I Made it to Level 10!

WaniKani
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Hello, WaniKani!

I finally made it to level 10! It’s been a long road to get here - way longer than it should have been - but my grasp on the language has never been better.
I’ve had a cursory interest in the language for a long time, but I really sat down and started to study once I found out that I was going to be stationed in Okinawa with the military around 2020.

That spur of enthusiasm didn’t last terribly long considering I haven’t passed WK and taken the JLPT by now, almost five years later. It was a cycle for a while of studying really hard, burning out, and sitting doing nothing for several months. It’s really, really easy to overload myself with more and more study resources that I am not able to handle long term. I would take WaniKani, BunPro, a textbook, and a core deck on Anki and pretend that I was able to do that without burning out for a few weeks.

I didn’t study nearly as hard as I would have liked myself to while in Okinawa, partially considering how built around accommodating the English language it is there due to the heavy American presence. That being said, I did get to passively absorbing a few words, and it certainly didn’t hurt!

In any case, I’ve been sitting down and studying again for just over the past month. I’ve made it from level 7 to level 10 and am trying my absolute best to do what I couldn’t the last few times, the most challenging part about language study - pacing myself! I’ve been studying consistently for longer than I ever have before, and have cut down to just WaniKani and BunPro as my formal review platforms, as well as some reading on NHK Easy and reading through Nichijou.

According to WKstats, I have 320 kanji under the belt and 856 vocabulary words guru or above. Including non-WK words, I’d consider my vocabulary base to be over 1000 words. It’s a healthy start, but it certainly is just a start.

That being said, now that I have a decent foundation in the language, everything is coming to me easier. It’s easier to study, easier to retain words, easier to retain grammar now that I have the basics down.

I’ve started this train, and I’m really going to try my best to keep it going!

Next stop: Level 11!

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Congrats on reaching LvL10!

I had a similar expecience at my start of the journey. I would overload myself with what i study and at the same time be always on the search for better studying material, thinking that it would help me to learn faster. Took me way to long to realize that studying at a constant pace woudl have brought me so much further.
Well now here we are and there is only one way: Forward! Good luck on your journey!

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Most first time second language learners I have met say it required about 5 years to learn how to learn as it did for me too.

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Ain’t that the truth! The biggest hurdle I’ve endured has been getting myself to do less studying. Avoiding burnout and keeping my workload manageable are hard when I have the drive to add more and more stuff to my plate.
Fingers crossed this time is going to be the one, though

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Congratulations!
I made it to level 10 recently as well. I spent over 70 days on level 9!
Even though I know it’s still early in my Japanese language journey, it feels like a great accomplishment to get this far.
Level 11 here we come!

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Good for you!

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Make sure to make a similar post for L60 as well.

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