# How I feel about studying Japanese and using WaniKani after 8 months **URL:** \ **Category:** WaniKani\ **Created:** [July 11, 2021, 6:20am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438 "2021-07-11T06:20:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/21 "2021-07-11T11:39:21Z")
what do you mean by _properly understanding_? With 2200 kanji and 10k words you won’t really have trouble with diving deep into native content and receiving constant input. ---
**Author:** ![Zizka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/zizka/32/303505_2.png) [@Zizka](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Zizka)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 11:51am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/22 "2021-07-11T11:51:00Z")
By ‘plenty of people’ do you mean those four friends of yours? I googled the number of users for WaniKani and got 28000. Statistically those 4 represent 0.001% of users. There are more of course, I’m just wondering where you got ‘plenty of people’ from. Can you provide your source (stat)? I’m wondering myself. I’ve set 9 days for each level (which is I think is close to how fast you can go) and that’s 540 days. That’s about a year and a half. ---
**Author:** ![Redglare](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/redglare/32/717152_2.png) [@Redglare](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Redglare)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/23 "2021-07-11T11:57:36Z")
> [@alexsandred](#): > > n1 is just reading comprehension exam. “just reading” you say… 😅 Don’t forget that there’s a listening section too. ---
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/24 "2021-07-11T12:01:18Z")
Iv encountered 4 threads like this in learning Japanese r/ by browsing it for 2 months. [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/l51r3d/my\_500\_day\_journey\_to\_a\_160180\_n1\_score\_w\_tips/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/l51r3d/my_500_day_journey_to_a_160180_n1_score_w_tips/). Friends experience and ext. Obviously, it’s maybe not a lot- but definitely not that rare as some people make it out. - you need to study Japanese for 10+ years to reach fluency!- unironically by fluency they usually mean n1 certificate. ---
**Author:** ![Lahoje](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/lahoje/32/393631_2.png) [@Lahoje](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Lahoje)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/25 "2021-07-11T12:05:48Z")
Some quotes from “Matt vs Japan” (from a video Q&A) that pretty much sum up what I meant: > If _all_ you want to do is pass the JLPT N1, then your best bet is just buying JLPT prep books and just Anki-ing the entire thing from start to finish, and then taking a bunch of practice tests > There’s really no point in doing immersion - I mean, you could do some immersion on the side, but if you just do lots of practice tests you can get good at just reading the multiple choice questions and skimming the paragraph to find the right information. In the listening tests, they speak super slowly and unnaturally, and you can get good at just listening for the key word > You probably wanna make use of just doing everything bilingually 'cause that’s just gonna make it quicker to get to the point where you can pass that test, which is all that matters, right - can you get a high enough score on this “game”, that ultimately is pretty much completely detached from actual Japanese ability ---
**Author:** ![whinette](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/whinette/32/318098_2.png) [@whinette](https://community.wanikani.com/u/whinette)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:13pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/26 "2021-07-11T12:13:04Z")
You need 0 Kanji to reach a conversational level. ---
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/27 "2021-07-11T12:14:51Z")
Correct points but I don’t genuinely believe there are people who just study Japanese to pass n1. The end goal is being able to consume native content. n1 is a good metric showing your literacy level. With that level, you won’t have trouble going through native content- after all- kanji and hanzi characters are the main obstacle for Japanese/Chinese learners. You already know them+ grammar, it won’t take that much time acquiring true language ability afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Lahoje](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/lahoje/32/393631_2.png) [@Lahoje](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Lahoje)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/28 "2021-07-11T12:22:44Z")
Agreed! There’s definitely many people who put a lot of time into studying JLPT prep books and such specifically to get better at taking the JLPT though, although that’s obviously far from being as extreme. ---
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:41pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/29 "2021-07-11T12:41:20Z")
