So I got to Level 60 recently an thought about continuing Wanikani for some time, because it helped me a lot to this point and also was, besides reading in books in japanese, my main focus when studying Japanese. But now that I got to level 60 about 2 months ago, I kind of start losing motivation and also kind of don´t see a point in continuing anymore. This is because up to level 60 you kind of had clear Goal and you also learned a lot of new things, but now I kind of lost this, since burning every item or maybe brining your apprentice and guru items to 0 is pretty vague imo and also seems impossible for me at the moment. Because I kind of lost my reason to continue WaniKani, my motivation went downhill and I also don´t really focus on my reviews anymore, so I just speed though them, which obviously result in a pretty low accuracy which furthere demotivates me and also destroys the point of the reviews, because I don´t learn anything when not focusing on the reviews. On top of that, I now got to a point where I can read books and watch Anime with Jap Subtitles with almost no problem (but i still need a dictionary because there a still sooo many words I don´t know the meaning of or can at least guess the meaning by the context but still wanna know the exact one). And a lot of the Item I recently have in my reviews that I had on Enlightend but returned to Guru or Apprentice are mostly Items that I haven´t come accross since last having it in WaniKani, so probrably a not very common ones. And now that i got to Level 60 I remembered most of the Vocabulary that is common or that I needed when reading or listening or speaking, so the Items left in WaniKani are now mostly Items that I don´t regard as that important (even though there are still some more important ones left, where just can´t remember the meaning and that alway return to Apprentice xD). So I recently thought about if its really worth the time, skimming through reviews of vocabulary that I don´t really regard as that crucial, while not even learning anything new. I know that at some point in my Japanese studies, those vocabs will also be important, but I don´t feel like that moment is now, so I was wondering if it´s more effective and usefull to rather spend the time I´m doing the reviews on something else where I actually learn something new .
I sadly couldn´t express it perfectly in the text above, but I still hope that some of you kind of understand the way I am feeling at the moment.
So I guess i just wanted to share my experience after Level 60, but was also wondering if you have been/are in a similar situation and how you´ve handled it. I also wanted to ask for suggestion, because I really liked WaniKani since it kind of forces you to regulalry learn japanese and really helped me built a studying routine, so I kind of fear that once I stop doing WaniKani, I lose this routine that I have been doing almost dayly for the past 3 Years. Do you have any proposals ? (exept Bunpro, I´m already using it)
Thanks to everyone who spend their time reading this text that took more time write than I had expected xD
Is it helpful to use WK after hitting lv 60. Sure.
For example, you might wanna get all items to Enlightened at least once, since just doing the lessons doesn’t mean you’ve learnt the items.
As for burning all items, I don’t personally see a point with that, not really.
I think a good stopping point is when you’ve burnt around 85-90% of all items. After that, what you have left is likely the leeches that you might need other methods than SRS to truly memorize.
But, when to move on is really up to you. At the very least, WK should no longer be you main concern if you’ve hit lv 60, but consuming Japanese media, practicing production, reading and listening comprehension should take center stage imo.
WaniKani lost its charm for me as well after reaching 60. I think i continued for a few days and then decided to drop it all together. I created my own anki deck instead and continued the SRS like that with words that I actually encountered in my everyday life.
Keep reading and listening to Japanese but don’t feel the pressure to continue with WaniKani (especially if it’s boring). Do what’s fun and keeps you motivated!
Maybe it helps you to not set a clear goal, but just do 100 reviews a day, every day. It’s not hard to do and you will still benefit from it. Just like a habit. Because you will forgot a lot if you don’t maintain. I quit too after lvl 60 and I regret it now. I reset to lvl 30 and then to 10. I’m now at lvl 22. I forgot so much…
I only kept up with reviews for about a month or so after hitting level 60. After that I moved to reading and more recently the Jalup Intermediate deck after getting a deal on the set.
Honestly, level 60 was really just the end of the beginning for me.
I continued doing WK for a few months until the reviews dwindled and most of the stuff coming back were just leeches (yuk). Couldn’t justify paying the sub for a meager 50 or so reviews a day and switched to Anki. I think this worked well to solidify some of the later level items.
Even though I reached level 60 last year I’m still doing my reviews every day. I forgot some kanji and lots of words but since I’m reading now pretty much every day I’m sure I will relearn
what I already forgot soon.
I found myself in your exact situation. Once I hit level 60, a huge chunk of my motivation just vanished. And when I think back, I think it might be because what I was learning wasn’t very engaging anymore at that point. I wanted to reach level 60 for the sake of completion and to reach 2k kanji, but the vocabulary taught felt progressively pointless. Learning words without any context got somewhat boring and ineffective for me as I approached Lv60.
I didn’t want to quit straight away, I think I kept going for two or three months to work a bit on the last levels. I don’t regret stopping one bit, because now I’m building my own vocabulary and grammar through actually reading and listening. And the funny thing is, those WK words and kanji I ended up forgetting because I didn’t care about? I am encountering quite a few of them now, and because there’s context they are much easier to interiorise.
I personally think a better use of your time right now would be to actually apply your knowledge (whether that’s reading, writing, listening or speaking). I’m quite happy I finished WK because now I can recognise and know how to read a lot of words, but there’s a huge difference between knowing a lot of words and knowing what a sentence means accurately. It’s a very strange feeling to know roughly every single word in a sentence and still not know what it means. Grammar is equally important IMO, and I was neglecting it a lot.
I was also concerned about losing the daily routine that drove me for two years. But I say don’t be . WK ends, but that doesn’t mean your SRS routine has to end. I took around two weeks to rest from WK, then I spent a few months trying different SRS apps, and recently settled on using Houhou. There I add the words I bump into when consuming media that I think are worth learning for me.
Ultimately, at that point I felt ready to kiss WK goodbye and leave the nest. I grew complacent just doing my reviews everyday and I thought I was learning a ton, but I now realise it felt like some sort of procrastination for me. Doing reviews was easy; fighting my way through understanding Japanese in the wild was a whole different beast. But I’m glad I swapped, because I’m learning a lot more than before.
thanks you for your elaborate answer
I´m glad that I´m not the only one who struggeled with this. I think I will keep going with WK for a bit more, but will start adding new words that I encounter and that are worth learning to some SRS app, like you do.
