You have to ‘guru’ 90% of the kanji in a level to hit the next level. So if you get enough things wrong, it takes longer, because those items are lowered. It also depends on how long you wait to get through some of the lessons. To level up as fast as possible, you would want to learn all the radicals in your level immediately, then do them immediately each time they become available for review (in the meantime, learn all the kanji), then do all the kanji they unlock immediately, then do them each time they come up for review as well. Aside from the first two levels and the last 10(ish?) levels (which are faster), that gets you a level about every 7 days.
I made it about 5 levels in 12 months. Actually I made it to lvl17 then had to reset back to 15 because it was a bit overwhelming. Man, that’s depressing. After reading everyone’s reports here, I’m starting think WK just isn’t for me.
However, I did manage to graduate from my language school which is equivalent to roughly N3 so that’s a plus.
I’ve been with WaniKani for almost exactly one year. A lot of people advance a lot faster but I would say I’ve kept at a pace that is one or two steps in front of my actual Japanese ability. I’ve been mixing my WaniKani study with a lot of grammar and vocab study. I’m really not sure how people go at the maximum pace but I think it’s pretty unnecessary if you’re starting from a beginner level. I live in Japan, and at level 22 I’m able to read most signs, easy news articles and the main idea of newsletters and notices that I get in the mail. I would say my Kanji reading ability is pretty advanced compared to most other foreigners in Japan that have lived here for a similar amount of time.
I’ll be signing up for a year membership soon (hoping for the New Year sale) as I feel another year in WaniKani will get me to roughly level 50 which is all I reasonably feel like I need before focusing on other areas.
Mmm, don’t be discouraged. I’m going rather quickly but I also have a lot of free time and a foundation in Japanese already. Years ago I self-studied Japanese incredibly hard-core for about two years, including doing the first Heisig kanji book. So I have a lot of experience with Japanese in general and kanji specifically already.
The 8 or so years of not doing Japanese sting me really harshly as wasted time, and as a result I have a really short timeline for when I want to reach a certain level in the language, now, and a lot of former experience to back it up.
I think a lot of the people going close to max speed have similar past experience, though there are exceptions. But I don’t think anyone really needs to learn 2000 kanji in a year from scratch.
I basically started WK the month I started learning Japanese, but still went at about max speed because I just wanted to get it over with and have more time to focus on the other things (grammar, reading, listening). I still did some of that stuff during WK, but there wasn’t nearly as much time as there is now. Also, I paid by the month, so another reason to rush it.
I’ve gone through the first 8 levels at a fair old clip
I’m lucky enough that:
I can hit my reviews pretty much as they come up
The first levels have contained a lot of Daniele material as I was about half way through leaning N4 kanji by other means when I got here and I’ve been learning Japanese for a couple of years, engaging with kanji the whole time.
It’s starting to get harder as stuff gets less familiar. I’ve been skimping a bit on the mnemonics and this may come back to haunt me. Either it’s a familiar kanji and I haven’t bothered with the mnemonic or I’ve seen the mnemonic as a crutch I need to kick away as quickly as possible. I fear my level up speed is about to suffer.
If you want it badly enough, ~1 year is very possible. My original plan was to go full speed until I couldn’t handle it anymore, but that time never really came
I finished in 1 year, 10 days; it would’ve been exactly a year, but I had to hit vacation mode right at the end for 10 days to get myself adjusted in Japan:
I was at level 8 about a year ago, and I just got to 43 today so that’s 35 levels in a year. I feel good about my pace, I’ve managed to keep up with it while studying physics and still somehow maintained my sanity
Not sure why but the first level took me over two months (I don’t recall not doing my lessons and reviews as soon as they were available). Anyway after that anomaly my pace is just over 9 days per level so has taken me around 9 months to get to level 28. I spend about an hour a day on WK. I have gone through phases of intensive grammar study but struggling a bit since returning from our holiday in Japan. I have conversations in Japanese every week (language teacher and language exchange student). I watch far too much anime! Also reading manga although to be honest the set I bought is too hard and I’m struggling. I need to do more proper study but our next trip to the Japan is likely to be 2020 at the earliest so getting motivation a bit difficult (and finding more time over and above what I am spending on WK is hard).
As far as everything else, I’ve gone through the two Genki textbooks, but I haven’t done much else other than WK. I don’t really have the time with my job and such. Guess which level I was working two jobs when I was transitioning from one to the other, lol.
I have been doing some vocab stuff on Kitsun.io and Memrise occasionally though, but not during these last fast levels.
I really want to work more on grammar but since I only have time to really focus on one or two applications, I’m waiting until I finish WK which will be sometime in January I think.
I was doing all right during summer vacation, but then school started around level 15 and now I have barely any time to do WaniKani. I don’t count the first level because I made an account and then got put off by the price but returned afterwards.
All the way from Level 7 to 33 this year. Last year November was when I restarted WK because I couldn’t subscribe before then due to circumstances. Thankfully I could though
Hey, so I didn’t do it in 1 year exactly, I think it was maybe a year and 1-2 months. Here are my stats to show exactly what you’d need in order to accomplish that:
Honestly I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re absolutely willing to commit to spending several hours a day, EVERY day on WaniKani lessons/reviews. Soon after I reached lvl 60 I got hit with depression/burn-out and am having a hard time getting back into Japanese in general, let alone WaniKani. Considering I only have like 2 weeks-ish left on my WaniKani subscription, 87 lessons and 2738 reviews I’m going to leave it and just focus on other areas. I have plenty of manga, light novels, visual novels, anime, and dramas I have on my plan-to-finish list which will keep me busy for a while when I get back into things.
I started in December 2017 and I’ve been going at a decent pace where I try to stay on top of reviews and lessons, but mostly clear out all the reviews first thing in the morning.