yeah, I agree. JLPT is only useful as a literacy metric. Which is why I said it’s possible to pass n1 in 1.5-2 years without actually selling your whole soul to ajalt 24/7. you won’t be fluent but you will finally become \* literate\* which will massively ease the consumption of native content. At that point, language acquisition will no longer be a big deal because of comprehensible input. ---
**Author:** ![Zizka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/zizka/32/303505_2.png) [@Zizka](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Zizka)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/30 "2021-07-11T12:44:54Z")
I might’ve misunderstood reading your comment again. I don’t think you’re talking about WK. I think you’re saying plenty of people pass N1 or reach N1 level (incl. reading and listening). > [@alexsandred](#): > > 10 years sounds like a massive exaggeration- there are plenty of people who reached n1 in the 1.5-2 years by studying for 2-3 hours a day. Speaking of which, is there a way to access average data? Since everything is compiled I’d imagine there’s an average day per level variable stored somewhere? I’ve googled this but I’m getting threads of people sharing their own average which is not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for the average for reaching level 60 in particular. I’d also like to investigate what % of people reach lvl 60 > [@alexsandred](#): > > If you have an issue with time though- you should carefully consider is it worth investing in japanese- because you need to devote at least 1 hour a day for asian languages- on average it takes 4x of study time compared with european language. Otherwise you just gonna study them for years and i think everybody main goal here is being able to enjoy native content as fast as possible, not to learn words/drill grammar for years. I’ve never heard that before, please develop. What do you include as Asian languages? Do you include dialects spoken in India? Because India is technically part of Asia. Where do you draw the line? Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Burmese? As for European languages, do you merge Germanic and Roman together? Because some languages are a lot easier to learn when they’re part of the same family (French and Italian comes to mind). Where’s the 4x coming from? Does it take into consideration the learner’s background? Where’s the research? ---
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/31 "2021-07-11T12:59:24Z")
wanikani can be completed in a year with maximum speed- 7 days per level. 3-4 per fast level- its pretty hardcore though. you gonna need an alarm clock) But yh I’m not talking about Wani Kani because for n1 you actually need to know 2200 kanji, while Wani Kani teaches you 2060+. Still its quite easy to find some Anki deck for the rest needed kanji. When people mention hours for language acquisition they usually refer to American foreign service institute study numbers- where they prepare future diplomats. On average people from the anglosphere need around 600 hours to reach the b2+ level in European languages and around 2200+ in eastern asian languages( kor/chin/jap). Although it’s hard to gauge how they evaluate numbers- is it just class numbers? or self-study also included?. anyway, these are just average numbers.+ for eastern languages they also practice handwriting proficiency which can literally take 2x of your study time. If you just study by yourself and not trying to learn to handwrite I’m sure you will achieve a solid level faster. > **[How Long Does It Take To Learn A Language?](https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-a-language/)** > > How much time does it really take to learn a language? That all depends on your proficiency level, the difficulty, and the way you choose to learn. ---
**Author:** ![livelytania](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/livelytania/32/356589_2.png) [@livelytania](https://community.wanikani.com/u/livelytania)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/32 "2021-07-11T13:13:10Z")
> [@alexsandred](#): > > It’s a classical beginner learner mistake where they think they need to be outputing early. I’m really enjoying this thread and this statement specifically has been a little revelation for me. I moved to Japan 6 months ago (to follow my partner) and started studying Japanese around the same time. Wanikani was the first thing I started with – actually 8 months ago – but it has since become just one small part of my toolkit. I very recently took the N5 and think I nailed it (though I found the listening section a little tough). I love studying Japanese BUT… every once in a while I get down on myself because despite spending an average of 3-4 hours per day studying, and living in Japan, I still feel pretty useless when faced with interacting in Japanese in the real world. It’s a long road to fluency! But I think at the moment I need to worry less about output and just keep jamming it all