Hi all. I think I’m pretty much done - maybe I’m beaten - it’s been a long and up and down journey but I don’t think I’m ever going to make level 60 as I don’t think I can actually progress fast enough on wanikani to still be able to remember any early kanji by the time I get anywhere near higher levels. Level 24 and nearly three years. I think I’ve been averaging more than an hour a day, I’ve had a couple of breaks in holiday mode including a couple of months earlier this year. I really don’t recommend that - total disaster and exploding numbers of reviews once I came back. So back another couple of levels and still painfully slow. And now I’m at the point where I’m no longer enjoying the huge number of reviews and very slow progress.
I have a decent visual memory but a terrible one for abstract words. Some kanji I learn quickly and never get wrong and others (omg, hallucination and fantasy!! How can I get them wrong every single time - what’s wrong with my brain!!!) have been a challenge. I have quite a few leeches!!
But, overall, this has been a hugely enjoyable experience. I get a huge sense of accomplishment when I can read Japanese signs on TV, for example. I feel like I’m ready to take on reading and grammar learning now so thanks to the wanikani team for such a great product. Maybe I’ll come back to it once I’ve made more progress on other bits of the language but I think that would be a back to level 1 reset.
Good luck to you all and I am still awed by the folks that get to level 60, that is an amazing achievement. To be honest anyone who gets close to level 30 is very impressive in my opinion.
I think it’s not a failure.
The point of WaniKani – is to get your kanji knowledge to the point when you’d be able to start reading without having to look up every single word.
You’ve managed to reach this point. Therefore, it’s a success!
Nobody said you absolutely have to reach level 60.
If you want some recommendations on reading, here are some (you’ve probably heard of them, but just in case):
Remember that comparison is not really useful. Over a year is close to the minimum time possible and is way faster than average. I’ll be surprised if their study time per day is less than 8 hours. As a point of reference, I complete about 1 level in over a month, which is quite close to your speed.
Level 24 is a good accomplishment and be sure to be proud that you accomplished it!
Oh almost forgot, you can also join a bookclub, everyone here is very helpful with answering my beginner questions, so I really recommend checking it out!
Been here 6 years now, and I’m a couple of levels behind you. Don’t kick yourself down :}
I keep slugging through because WaniKani is still the best method I’ve found to learn kanji. When I first joined the platform, I was whizzing through, studying Japanese multiple hours per day, putting in a lot of effort, etc… Basically actually improving in my Japanese.
Then roughly 3 years ago, my routine gradually broke down. I wasn’t doing as many reviews. Extra Japanese learning (grammar, listening, reading) went out the window.
What happened?
Well, life. When I first joined WK, I was in university. I had nowhere near the amount of responsibilities and stress I have now. Unfortunately nowadays my brain is too busy stressing about work and bills and my financial future… So there’s no mental energy left for any of my hobbies, not just Japanese.
Anyways, I’m babbling now. What I want to say is: don’t worry too much. Life happens, and any level is an achievement, especially if you’re an adult with adult responsibilities. Keep WK in mind if in the future you get the spark again (I got mine two weeks ago and I’m back to doing reviews; I’m gonna take advantage of that and hope to progress a couple more levels ).
Keep hanging around the WK forums as it personally helps me stay connected to Japanese…
Just keep it nice and easy and try to have fun. No need to do something that is like torture ^v^
It’s certainly possible to do WaniKani within just a bit over a year… But it’s harder than one may expect and not many actually manage it
For me it took as much as 8 years (mainly due to me being such a clumsy cat ) to get there
Well, I’m only level 16 right now so I shouldn’t be telling you what to do, but I think that unless you really need japanese right now you should not burn yourself or guilt yourself into studying! Just enjoy the process! Sometimes it’s good to take a break and sometimes instead of studying, read or watch something you enjoy, it gives a meaning to it all and maybe you might understand something you didn’t before.
SRS/WK is a grind. I’m approaching 4 years in: will be happy to have completed 50 levels by then. As many have mentioned, the first 20 levels give a great step-up for reading. I recommend SatoriReader. I personally am in no rush to get to Lv60.
