I think it's time to say goodbye

WaniKani
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Hi all, I feel pretty melancholy writing this, and in all honesty I didn’t really need to write it, but I just wanted to share.

I started WaniKani in July 2023 and became obsessed pretty quickly. The formula of spaced repetition worked perfectly for the way I learned and I found it pretty cathartic speeding through reviews and being better than everyone else in my class at Kanji.

I was pretty dedicated to WaniKani, and was consistently levelling up in 7-14 days per level.

Eventually, I took a break and stopped doing my reviews for around 4 months. This happened during the school holidays and I kept telling myself I would do my reviews but I kept not doing it and they eventually piled up. I got up to 900 reviews until I eventually decided to do something about it, so I hopped on a call with a friend and spent around 3 hours slashing through my reviews. It felt so relieving to see that number at 0, and this was the first time I ever really struggled with my reviews.

I’d say about 8 more months went by with consistent study, until I started struggling with my reviews and getting the same items wrong over and over. It got to a point where my items were being moved down the SRS and I was GAINING apprentice items after a review session. It felt like I would never be able to do lessons at this rate as my review pile was already exponentially increasing even without doing lessons. (this happened at Level 30)

This led to me taking my second big break for multiple months and I came back to a review pile of 1,300. Every time I looked at this pile, I would go to do some reviews, determined to wittle away at the pile, though every time I would do a session of about 50 reviews they would pile back up almost immediately. It was extremely demotivating and I felt that unless I sat down for a whole day or something then I would never kill this review pile. And even after this, I would probably have so many apprentices that I had straight up forgotten and not be able to do lessons as I try to re-learn the items I had forgotten.

This brings us to the present day. My pile sits at 1,481 reviews, and I don’t think I’m gonna be able to do them. This hurts, because I love WaniKani and hold it dear to my heart. It’s been with me through so much, and I love the community. But, it might be time to say goodbye.

I don’t have a lifetime subscription, I’m instead on an annual subscription as I expected to finish WaniKani within two years when I first subscribed (oops). I don’t think I can justify paying for another year of WaniKani, so Level 30 might be where I stop, exactly half way to Level 60. It’s such a shame, I always wanted to get to Level 60 and I believed I could do it.

I’d be very surprised if anyone actually read this but if you did, I really thank you deeply. I thought it would be fitting to send my WaniKani journey off well with a post on the community forums that I held so dearly to me. I may stick around on the forums, I’m not 100% sure, but I’d like to say again: thank you WaniKani for everything <3

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I can very much relate to this. I’ve had many falls and resets and thus only manaved to reach level 60 last year (and I subscribed in early 2016), so it took me nearly 8 years… It’s not WaniKani’s fault, but my own – I should have chosen a slower pace (yes, it is a paradox: a slower pace I could keep – would have allowed me reach level 60 much faster than a fast pace that would burn me out)…

Luckuly, I went for a lifetime subscription from the start – otherwise, I would have ended up in your situation…

Anyway, I really hope that even though you are quitting the app, you would still stay on this community!

In any case, best of luck with your studies! If you don’t mind an advice, I’d recommend using your situation as an opportunity to concentrate on reading and listening. You are level 30, so you should already know enough kanji and vocab to be comfortable with at least stuff like NHK Easy News!

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It sounds like you’re overwhelmed now and in need of a break. Just remember that you can always come back to Wanikani. There’s a lifetime sale pretty much every year around Christmas/New Year, I highly recommend it. Plus, if you do decide to come back, just know you’re not the only one that had a problem like this. There are ways to combat this. Anyway, whatever you decide, good luck! And please don’t give up learning Japanese altogether!

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It’s more than fine to stay in the community even if not using wanikani itself.

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I (and all of us here) can definitely empathize with how killer those reviews can be sometimes. It’s a shame that it ended up becoming so discouraging and overwhelming, but I think there is no fault in knowing your limits and electing to spend your time and energy on things more productive and fulfilling.

Here’s my takeaway from your story, though. Level 30 means you reached over 1000 Kanji and 3000 Vocab words. Even if you’ve struggled keeping up with reviews and retention- that is undeniably a massive feat that you should be proud of. Even if not all the way to the end, you’ve powered through and put in the effort to learn more than tons of people have the patience and capacity for. Even if you’re leaving this specific site, I think you can still be a prosperous learner.

Always remember there’s no singular plan to learning- nor is there a deadline to doing it. Take a break, try other resources, experiment around and I’m sure you’ll only continue to grow further. Hopefully something else comes around that works for you, or maybe one day you take a fresh stab at WK (winter sale + a level reset might do you well) with all you’ve learned and can reattempt that climb with new perspective to fill in the gaps of the first time.

All to say that I hope you can walk away from this with a newfound motivation, opposed to feeling bad that you, a human being, are choosing your needs over a rigid and difficult learning program. Not easy to stay, not easy to walk away- but we got your back here and hope you keep loving learning no matter how it manifests.

頑張って !!

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Thanks so much for your reply!

Yeah, if I had a lifetime subscription then I would absolutely try to keep going after a break, but unfortunately I don’t think getting another year would be enough time to finish, at which point I would have invested far too much money for my situation.

And as some more info, I’ve actually been learning Japanese for quite a while (around 3 years) so yes something like NHK Easy News is something I’ve heard of though I haven’t really used it, maybe I should!