in! Vocab, kanji, more vocab, grammar, vocab vocab vocab, listening practice, vocab… At some point it will all come together right? Right…? With respect to the OP, I’m at Level 10 wanikani and I find it useful for learning kanji, but that’s pretty much it. It does help to reinforce vocabulary I’ve already learned elsewhere, and makes it easier to learn new vocab (obviously knowing kanji makes it easier to learn new vocab that uses that kanji). But I spend much more time on other resources: 1. I spend A LOT of time every day on Kitsun (SRS platform) learning vocabulary 😂 2. I use Genki (currently halfway through Genki II) to learn grammar, supplemented with some Tae Kim and other N4 and N5 textbooks 3. I was taking three lessons per week but have recently paused my lessons 4. I listen to pod101 podcasts and use duolingo nearly every day 5. I watch Japanese TV series (with english subs) almost daily (e.g. Terrace House, Midnight Diner) 6. And read very basic Japanese children’s books to my 2 year old son. Today I learned the words for poop うんち and diaper おむつ 😂 After making that list I feel like I should be farther along than I am 😩 but to be honest I think my kanji and grammar are nearly at N4 level, I just need to focus now on cramming more vocab in. Lately, I feel like it’s all about increasing my vocab level. And I should ad a caveat that while I live in Japan, I’m not working at the moment and my husband speaks no Japanese and works in an english-speaking environment. I also have a 2-year old son so don’t get out much, and have been living under various shifting states of emergency. All that to say that my daily interactions with Japanese speakers is limited to the grocery store, pharmacy, nursery and playground. My goal atm is to pass the N4 in Dec… I think I’ll be ready for N4 sooner than that but don’t think N3 is achievable by then. ---
**Author:** ![Nemuitanuki](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nemuitanuki/32/448041_2.png) [@Nemuitanuki](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Nemuitanuki)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 1:25pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/33 "2021-07-11T13:25:10Z")
頑張って！ 絶対にできますよ ---
**Author:** ![Lahoje](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/lahoje/32/393631_2.png) [@Lahoje](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Lahoje)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 1:28pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/34 "2021-07-11T13:28:01Z")
> [@Zizka](#): > > I’d also like to investigate what % of people reach lvl 60 [https://community.wanikani.com/t/its-a-stat-22-people-make-it-to-level-60-every-month/30156](https://community.wanikani.com/t/its-a-stat-22-people-make-it-to-level-60-every-month/30156) I wonder how much this stat has changed since 2018 > [@User distributions, success rate](https://community.wanikani.com/t/user-distributions-success-rate/30878/5): > > The most recent data I have (extracted from the forums) is November 2017: Lvl Users 01 7849 02 4378 03 3563 04 2474 05 1444 06 1402 07 1223 08 1182 09 1097 10 989 11 948 12 746 13 587 14 516 15 415 16 386 17 404 18 419 19 343 20 340 21 347 22 334 23 264 24 213 25 225 26 193 27 197 28 153 29 123 30 142 31 143 32 90 33 93 34 94 35 70 36 69 37 91 38 83 39 77 40 75 41 72 42… This is a bit old, but relevant ---
**Author:** ![Redglare](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/redglare/32/717152_2.png) [@Redglare](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Redglare)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 1:32pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/35 "2021-07-11T13:32:13Z")
There’s this from 9 months ago. > [@What is the level distribution on here?](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-is-the-level-distribution-on-here/40308/198): > > Because people in the POLL thread were talking about it, I decided to run a script to recalculate the level distribution on here again (or at least the distribution of everyone with the Basic badge, but that should be almost everyone who ever visited the forums). The results can be found in [this spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qrr6_wfTYhch9qIqJwXBrdGh26c2KldI-AU4DoalRZg/edit?usp=sharing). I also made a few graphs to visualize the data a bit better. The distribution itself doesn’t seem all that much different from the one @Kumirei found last year. Still a big d… ---
**Author:** ![Lahoje](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/lahoje/32/393631_2.png) [@Lahoje](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Lahoje)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/36 "2021-07-11T13:34:18Z")
I knew I had seen a more recent one, but I couldn’t find it - thank you! 🙌 Edit: Also, @Zizka - I think levels 4-60 are really the relevant ones when calculating % of people who have made it to X level, since the first 3 levels are free and don’t require a subscription/commitment, although the google doc above separates who was free/paid/lifetime _at the time_ the list was made ---
