I’m honored! And really though, all of that (apart from cheerleading for WK levels 
) goes both ways! I’ve started to study a lot more vocab since meeting you, and I’m learning a ton from our chats. I’m really enjoying our conversations. Super glad we met in the book club here!
Congratulations on reaching level 60!
Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! Congrats on reaching level 60!
For anyone who wants a condensed alternative to my usual ramblings in threads like Short Grammar Questions, and doesn’t mind a guy (me) randomly mouthing off about how he sees Japanese grammar, I hope it’ll be helpful in some way. Here’s a link to today’s Tweets if anyone’s interested:
(There’s a second Tweet in the replies that includes a table of the written forms of だ and である.)
Nice, welcome to the 60 club 
Congratulations, great overview. On a similar path, hitting reviews a few times a day around work schedule. I noticed your review times are shorter (more efficient) than mine. Was there anything you found to make your reviews focused? For me the meanings usually comes quick, the readings are slow.
As I got into it a bit more, I imposed a pretty harsh rule on myself that if I couldn’t come up with an answer within 5-10 seconds, I intentionally failed the item. This is because I want my Japanese recognition to match my English reading speed in the long-term, and it felt like a way to start achieving that. It was a little rough when I first started it, but it worked out great. This also had the effect of speeding up reviews in general once I no longer failed items so much.
One way that helped with getting that recognition up was to read the item out-loud when initially doing lessons, and whenever I failed an item. It just added an extra layer and gave my brain something else to latch onto for memory purposes.
Those are the only things I can really think of that might have helped. I’m pretty strict about people leaving me be at breaks at work (otherwise I wouldn’t actually get my breaks, I would be chasing down some problem or another for somebody), so I was able to focus on the reviews without those distractions. The slowest moments would be when I was eating, and would look away from the screen to take some bites or something before looking back, but I always made sure to not progress an answer if I were going to do that so I couldn’t “cheat” my 5-10 second rule.
If the readings are slowing you down the most, I would suggest trying the reading out-loud during lessons and failures method, and see if that helps you any.
Also, just noticing this is your first post on the forums, so welcome to the community! Everyone here is lovely, and there are tons of incredibly smart people here who likely have better advice than me! 
I use a similar approach for my Anki reviews and I think it’s the way to go. By being more strict with reviews you increase the rate at which you see the item and that helps.
Congratulations! Heres hoping for more success/progress through your Language learning journey.
Thank you for the congratulations!
I’m honored to be your first post on the forums in six months. 
Seriously, though, I feel the same! Incredibly happy we met! I’m also incredibly grateful for the much-needed push you’ve given me to leave my comfort bubble to improve myself! You’re the best! 
Thank you for the congratulations! And thank you for the work you’re putting into the grammar series! The way you break things down is very easy to grasp, and while you’ve yet to touch on anything that’s particularly new to me, I love reading the way you see the grammar. It’s interesting! I certainly wish it had been around when I was still learning some of the stuff you’ve touched on already! 
Thank you very much!
Thank you! And likewise! I wish you the best of luck on your journey!
Grats. It’s a weird feeling when you’re spending less and less time on reviews.
I was just thinking that today… “Wait a second. This is how I’ve filled all my breaks at work for the better part of two years… What the heck am I gonna do now!?” 
Thank you for the congratulations.
Congratulations!
I started almost exactly a year behind you, so your post is very inspiring for me.
Especially the tip about “if the correct reading doesn’t come to mind right away, intentionally miss it and read the correct reading out loud”. I think this airsoft will help me. I’m double your length on my review times the first 3 times through with new Vocabulary. So I think spending that extra “initial absorption time”, with “more channels for the brain to latch onto” may help me.
I meant to be reading Takagisan along with the book clubs, but fell into an abyss after chapter one of the first. Then I tried again with the second volume, and the abyss got me after chapter 2… Yesterday I saw that the offshoot is already on Volume 5, and I questioned what I have been doing with my time (darned “real life”, always trying to throw me off my game! LOL)
Congrats again, and thank you for sharing your wisdom!
The comments on this thread have gotten me curious about Grammar Detectives… But I just don’t have time/energy right now.
Thank you! I’m sure you’ve got this! It’ll kick you a few times on the journey, won’t lie, but just keeping at it means you’ve already won.
I totally understand! Life can definitely get in the way. Just remember that the nice thing about Takagi-san, is that the chapters are not chronological, so you can always drop into the series at any time (at least, up to this point!). Plus, I’m sure all of the members of the club have the threads still set to watching, so you can jump into any volume and ask any questions you would have, and I’m sure somebody would answer! The point is, the door is always open for you, should you get the time to come back!
Is that a series of some sort?
I dunno… Maybe it’s just how some people referred to how you figured out grammar? (It’s from posts hereinabove) I was wondering whether it was a series…confused I guess it’s not a “thing”? LOL shrugs
Thank you for the inspiration/encouragement. It, since I’m in level WK27, I suppose that I should say 「激励ありがとう, MrGeneric.」 
Ah, okay! Yeah, we were just referring the process of figuring out the grammar when talking about grammar detective work. As far as I’m aware, it’s not a series or anything (for Japanese). English does have a book called The Grammar Detective, though, so I was wondering if Japanese had something similar you were aware of, since it might have been something worth taking a peek at. 
Ahaha. どういたしまして！頑張って！
Congrats on reaching level 60! 
Whenever I see your profile picture I get reminded I really need to get back to reading that book. When I started it was a bit too hard for me but I should be able to understand it now, maybe one day ill even catch up to the rest of you in the bookclub! 
Thank you very much!
No time like the present, if you think you can spare the time and understand it now! The same statement I made about Takagi-san holds true for Ayumu: Most of us will have those threads still set to watching, so if you choose to read, and have questions about any of the volumes, asking in the discussion threads will likely mean you get an answer! 
Congrats and nice job!
WK setting to auto play readings during lessons and reviews has helped. Initially had it off to keep from disturbing others, only used keyboard shortcut to play audio. Turned auto audio on about level 30, for me, it made a difference. Did you resurrect any burned items along the way, or use another tool for long term review?
Thank you! Best of luck as you continue on your journey, friend!
I have not resurrected any burned items, and as far as long-term review goes, I don’t have any special tool for that. While I’m sure that I’ve forgotten some of my burns, I’m not too concerned about that. I’ve been doing a lot of reading with the Absolute Beginner and Beginner Book Clubs, as well as a decent amount of my own reading projects (two manga series, and a light novel). I expect that, now that I won’t have as much WaniKani taking up my time, I will only increase the amount of reading I’m doing. From this point, I’m going to let immersion be how I “review” words. If I see it a lot, I’ll learn it that way. If I don’t see it a lot, it’s not going to be that big a deal if I have to look it up every once in a while as a refresher, you know?
I may, at some point, decide to start adding some words to Anki or something of that sort, but for the time being, I need a small break from SRS. I can’t just keep collecting and reviewing words in isolation, and I need to spend more time actually using them, whether that’s by listening to anime, Vtubers, podcasts, etc., by reading manga, novels, or news articles, or by speaking and writing. I think that focusing more heavily on that will do me more good than more SRS and trying to, vainly, remember every single word I’ve ever learned by reviewing it to death, if that makes sense. I mean, English is my native tongue, and there are plenty of words that I see used where I occasionally just have to suck it up and look it up, because it’s obscure, or something I haven’t seen before. I remember the words that I do because I’m using them regularly.
I think that now that I’ve got a good foundation of vocabulary and kanji knowledge, I should be learning Japanese by using it, same as I did and continue to do for English, you know?
Very cool! Mind if I ask what light novel, and how it’s going? 