How do people climb so fast!?

WaniKani
#1

I’ve been here for a few months now and absolutely loving it. I usually have around an hour a day to be on Wanikani. This is alongside a full time job and 4 hours per week of 1-1 lessons on iTalki with a tutor (were currently getting towards the end of Genki 1) although I’ll have to do a load of revision on vocabulary from it before I’m happy to progress to Genki 2.

Below is my WKStats info, it seems miles away from what lots of you can achieve.

I’m in absolutely no rush, as am fully aware talking the information in at my own pace is what it’s all about, and wanikani should keep me a few steps ahead of the kanji required for my classes anyway. But just wondering if anyone has any tips they can share to help speed up but still retain the information!

Many thanks.

EM

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12 Likes
#2

My schedule is something like this:

On level up:

Complete all vocab and radical lessons instantly
Then do 5-10 kanji lessons a day
Vocabulary lessons are done entirely as soon as they become active.
Reviews are done periodically throughout the day.

You just need to find something that works for you though.

7 Likes
#3

Don’t compare yourself to others. Some people may have studied kanji before. Some people may have way more free time. Some people may already know more than one language. Some people may have reset to get a better score. Some people may be cheating (cheating on the internet, well I never!)

Tips that help me remember: build your own mnemonics, write down the kanji on paper, don’t do new lessons in the evening, get a leech training script.

20 Likes
#4

Q: How are people going fast?
A: They optimize their daily schedule for review timings.

For about 1.5 years my life was structured around doing WK. Lessons in the morning, first review session during lunch, and a final review session in the evening. Like a clockwork, when on business trips, vacation etc.

If you don’t know the review timings and optimisation read this great post:

16 Likes
#5

For the best part of a year I did little outside of kanji, as far as Japanese studying was concerned (especially after the burns started coming back in).

I’m still not sure if I would recommend it, even to my past self. But I will say that although I am behind in my studies, my studies are significantly more enjoyable now than they were before (and faster).

So basically, the best advice in a nutshell is:

And

15 Likes
#6

Don’t worry about your speed. The only reason to hurry is if you’re constrained by the price of the subscription. If that’s not an issue, take it at a comfortable pace. Keep your studies balanced with grammar, non-kanji vocab, listening and reading. Do lessons in the first half of the day so you can review the new items later in the same day.

Don’t prioritize WaniKani above the other aspects of the language. After all, you’ll forget this stuff if you’re not reinforcing it and making connections through other language activities.

3 Likes
#7

i’m not a speedrunner but i’m going fairly fast. my secret is a lot of free time i guess

3 Likes
#8

I’ve got a lot of time confetti to fill and WaniKani fits perfectly when I may have only 5-15 minutes to do something at a time. I’m doing Bunpro/Genki and KaniWani on the side, so learning Japanese has become my primary hobby since December. I work as a stay-at-home Dad, so my schedule is pretty unique.

I’ve been averaging around 8 days a level, and probably devote around three hours a day on pure rote study, with more time devoted to looking at other language-related stuff. The more time in, the faster it goes, like any skill, but checking in every few hours seems to provide a real virtuous cycle. Confusion gets sorted out easier and new symbols get absorbed faster. It was around level 7/8 when the meta-learning kicked in, as in how to do this without getting too manic or frustrated.

All that being said, I’d be in trouble without the Self-Study Quiz script and to a lesser extent, KaniWani, both of which provide extra review and help me zero in on those readings or meanings that just aren’t sticking.

Also, as others have pointed out, it’s not a race. The fun part is not the destination but all the こうs we meet along the way!

2 Likes
#9

When I was leveling up in WaniKani, I was working at a job that had a lot of unavoidable downtime I had to fill somehow. That kind of thing isn’t visible in the little number badges on the forum, but it can sure go a long way.

On the flipside, I haven’t done any italki sessions yet, and doing that regularly would be drastically more intimidating to me, so it really is a process that’s different for different people!

2 Likes
#10

I’m pretty slow too, but I think I’ve finally found a efficient schedule, and this level might probably “only” 16-17 days.

