If you reset from level 60, to which level?

[NathaLire]

Thank you for your responses! I’ve had to rethink some of my opinions, so I’m very glad you all responded.

@Pep95

I personally have been thinking of resetting back to level 1 myself as well, after I have burned everything there is to burn. The reason for this is that my knowledge of Japanese was very bare-bones compared to what it is now, and I genuinely think that my absorption of the information will be significantly better next time. I have already experienced this when resetting my 1+ year progress in BunPro, and at no point have I regretted that decision.
It will take a little while since I really want to “complete” Wanikani, but since I have lifetime, I don’t really mind it. I’m a little completionistic, so I just really want to finish it.

However, on the other hand, I am also slightly afraid that resetting back to 1 will mean that I get into a period without much new information and therefore motivation to continue going back to 60. It’s kind of scary to redo this marathon, with the possibility of you never finishing it.

Do you have similar reasons as to why you’re not sure whether to choose level 1?

This is EXACTLY the situation I’m in. Especially “My knowledge of Japanese was very bare-bones compared to what it is now, and I genuinely think that my absorption of the information will be significantly better next time” really resonates with me. Wanikani was literally the only Japanese studying I did for a long time (I started at 18 and didn’t always know how to study well/just didn’t put in the effort ), so restarting would allow me to solidify the kanji, VOCAB, and also pronunciation.

Quick question, I’ve been considering subscribing to bunpro to work on grammar more actively, but I’m not sure how to use it. Did you add lessons manually or follow a path? Do you have any tips for starting with bunpro?

@Pep95

How would you go about this? Aren’t the pages unlocked anyway even if you haven’t reached that level yet?

Yes, sorry my phrasing was unclear. I meant I want to actively relearn and review them through Wanikani, instead of just looking at the page and studying them independently. (Spoiler alert but after reading all comments here I think resetting to level 30 or so makes the most sense with my current goals, but I might reset again to a lower level at some point to focus on writing or pronunciation.)

However, I’m also afraid I’ll struggle with motivation if the information is still too clear. But the next comments helped me with that:

@s1212z

Do you really need 8 SRS levels of 山 or 一?

Yep, this is definitely a problem. I’d like to also pronunciation and pitch accent, so in that case there might be some value in it, but at the same time I can’t say I’m looking forward to repeating those specific kanji So as Pep also mentioned, this would probably not work well for my motivation. Have to consider that for sure.

@The_Transhumanist

I guess, I would check out some levels in the overview like 20, 30 etc. and see if I still know most of the kanji/vocab. When I find a level where I do not remember every, I don´t know, 4th kanji or so, it might be a good starting level again. All the best on your journey…again

This is a very clever way of going about it. As @2000kanji also mentioned, I had no idea flaming durtles had that function, thank you both for the tips!

@Starker

When I reset, I went through all the kanji starting from level 1 and chose the level where, for several items, I couldn’t remember both the reading and meaning of a kanji or mistook it for another kanji. I think it was somewhere around level 16. So far, it has been a good experience. The lessons and reviews go much faster, so it takes less time than it took the first time around and I can take more time to focus on other things, such as additional meanings, vocabulary, and pitch accent. Also, the increased knowledge of Japanese really helps too. I have a lot more vocabulary to tie the kanji to and it’s far easier to read the example sentences.

That said, I’ve been feeling like there has been a distinct lack of challenge, so I wouldn’t reset quite that low in hindsight. Perhaps the time would be better spent on reading and getting more practice that way.

Thank you for sharing your experiences! This helps me a lot, and you mention exactly the things I also want to focus on in a rerun. Reading this and the comments before I do feel like resetting too low would probably not work well. I don’t think it’d be throwing away time per se, because of pronunciation, example sentences, etc. But I think right now I would be more motivated with a bit of a challenge. I think starting at level 25/30 I took a one year break, and after that I became a bit sloppier with vocabulary. Maybe that’s a good point to start from again, but I’ll make sure to check how well I actually remember everything around that level.

@shionamekuji

When I reach level sixty, I don’t know if I am ever going to reset, but I am going to go back and try to learn how to write all the WK kanji. I feel like right now it’s more important to just be able to read, and sprint towards the N2 benchmark post… but at some point in time I think learning to write the language as well will be like burning those little turtles into my very soul.

This is a super nice idea!! I hadn’t even considered incorporating writing as well, but honestly I’ve wanted to practice writing more seriously ever since I read this topic by @heisamaniac. Maybe you find this topic interesting too, if you haven’t seen it before!

Also thanks to @rwesterhof and @vvv for clearing up the old radicals thing. I had not considered that at all, but yes I’d like to retain the option to choose whether I want old mnemonics to be displayed or not, since I learned those.

So in conclusion, I’ll figure out which level is best to reset to based on how well I remember the kanji and vocab! I think it’ll be somewhere around level 30. Either way, I’m excited to use Wanikani actively again

I’m still very open to more opinions or experiences if anyone wants to share