What’s going on everyone? So I made it to level 60. I don’t know that I have an interesting story to tell, or any real words of wisdom. I just sorta decided to finally learn Japanese, picked up Wani Kani because a friend of mine was starting it, and I just sorta dinked around with it for a few months. Then the pandemic hit and the schools closed down which meant I didn’t have work for months, so I brushed up on @jprspereira 's nifty guide, set myself a daily schedule and just kinda did it, and now I’m here. It took 434 days total, with about a 20 day break in June doing other important things.
For anyone looking for advice I have two things to say:
Setting a consistent daily schedule is probably the simplest and most important thing you can do. Most of my Wani Kani experience didn’t really feel like a slog because I just had my srs-timed daily sessions based on a steady 20 lesson diet, and I just showed up to them pretty consistently. And thats how you get through WK in a bout a year. If you have the luxury to set yourself a schedule, do it. Its the true way.
Don’t do the fast levels fast, unless you have a very specific reason to do it. It sucked, and if I didn’t have a specific goal I probably woulda slowed down after trying a few of the fast ones. But I really wanted to hit 60 before the school buildings opened up and I had to commute to work again, and they are reopening in a week, so I guess it was worth it. But yeah, 3.5 day levels while trying to stay on top of the vocab was rough.
Anyways, I’m glad I made it, glad I have the cool little gold circle, glad I can look back at pandemic times and say “well at least I did THAT…” I’ve read others mention similar sorts of things, but picking a thing to do and sticking with it super-consistently is a pretty rare thing for me. Over the last few years, I’ve started to seriously suspect that I’ve been living with undiagnosed ADHD (I’ve been meaning to talk to a a professional about it but I just never end up getting around to setting up an appointment, which…yeah). So here I am, I stuck with it somehow. Now I have to actually…like, LEARN Japanese
I don’t know if its really necessary to bother with stats type stuff, but I do like the story that everyone’s level-up timeline tells, so here’s that.
I took up some grammar for a bit, and can struggle my way through like a NHK Easy article. But my reading practice really fell off as work picked up and the nightmare of online school settled in.
So I have no plan for what’s next. I think as the reviews taper off I need to replace the routine with reading and grammar studies of of some sort. Spring break is coming up so I might take that time to work on designing what’s next, but yeah keeping up the routine is the key I think. Look for a good listening source, dig into one of the mangas I have lying around, maybe get around to bugging one of my friends in Japan about setting up a regular chat time. Maybe I’ll post about it if I land on a system that feels nifty.
Good job, and congratulations! You did what most people that start wanikani won’t do, which is actually sticking to it until completion, so that alone should be a good lesson about your potential to commit to a long project like this. You are an example I aspire to follow.
Hopefully now you will find a new routine to keep improving and eventually you’ll get where you want to be.
おめでとうぅぅぅぅ！ I’m really amazed at how consistently and fast you’ve completed all levels! Definitely a form of self discipline i think I’ve never experienced in my life :'D
By the way: where did you find/get that graph about your time spent in each level?
I don’t think my memory is anything special. I still have plennnnnnty of leeches, though now I have a little more bandwidth to really focus on them.
Its really just persistence, consistency and routine.
That pace tho.
I’m doing the “keep apprentice terms around 100” suggestion so, I clear though my reviews every hour on the hour, I just forget enough (and or maybe typo a few) that my pace is just way slow lol
Yeah the 100 Apprentice thing is definitely a good guideline to follow. I didn’t follow it strictly though, and in a few rough patches crept towards 200, but I figured if the SRS was working even sorta well, I oughta be able to catch back up, but I promised myself 200 would be a hard limit and if I were to hit that I’d definitely chill on lessons for a bit (Until the fast levels when I increased lessons to keep pace, and was at like 300-400 apprentice items and it sucked…). Everyone’s limit is different for a host of reasons.
Another thing, if you have the luxury to do so, I’d highly recommend breaking your sessions into just three chunks of: lessons+review in the morning- review 4 hours later- review 8 hours later. It gives your brain a chance to chill, and less chance of burnout overall. Setting this schedule for myself helped me more than I really thought it would. If you can’t do that for whatever reason, then just do whatever works for you.
Ultimately I wouldn’t really worry about pace so much. I wasn’t really try-harding to get through the levels fast. I just set some guidelines for myself, stuck to them, and I happened to finish at a decent speed. Comparing my speed to your speed and anyone else’s holds little value (aside from a bit of fun competition and maybe a touch of motivation) because our conditions are almost assuredly different.
Anyways, yeah, I still believe routine and consistency is the key more than anything else. Just keep showing up, and you’ll keep moving forward.
Props to you. It may be a little strange since it’s not really from zero now, but I think the Japanese from Zero series has the best approach for the independent learner, and I think each volume is only $10 digitally. I used Genki, and it was clearly designed for classroom use. It’s also not officially available digitally, last I checked. I was not impressed by Genki at all.
Congratulations on reaching 60! An amazing accomplishment! 
Definitely a form of self discipline i think I’ve never experienced in my life :'D
