First time poster here. I just wanted to make a post here as I would sometimes check this forum out for encouragement or just to see what people are thinking and feeling. After about 5 years I have finally reached level 60 of WaniKani! I honestly can’t believe I’ve made it here after all this time. Since I got encouragement from seeing other people’s level 60 celebration posts, I wanted to offer a bit of encouragement myself along with some things I would have done differently!
First off, learning Japanese is a long journey, but I believe consistency is key. You will surprise yourself at how far you can come if you only do a little bit of learning a day. I honestly cannot believe that just 15-30 minutes a day (occasionally an hour or two a day and sometimes not at all for extended periods of time) has brought me so near to Kanji fluency as I could ever have hoped for. Growing up I always wanted to be able to read and understand Kanji, and now I can just because I put in a little bit of time and effort consistently. Basically, it was a tough journey keeping up with lessons and reviews where I wanted to quit so many times, but I’m so proud of myself and thankful that I stuck with it.
As for what I would do differently, I wish I had used the language more outside of WaniKani. I’ve been procrastinating grammar and speaking practice for years. That is my current hurdle I need to overcome. I would encourage everyone to learn grammar, read, and speak as much as possible!
I truly am grateful to have embarked on this journey of learning a new language. I can truly tell you that reaching level 60 is one of the best feelings ever. Even if you go years without doing reviews or lessons, you can jump right back in and relearn what you’ve forgotten and reach your goals. It’s truly an emotional experience reaching this point and I wish all of you a great language learning journey. As you can see from the stats of my WaniKani account, I went a year without doing anything at all and then not levelling up for a month or more many times. Life happens and gets in the way, but you can accomplish your dreams as long as you never give up!!! If you’re struggling, you got this. You can do it!!!
Im at a good level in usage. I can understand a lot in shows but still struggle with longer speeches. I can read a lot of manga with little to no help and can even read a bit of some novels and get the gist of it!
Thank you for the kind words! I seriously appreciate it so much. I plan on delving more deeply into grammar and trying to find someone to speak Japanese with! Immersion seems to be very important to using the language fluently
It’s good to see people going at a similar pace to myself. I’ve been doing WaniKani for about 30 minutes to an hour a day, with the goal of being able to read fluently within the next 4 years. It can be a little discouraging seeing so many people post about doing 30 lessons a day and leveling up every 10 days, so I’m happy to see that people have success with a less strenuous approach.
I agree with you about practicing grammar and listening/speaking. I’m feel like I could pass the N5 if I took it since I did well on the practice exams I’ve looked at, but listening was by far my weakest point. I’m also terrible at grammar, and I feel like it’ll only get worse if I keep putting it off.
I’ve been here since 2014, and have recently (a month or so ago) restarted my journey going back to 0 and I am already level 7 - so perseverance is indeed the key to success. Never give up, never surrender!
I think wanikani’s structured system makes it very easy to persevere, since the gamification and organized system makes it straightforward.
It’s indeed much more difficult to accomplish other necessary components like listening comprehension, speech composition on-the-fly, cultural knowledge, etc. which don’t really have a single system you can reliably turn to and which will “carry” you the same way wanikani does
It means there’s a lot more responsibility on the shoulders of the learner
You were 3 years faster than me – it took me 8 years to reach level 60!
But we both did it – and I totally agree with you that consistency is key! If only I had understood it sooner, I too would have been able to get there faster…
But the key point is – we both got there! I’m currently able to read my favorite manga; I hope you would find a lot of interesting things to read too!
So, best of luck with your studies and other cativities!
I’m glad I could offer some encouragement! It’s all about whatever pace works for you and your life situation honestly. I just took the N5 and passed it last year! It was a stressful but very fun experience and I’m taking the N4 this December. I would highly recommend taking it as long as you feel comfortable with it!
I respect the restart. I actually did that back to level 15 or something a couple years ago. It was after that huge break I took I think. It sucked but it truly was about not giving up and I’m glad I didn’t! I am now going to have to embark on a new struggle of speaking and learning more grammar so the journey never fully ends! But it’s all about having fun with it!
Thank you so much for the kind words, it means so much. I also wish I understood the importance of consistency earlier on, but like you said, I’m just so grateful to have reached my goal at all! Now I shall delve into grammar, listening, and speaking! Also I love the cat emojis so much!
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That was a beautiful speech 