Get through N5 and N4 grammar and there’ll be lots of fun reading material waiting for you! You can pick something out by browsing https://learnnatively.com/
Don’t just do WK. Spend at least half your daily time “in the wild”, immersing in reading or listening (can be watching, but without any subtitles to count as listening, or with subtitles to count as reading). This way you will naturally encounter the words you’re learning in WK. And vice versa, you’ll pick up some words that give you a preview and make them easier when you get them in WK later.
Like about 1/3rd of people fail out of wk before level 20. Getting anywhere past that is a huge achievement and wk is front loaded so you get a lot of power for your time investment. It’s very efficient.
If you were doing this the old way in school you’d still be in the first 50 kanjis or something pathetic like that.
Just be patient with yourself. It takes a bit of time. Its like you are building a beach one gain of sand at a time. It takes time for your brain to index all the connections and for them to fire reliably. Errors, regressions, mistakes, forgotten items. They are all part of it. Ive had plenty of times where it felt hopeless and i had low 80s success rates. Once i was in the 70s!
Honestly when I started Wanikani I never thought I’d make it to Level 60, and yet, somehow I did. Sheer bloody mindedness perhaps, who knows.
I think the key way to motivate yourself, and WK can be a real chore if you’re not in the right frame of mind, is to find some Japanese content you enjoy and can mostly understand and use that a palate cleanser. Manga is the obvious thing to go for. Of course not all manga is created equal, and some are way more difficult to understand than others.
If you’re a fan of Rumiko Takahashi her stuff is a great way to enjoy reading Japanese, as it’s mostly everyday words. And of course she’s also just an amazingly talented mangaka. I would suggest one of her less fantastical stories, such as Maison Ikkoku.
That said, you will still regularly run into kanji and especially into vocab you don’t know. Once I run into a word or kanji I don’t know I add it to custom decks in Marumori. You’ll find that the size of your decks rapidly grows, but that’s fine, it’s not a race.
Mostly I think it’s good to remind yourself that Japanese is a famously hard language to learn, perhaps the most difficult language in the world. It’s really. really. really difficult on every level. So enjoy the wins and keep at it, you’ll slowly understand more.
Also, spoiler alert, “finishing” WK is just one step of many. It’s nowhere near the end of the road. It’s barely the beginning frankly. But it’s an important step all the dame.
Thanks to everyone who has replied on here - it’s a good morale booster to hear other people’s struggles and what can be achieved. Also good to be reminded of the overall journey. I will continue to learn Japanese - I just find it such an interesting challenge - I’ll try a bunch of the suggested other routes and maybe will still come back to Wanikani at some point. Thanks - all comments are very much appreciated.
I am currently in about the same situation as you. Three years on, level 21, wondering if I’ll ever be able to understand anything and whether getting to level 60 in 10 years is worth the effort. Enjoyed learning N5 grammar but struggling with N4.
Trying to think of new ways to learn and immerse which I enjoy. I like to sew, so have bought some Japanese pattern books and will try to make something using the Japanese instructions. And have started some manga, though have to stop regularly look up words. I’ll take a look at some of the other suggestions here too.
Thanks for speaking out. It’s good to know there are others in the same position. All the best with your studies. Enjoy your break. You can always come back when you are ready.
This is my level up chart. It wasn’t exactly a speed-run. At times I fell off the wagon completely for weeks, months, or the better part of a year. What mattered in the end was that I crawled back and kept going each time.
My advice would be to not get too hung up on obscure or abstract kanji meanings from past levels slipping your mind. I’ve also completely ignored every radical in WK (I’ve added a single letter as a synonym to all of them to skip them every time) because I found that I personally don’t like learning via mnemonics and could cut them out to save mental bandwidth. Even without making up stories, radical placements that denote reading and meaning eventually becomes subconscious and certain kanji just start to “feel” like they are read a certain way even if you can’t put your finger on why right away. In my opinion, kanji readings are a more important learning outcome from WK than kanji meanings, because it makes it a lot easier to look up new words you encounter in the wild as long as they are composed of one or more known kanji. This will smooth the entry into reading books which is where your learning can truly “go infinite”.
I don’t know if this made any sense. I guess the main takeaway is something like, the journey doesn’t have to be a certain way or move at a certain speed. As long as you find motivation to crawl back each time you can go anywhere.
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