I make the schedule based on 10 lessons/day, minus radicals days that are 10+ 5 vocab (I’m currently in radical-rich levels :rofl:), depending on the number of vocab that unlocks directly on level up I make a schedule so that I’ll always have at least 5 vocab lessons available, usually that means 3-4 days of doing vocab from the previous level, then radicals+vocab from the previous level and then radicals/Kanji+vocab from the current level. It is based on this approach (Daily Schedule For Consistency and Retention: Exactly 14 days per level and about 10 lessons per day - #22 by saidahgilbert)

I guess I could do some more lessons as my accuracy is pretty good but I prefer to go with a “comfortable” pace.

1 Like
#11

assuming one has enough time on hand to do reviews, it’s the number of lessons one does which determine one’s speed.

at 10 lessons per day, it’ll take some 850 days (more or less, i forget exactly how many items WK teaches). if you do 5 lessons a day, it’ll be twice as long. if you do 20, half. for people going fast (i.e. around 20 lessons per day, or more) it can become handy to mess with lesson ordering, but that’s another can of worms.

what’s been working for me is reviews and lessons after i get up, a review session 4 or 5 hours after the lessons, and another review session 8 or 9 hours after that. and i do about 20 lessons per day, that’s about what my brain can handle.

but as you said yourself, it’s not a race, and we all have a speed which is optimal for us. those 1-1 lessons are probably much more helpful than WK, if i had that option i’d invest my time in that first ^^

4 Likes
#12

I actually only spend about an hour a day on WK, but I split it up into morning, noon, and night.

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I stick to less than 100 Apprentice items and no more than 20 lessons per day and I’ve been able to do a comfortable 11 days per level.

4 Likes
#13

I do all lessons as soon as they are available, make sure to get my 4 hour review in later during the day, my 8 hour review first thing in the morning, and then just do all reviews around the same time in the morning, except for when I need to do the 4 hour reviews. I’m still fairly early after resetting, so it’s still relatively easy, but I used a similar pacing when I made it to the late 30s. I also don’t check how long each level takes and don’t worry if I miss a day or delay my lessons a bit. I’ll get there whenever.

2 Likes
#14

I’ve had success with keeping a steady pace after I downloaded a third party WaniKani app. There’s a couple on the App store if you just type in WaniKani. I may not have access to a computer at all times, but I always know my phone is on me, which encourages me to do my reviews more often throughout the day. The app also let’s you reorder your lessons and reviews, so I tend to tackle radical and kanji lessons the minute they become available, and pace out the vocab lessons to about 15-20 a day. My level up pace is between 7-11 days now.

#15

I guess this depends on how much time you spend on it, how accurate you are with reviews, and how much you try to optimize “speed running” WK by prioritizing kanji and radicals over vocabulary, as the former two block level up progress while the latter does not.

#16

I get surprised that people can finish the levels in the least amount of time possible (6-7 days). :sweat_smile:

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#17

Most of the really fast ones either focus entirely on WK, spend A LOT of time studying it or already know a lot of the words and/or Kanji. Not to say that there aren’t any geniuses here though, but you should go at the speed that you find comfortable, no use in comparing yourself to anyone. (And if you need someone to compare to, just compare yourself to me, hard to go slower :stuck_out_tongue: )

5 Likes
#18

Even if you can’t completely clean out your review stack every day, you can be sure that you’re doing your current level reviews daily, or when they come up, or at least more often. A phone app like Tsurukame can reorder reviews so you get current level reviews first (so you can Guru your radicals and kanji earlier).

It’s good to know which items will set you back the longer you wait on them, and which you can kind of let slide (not indefinitely of course, ideally it’s best to have 0 reviews at least once a day in my experience). I usually did my current level reviews as soon as they popped up by reordering on my phone, then did the rest of my reviews in random order on the computer (better for retention overall). Just to avoid those more important reviews from sitting in the queue for too long.

Also, you can’t level up until you’ve done all your kanji lessons, and it’ll be about 4 days give or take after you finish your last set, so prioritize those for the first day or so in a level.

(For reference I got about 8 days per level for most of WK and finished in about a year and a half)

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#19

Whenever I start to feel bad that I’m not progressing as fast as some people on here, I try to remember that I’m still probably learning kanji way faster than Japanese kids in school are.

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#20

Japanese kids in school already know the words, they’re just learning to write them, more like a spelling test in English. Don’t discount the hard work you’ve put in and your successes, but it’s comparing apples to oranges. Learning kanji and Japanese is actually more work for us, so go at your own pace and enjoy the process.

2 Likes