I know the “depends on your pace” answer, but it’s not what I’m looking for here.
I’m asking because of the limitations on WaniKani with the SRS system.
Currently, every session takes 20-30 minutes for me, with 60-80 reviews + lessons. And I really have a lot more time than that to dedicate daily to learning Japanese (I’m learning for professional reasons, so the faster, the better).
So since (apparently) I don’t have to option to “speedup” my learning, I really want to know how long it would take me in the best scenario possible (mostly no errors and doing everything daily).
The ideal for me it would be an option to “learn more” (with a warning saying that can be too much for some people). My intention was to dedicate around 2 hours daily for japanese, but I can’t see how without utilizing other platforms.
If you have time to spare, other platforms and learning methods are exactly what I’d recommend.
Kanji are nice and definitely important, but WaniKani alone is not going to teach you Japanese. You’re gonna have to learn grammar and vocab too, and practice using the language both actively and passively if you want to get better at using it. The sooner you start with those, the better.
Yeah, I already have a lifetime membership (it was on huge sale once) in LingoDeer, but there is barely any Kanji in there… with is actually great for me, since I can use both for different reasons.
That being said, especially in the beginning, it’s weird using multiple platforms, because you kinda have to know a bare minimum of kanji to go in LingoDeer without any problems (They have a weird way of teaching, with some hard vocabulary here and there).
But if I can go to LVL 60 in around a Year to learn Kanji + other platforms to learn Japanese Dialogue, than I guess everything is going to be fine. I just wish I could make the first few levels more intense.
I found LingoDeer to be of limited use personally, but different people learn differently, so if it works for you that’s all good.
I personally learn grammar through Bunpro which seems to not work for most people, so maybe I’m the weird one there You don’t really need to know kanji in isolation for something like LingoDeer though - for the purpose of LingoDeer they’re basically just the vocab items.
Yeah, I’m not saying LingoDeer is great or anything… it was really cheap when I got it… so, now that I have it, I guess I’m going to use it, right? haha
I’m actually trying to brute-force my learning by playing some games in Japanese with a dictionary. It’s how I learned English 20 years ago, so probably will also help me at some level.
Nothing beats practical application for learning. It might be a frustrating experience - I know trying to play Pokémon in Japanese was for me - but it’s definitely going to teach you a bunch.
And even if LingoDeer is not the best resource out there, every resource beats no resource. If you’re using Japanese, you’re probably making progress. Worrying too much about which resource to learn is incredibly counterproductive, because all the time you spend worrying about that is time you could have better spent learning something
Real talk, this is a wanikani forum so most people on here aren’t gonna say this (and I mean, most people are still starting out anyways) but I would consider not using wanikani in your case.
If you have an interest in japanese content, especially VNs, then I would consider doing something more like the moeway or quizmaster setup. You’ll learn a lot faster overall. Wanikani is comfortable, but it sounds like you might be willing to sacrifice comfort for efficiency and speed. If that’s the case, I’ll go more into detail if you want. If not, then don’t mind me.
Trust me you can easily spend more than 2 hours on WaniKani once you level up a little bit more, you’re on the first levels so you don’t have much right now. But soon.
Of course, by all means use some other resources if you can handle it (Though your thoughts might change once WK starts throwing everything at you), I just leveled up to level 10 today and was emailed by WK that now would be a perfect time to start learning grammar. So yeah even WK recommends at least some outside source as well.
If you want to learn Japanese as fast as possible you’ll want to start immersion as fast as possible. Doing as much listening and reading as you can while picking out words and phrases and sentences to add to an anki deck to review daily as well, in addition to Wanikani.
Apparently even if you only understand 20% of what you’re listening to it’s still extremely helpful. For easy stuff to start listening to now I recommend the Comprehensible Japanese Youtube channel. Start with the absolute beginner playlist, then beginner, then intermediate. You can also use this as a good resource to start listening and reading as there are subtitles and transcripts.
I rip the audio from these and listen to them through my phone/wireless earbuds.
Oddly enough, I started with Lingodeer. I got tired of not knowing the Kanji so I came to Wanikani.
I went back to Lingodeer after a year doing Wanikani. Its cool to be able to focus on just learning the grammar and not getting all confused seeing the Kanji.
As a point of reference, I did the first 10 levels at full pace, and then did the remaining levels at a fast-but-comfortable pace of 10 kanji or 20 vocab per day, plus all reviews.
With a low error rate, I was advancing by one level roughly every 9 days (compared to the fastest possible pace of about 7 days), and getting to level 60 took me about a year and a half.
2 hours is not that much for full immersion as some people suggested.
wk will slowly keep up pace around 6+lvl and peak around 15-20 when you going to have 200-250reviews a day.
