I hit level 60! :D

WaniKani Level 60 Celebration
15

Congrats, and thank you for the detailed write-up. You started several months before me and went at a slightly faster pace (though still reasonable, IMHO). Your workload graph and level-up stats prove that consistency pays off.

Another hobby collector! Welcome to the tribe. :grin:

You might think about specific places you’d plan to visit and specific situations you’ll expect to find yourself in. Then you can practice saying a few stock phrases with perfect grammar and pronunciation. I think just understanding what’s spoken to you (or written down for you!) should already blow them away, but getting reactions from natives could be the cherry on top. :laughing:

Doubtless, you’re doing this already, but since you’re already practicing a lot of reading and are interested in conversation, you might like to practice listening and repeating back Japanese content without any subtitles whatsoever. It’s harder than it sounds, but pausing after each sentence or two and repeating the sounds back tends to solidify what you’ve heard. Seeing subtitles in either language provides additional context that you won’t have in actual conversations.

I need to do more of this myself. It’s most useful with dialog/conversations, repeating back what each side says in various situations.

I agree with most of these, but I’m less certain about two points:

  • Undoing an incorrect answer, no matter how silly a typo or whatever, just means fewer reviews for that item, faster leveling up, and quicker burning of that item — none of which should be encouraged on an education-focused site, IMO. Sometimes we take gamification too seriously.

  • I’m unclear how better compartmentalizing onyomi/kunyomi distinctions helps to read/comprehend/speak better Japanese. It seems a mostly academic distinction. I think it’s more reasonable for (multi-decade) beginners like myself to unconsciously memorize a few heuristics around jukugo and the presence of hiragana, and be surprised by the occasional exception. Knowing that 下(した) is kunyomi doesn’t help you read vocabulary items like 下町(したまち) or 年下(としした).

Preach!

Again, thanks for the awesome post and I hope you get to Japan with your friends soon!

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