought that I might find work primarily using my English… but, after about a month or so, I quickly experienced a reality check😂. I basically felt completely illiterate, a bit of a burden to others, and as if I couldn’t even function like a human being😅.

So I started studying the language extremely hard. After about 6 months or so, I’m relatively comfortable reading, but its a bit slow. My listening depends on who is talking. If someone speaks quietly or really fast, it takes a bit of effort to keep up. And I can generally say what I want to say, but it’s very slow and sluggish🤣. I just need lots and lots of further immersion and practice.

But other than that, I can definitely say that my quality of life here has improved tremendously the better I became with Japanese. I’m currently looking at Japanese companies to work for, so I’ve been working on my Japanese resume, filling out Japanese applications, writing and reading Japanese emails. I recently had a Zoom interview with a recruiting agent from RecruitAgent. I was terrified at first😂, but somehow squeezed through it. Now I’m working with this agent and have applied to several companies, but the thought of doing job interviews in Japanese terrifies me😆.

Sorry for the mini autobiography. I hope you’ve settled in well and are feeling comfortable! There are definitely some challenges for us Canadians here, but we’ve got this!:sunglasses:

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Really happy to hear that things are going better now! Yea Japanese is a must have to work here, so good on you for diving into your studies. Even with about N3 level Japanese when we arrived, both my wife and I could not communicate really at all for a while near the start of our arrival. Even now, speaking is a weak point, but every little bit goes a long way, and the people here really appreciate the effort.

If you know of any good places to practice speaking I’m all ears. There are some online groups I have tried, as well as some language change cafes but open to more!

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I totally agree that every little bit goes a long way, and I’ve also experienced that people really appreciate the effort!

Whenever I need to communicate with someone, I usually begin with a couple of very simple sentences that I know by heart at this point. Something along the lines of “Excuse me, I’m still studying and improving my Japanese. It might sound a little broken, I apologize”, and I try to deliver it with a bit of a light hearted or humble tone. I found that most of the time, this completely breaks the ice, and I can visibly see the person I’m talking to kind of get relieved a bit and understand that I will attempt to speak with them and I might actually understand them back. The person then is usually very patient, tries to help me, and tries to compliment and support my Japanese. So it feels very endearing and you can feel that they appreciate your effort.

I’m kind of lucky because my girlfriend was born and raised in Tokyo. Her Japanese is fluent and native level, so I can just attempt to speak with her whenever we are together and she corrects me and I try and copy her way of saying some things. Her parents and brother don’t know any English, so when we get together for a dinner, I try to speak and practice with them as much as I can and they are very helpful and supportive. They also get many laughs from hearing me accidently say things that sound strange to them, but it’s all in good fun and they help correct me.

Unfortunately, not everyone has such easy access to a native Japanese speaking friend and family, but I do practice in some other ways when they are not around.

This might not be for everyone… but I highly recommend ChatGPT. It’s not always perfect, but it has helped me communicate very easily with many people. I don’t mean simply translate English to Japanese and copy it, but use it as a means to proofread everything that you are trying to say. For instance, imagine yourself trying to have a conversation with someone in Japanese, and then write the sentences that you are coming up with into ChatGPT and ask it “is this right? Is it ok to say this to a salesperson/interviewer/friend/etc.”. The app will usually give very detailed explanations and changes to what you are trying to say and you can probe it by asking it things like “is this change necessary? Is it common to use this word? Why can’t I just say/use ____?”. So in essence, you are treating it kind of like your own personal tutor, and the more creatively and thoroughly you can ask it questions, the more you can learn from it.

This might sound a bit goofy, but most of my practice speaking has been me essentially monologuing and talking to myself out loud or roleplaying having a conversation with someone and writing what I’m saying into ChatGPT and having it comment on the things I’m saying. And then asking it as many questions as possible like “but why can’t I say it like this? Is this polite and appropriate? Could I also say it like this?” etc. Over time and a lot of repetition, I would develop a better sense of creating my own sentences to say and then apply it more successfully to people around me.

Sorry, my post is getting long again😅, but I can give you an example that happened like 2 weeks ago too. My girlfriend’s birthday was coming up and I wanted to buy her flowers and a cake. There is a flower shop and a cake shop near my station. I sat down and began planning what to say to each of those places and get help. I roleplayed explaining to them that it’s my girlfriend’s birthday and asking questions about the cakes or what flowers they would recommend me, etc. I wrote all of the things that I was trying to say in Japanese into Chatgpt to get them proofread and corrected. I realized and learned the mistakes I was making and then kept rehearsing this scenario for awhile. When I went to get the flowers and cake, I felt pretty confident, everything went smoothly, and the people there understood me fine and were impressed by the things I was telling them😄.

Another example would be when I was planning on going to get a haircut, and I roleplayed booking an appointment and explaining what kind of a haircut I was looking for to the hairdresser. I was typing what I was saying in Japanese into chatgpt, having it proofread it, learning my mistakes, rehearsing the scenario, and then going to the place a few days later and everything went fine too😁.

So yeah… I ofcourse can’t guarantee this will work for everyone😅, but it might be worth giving a shot and seeing if it will improve your speaking.

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“Excuse me, I’m still studying and improving my Japanese. It might sound a little broken, I apologize”

But how do you see that in 日本語?? :face_with_peeking_eye:

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