And seeing your comment and others has made it pretty clear; I’d love to stay on this community as it’s so uplifting and kind. Even if not a regular, I’ll for sure check in every month or so because this place is amazing

Thanks again for your reply!!

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It’s hard for me because I feel like its hard to justify getting a lifetime subscription after already having the annual subscription for 2 years and already being half-way through WaniKani, especially as I’m a high school student who can’t get a job so not much money…

I’ll absolutely keep learning Japanese though because my goal has always been to be bilingual!

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Thanks so much for your reply,

It’s possible that in the future I could try again at WaniKani, though I wouldn’t know when that would be. But thanks for your kind words and I feel it’s important for me (not just me, but everyone) to recognise our hard work and accomplishments as learning a language is so tough. We should all be super proud of ourselves.

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I hesitate to post because as someone who just started this journey a few months ago, I obviously can’t speak from experience on Japanese, but then again this isn’t my first foreign lanuage. I’ll humbly throw in my 2 Yen.

My initial target was lvl 30 at which point you should know enough Kanji to start reading more comfortably (from what I’ve read here). It’s rough that your initial plan of finishing WK didn’t work out as intended. But you still got far!
It’s totally mind games, but you can view everything in a negative, or positive light. I always (try to) choose the latter, because why the hell not? Stopping the WK experience at lvl 30 is not only an achievement, but also a big opportunity.
With your knowledge you should be at a good spot to delve into other aspects of Japanse. Read books / manga. Listen to music / audio-books. Watch tv shows. Play Japanese video games. Switch your phone / PC user interface to Japanese. Have conversations. Whatever most appeals to you. Do the fun stuff and learn that way! There’s so much free material out there. I can almost guarantee learning that way will be a lot more fun. You’ll get to actually apply your knowledge and learn that way.

There’s also no need to leave the WK community. Providing support / motivation is what this small community does best (because everyone needs it, regardless of their level / ability).

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I highly recommend it!

Here are some more free reading resources you might like:

https://tapas.io/episode/2134872

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It’s a completely normal feeling and it’s ok to want to stop completely or wait until you have more money to snatch lifetime in one of the holiday sales.

Just don’t let it be the end of your learning journey, you’ve come so far already. There are free and cheap ways to study and with you reaching 30 already that means you should have a pretty decent arsenal of kanji under your belt.

Here is a list of some decent free or cheap alternatives:

Also you can still use WK as a reference if you need help with mnemonics, it’s only the SRS that won’t be available.

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Maybe it’s time to justify a different SRS platform for vocabularies, and seeing Kanji as an extension of vocab – depending on how vocab are selected. (Some may be more dynamic or has better leech control.)

Other options are, depriortizing Kanji, or otherwise, not using SRS, I guess; depending on the area to focus on, or the bottleneck.

There are so many upcoming platforms to choose nowadays, when you aren’t yet committed to one.

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Don’t give up on Japanese! I haven’t

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I agree. Spending 10-15 minutes a day on NHKやさしいことばニュース is probably far more fruitful for someone at level 30 than simply grinding away at queues (especially if their time, energy and/or resources are limited).

If you stick with one system like Wanikani for too long, at some point I suspect your brain is learning that particular system as much as it’s learning the language.

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Are you going to continue studying in some other way, whatever it might be?

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If you hate SRS, you can still read or watch things and look up what you don’t remember and immerse your way up.

You can also use anki and use leech function to kill all the cards you’re struggling with and bring them back later at a slow pace rather than being forced through them every single day.

I have bad days and good days in anki, but it’s programmed to make me remember roughly 90% on average thanks to FSRS and it works for that.

It’s a lot easier to remember words in SRS if you added it from something you’re watching or reading that makes you see it once or twice a day. If you’re giving up on WK at this point due to not wanting to pay for another year, starting fresh in anki only with words you actually feel are going to be useful for the things you like to watch or read might actually feel pretty good in comparison to WK. I’d just go through kaishi deck patiently from scratch again and then build up from there.
It’s not a failure to take a step back in order to take a plunge forward in another direction.

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Just seconding this

And seconding this

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As someone who has spent over half their life in Japan but only a serious kanji learner and advanced learner for the past 10 years…those ten years have been full of ups and downs. I started my journey with learning Japanese when I moved to Japan at age 27. You have a BIG leg up on your studies and your goal of becoming bilingual / fluent in Japanese.

I know of a famous radio and TV personality in Japan, Peter Barakan. He talks about his struggles with reading , writing and then speaking Japanese at university. But he reaped the benefits immediately upon his arrival in Japan, way back in 1974.
https://youtu.be/E54rNB0RWHs

I wish you the best of luck in your continued efforts in learning a very difficult language!

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Couple of random thoughts about that:
A lot of people say level 30 is about the end of the “essential” starter set and the returns start getting less and less the closer you get to 60. If you’re reading and listening to Japanese content, the proportion starts to shift from mostly learning on WaniKani to mostly learning elsewhere. So maybe you’re not blocked from continuing, just “kicked out of the nest” to make your own way a little quicker than everyone else.

I can’t test this, but can you still log in even after your subscription expires? I think you can still look at all the item pages. Maybe you just get Anki and make cards for the next level’s items whenever you feel like you leveled up.

Good luck to you, in any case.

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I’m sure I will, I take Japanese in school (though it is my last year), and I’d love to keep self-studying

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