**Author:** ![anon45962687](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon45962687](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon45962687)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/37 "2021-07-11T13:59:41Z")
Yeah, and WK gave me the nudge I needed to start looking at stuff with JP subtitles, which means I’m running into all sorts of vocab not covered here in a very natural way ---
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 2:20pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/38 "2021-07-11T14:20:31Z")
yes! it will eventually click. I dont like to use reference on other people, but there are just so many successful examples- like polyglots steve kaufman, steven krashen, people whome they interview, matt/britt vs japan, my experience with learning french and english and ext. They just focused on reading/listening comprehension. But what was the most interesting is the fact that people who never practiced speaking their target language- year later after receiving tons of input suddenly realize they are quite fluent in speaking( strong foundation in input led to pretty quick acquisition in speaking ability. When you see patterns all the time it takes a very low amount of efforts to activate your passive knowledge)- this process is called unconscious acquisition of language which happens automatically when you consume native media. Its still has to be comprehensible input so ideally you should use japanese subs for movies/shows and animes. Eventually you will reach a point where you no longer gonna need them. Also the funny thing about output- when you _practice_ speaking, you are actually benefiting more from input- hearing target language from another person. I would just add 1 thing- in my opinion with that many resources( especially when they often overlap between each other) you gonna get burned out fast. I remember my experience with dabbling japanese 2 years ago. I decided to reach fluency faster than my friends. Wanikani/anki/4 books on grammar/ listening pods- great results in 4 months but massive burn out rate where i just started to hate this language ). i think its just better to stick to 1 specialized rescourse- wanikani- kanji kitsun- comon vocabualry ( i use torii.srs) and just use 1 book- tae kim or genki for grammar. and then slowly you can start transitioning to your favourite recreational media with subs. Most native speakers in anime and movies dont really use sophisticated grammar constructions and n4+ is more than nuff to start acquiring grammar in context. ( you can finally get rid of boring grammar books- hurray) ---
**Author:** ![notaz](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@notaz](https://community.wanikani.com/u/notaz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/39 "2021-07-11T14:36:02Z")
> [@alexsandred](#): > > But what was the most interesting is the fact that people who never practiced speaking their target language- year later after receiving tons of input suddenly realize they are quite fluent in speaking- this process is called unconscious acquisition of language which happens automatically when you consume native media. That’s definitely not true, if you put 0% effort on output you’ll get an appropriate outcome. You have to “activate” your passive knowledge to be able to use it. There are plenty of immigrants in countries that have high level of understanding of the local language but can’t really speak it beyond survival basics. This is also from my own experience of living in an occupied country getting tons of input at a young age, I can still understand the occupier’s language at a high level but can’t really speak it. ---
**Author:** ![alexsandred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alexsandred/32/529739_2.png) [@alexsandred](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alexsandred)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438/40 "2021-07-11T14:41:15Z")
well, this is why I said I don’t like to reference others people. Everybody can be different/unique. It definitely worked that way for me and many others but in the end, it’s only through exposure smb can understand if it works for him or not. Especially if it’s not your first language learning experience. Although if I’m not mistaken Krashen was mentioning input in the form of text+sound. If you just have a massive vocabulary and can read books freely but you rarely hear sounds of these words you won’t be able to unconsciously acquire them thus won’t be able to output them. p.s i struggle to believe that someone who can clearly understand daily speech, medias- cant talk beyond survival needs. It just goes against all the evidence for 2d language acquisition studies. [Previous page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438.md?page=1) [Next page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-i-feel-about-studying-japanese-and-using-wanikani-after-8-months/52438.md?page=3)