2)add torii.srs-learn vocab while excluding wanikani words- its necessary tool because wanikani won’t teach many basic words like 十分
1-2 should take around 90min at your peak workload.
3)learn foundational grammar-tae kim/cury dolly or tokiniandy genki youtube (for the latter you gonna need solid starting vocab knowledge though-at least 1500words+ for comforting study)
just choose one and stick with it.
in a year with a review rate of around 90%+, you should reach n2+ level in terms of kanji and vocab knowledge+moderate reading abilities. the output will take much more practice though.
This is a little a bit harsh but it’s so true I’m not even level 10 yet but already notice that it started to get a little bit hard every time i leveled up, especially with my 7 days per level pace. I don’t know if i keep this pace will i get overwhelmed or not once i reached level 10+
I initially came in with a mindset like you, aiming to get finish WaniKani as quickly as possible, and so I did everything as it came to me. Over the last few months though, even though the final levels only need half the time of most of the previous levels, I still took roughly the same amount of time for them as I felt overwhelmed because of the number of lessons I was doing, despite doing a few hours a day.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t rush it - I did it and I’m still fine - but if you do, I’d make one recommendation: don’t do all of your new lessons for every new level you reach in one sitting. For the first 30 or so levels, I did this, and as a result I would get huge batches of reviews almost every day in the later levels. Take your time, and only do a portion of them each day. I’d recommend doing 15-20 every days, and getting the reorder script to sort your lessons by newest level’s kanji and radicals first.
TL;DR: It’s fine to go fast, but don’t overwork yourself either. Just remember this graph from here (a great post that you should read btw) that even if you get 100% accuracy, the work will pile on if you don’t moderate yourself. Burnout is a very real thing.
(As a side note, I’d recommend using KameSame to accompany WaniKani for studying vocab. I’ve learnt a few thousand words with it over the past year and a half, and I’d recommend it if you want to learn vocab with a SRS system similar to WaniKani.)
You really should be utilizing other platforms though. I haven’t found anything yet that’s a perfect all in one for Japanese learning. To be fluent (business wise or other), you’ll have to learn a lot of grammar and culture. Tofugu’s articles are nice, but they aren’t substitutes for a platform that focuses on grammar. WK is good for learning kanji and that’s about it. The forums are what you make of them.
I’m not sure what kind of profession you’re planning on going into, but Japanese work culture can be difficult to understand and navigate, so I really recommend finding some resources to help with that as well. It ties in with language learning because you’ll learn there are phrases you can and can’t say to your boss and also how to avoid accidently angering your coworkers by doing something that’s normal in your culture but not in Japanese.
Here’s the ultimate resource list to hopefully help you find more ways to develop your Japanese knowledge
If you are not cheating, not having prior Japanese knowledge, studying Japanese 2 hours a day, doing all of these everyday. I think it would take you 2 years to complete Wanikani. However, don’t expect you would be able to read VN and LN comfortably by that time.
The average learners require 1500-2000 hours in Japanese learning to be considered fluent. So if you learn 2 hours a day it would take you 2-3 years.
Oh I see you are learning for profession. I think 2 hours a day is not enough if you are expect things to go as fast as you want. I’m saying this because I have the same goal as you and I’m studying at least 6 hours a day.
Wanikani should be a fraction of your learning routine. It’s because there are things that more crucial than learning Kanji like vocabs, grammar, immersion, and language comprehension. You can’t expecting to be on level 60 on Wanikani and being good enough in Japanese to be able to put it on your resume.
I’d say skip WK and learn from textbooks, get a tutor instead and get JLPT certifications. Unfortunately, WK doesn’t follow the JLPT structure, so it might slow you down if you need to get certification for your profession as you’ll learn unnecessary kanji from above your JLPT levels.
I think it line up pretty well if he’s taking JLPT test for profession. So I assume he need at least N2 level. However, if anyone is looking to take N3 and lower, WaniKani structure is really bad for N3-N5 test taking purpose.
If you want to speed up your learning, you should learn more grammar. Utilizing other platforms is actually ideal. Get a textbook like genki or use some online resource for that. It is more important to stick to a resource that you find useful than to find the most efficient one when you are just starting out. If you are learning for professional reasons, getting a teacher can be useful too especially for speaking. Just pace yourself because most people can only take so much information in a day.
Also for wanikani and other srs systems, the workload will compound so try to be patient for that if you plan to subscribe. I hit about 180 lessons per day by level 10 with 7 day level ups.
You don’t really need to know kanji in isolation for something like LingoDeer though - for the purpose of LingoDeer they’re basically just the vocab items.
I’m not even level 10 yet but already notice that it started to get a little bit hard every time i leveled up, especially with my 7 days per level pace. I don’t know if i keep this pace will i get overwhelmed or not once i reached level 10+
