So I just bit the bullet and handed over my money for a lifetime subscription. Since I’ve committed to this for the long haul, I figure I might as well go all in, participate in the community, and start learning all the WK-related vocab (Turtles? Durtles? Crabigator?) Plus, gotta make the most out of this purple badge!
I only started learning Japanese this year, after our second trip to Japan confirmed it’s a place we’d want to return to again and again. And since there was no travelling this year ( ), I figured learning Japanese was travel-adjacent and might scratch that itch. (It worked!) I started with the free version of Duolingo, then signed up for a conversation class in the summer through a local Japanese language school. And then, in September, I registered for the school’s year-long beginner’s course. A friend introduced me to WaniKani about two months ago and this learning approach has really resonated with me. I finished Level 3 in early November, and read about this potential sale so figured I’d wait before committing to anything. I debated a LOT about shelling out more money for this “hobby,” but knew I’d regret it if I didn’t (or if I just did a monthly or annual). What can I say? I’m in love with this language.
Anyway, just wanted to say hi and introduce myself to whoever is out there and may read this. はじめまして よろしくおねがいします！
I can’t guarantee that the above is 100% spot on, but I think it’s close to being accurate. . Glad to see you’re having fun learning and have got that purple badge! I just got mine during the sale as well. It’s cool that you’ve been to Japan! I’d love to travel there one day.
Make sure you stop by the community a lot. There’s so many people to help out and keep you motivated! Oh, and look into user scripts. They’re not necessary at all, but I honestly couldn’t picture WaniKani without them! So many useful additions. Wanikani Ultimate Guide is a great starting place.
Keep it up, and hope to hear from you soon! 頑張ってね！
Also, as a great GrandPoohBear once said: “If you never know what gift to give your girl, give her a dress with pockets.”
I purchased my lifer when they opened it up early for testing.
No regrets.
Even if I don’t get $200 use out of it compared to how much I would have spent on a monthly, it is worth it. I have zero problem paying for a product I have used, has helped me learn, and anything extra I put in may or may not help them keep the lights on.
Well, I wouldn’t say it’s weird. When I became a lifer - I too was very excited and nervous
Now, it’s been more than 4 years since then and I don’t regret that decision. If I hadn’t become a lifer, I would have probably had to abandon WK the first time I stumbled, an I do stumble from time to time
Thank you for the warm welcome, ギャビンさん! Good for you for picking up your studies again – hopefully what you learned back in school will come back to you as you go through the levels! Thank you for the great tips and for the link to the Guide. I will read through it! I’ve downloaded a few scripts, but it was a bit overwhelming which ones to use so I’ll have to look at them again. Do you have any favourites or recommendations?
I highly recommend visiting Japan if and when you get the chance to. I love love love it there and can’t wait to go back again!
And yes, I’ve never met a girl who isn’t thrilled to discover that the dress she’s wearing has pockets!
Thank you! Good for you for going at it again! We can work our way up the ranks together. I definitely need accountability and community to keep me motivated
(Nice to meet you! I’m Maddie! I’ve been studying Japanese for about three and a half years. I’ve already gotten to level 60 on Wanikani, but I forgot a lot of words and resetted. That’s why I bought lifetime! I’ve been to Japan also, and I loved it! I want to move there.
Also, if you want a study buddy, let me know!)
Your Japanese is pretty good!
If you don’t mind tho, just a few corrections:
Since you’re doing it everyday, I think it’s more natural to say 勉強していて here. Also, using を sounds like you’re studying Wanikani itself, not using it for studying (you’d use で for that)
Same thing as above, but honestly I’m not 100% sure because to me “studying the textbook” makes sense, although it has a bit of a different nuance in my opinion. I would just use で instead of を to be safe, but again that’s just me.
(My Japanese isn’t perfect either so there’s a chance my corrections might be wrong(笑) if you see a mistake feel free to lmk)
Hi Maddie! Nice to meet you! Thank you for the warm welcome Wow, that’s awesome that you’ve already reached level 60. May I please ask how long it took for you to get to that level? And yes, that was one of the reasons I took the plunge for lifetime: I imagined I might forget a lot of things at some point so it’s nice to have the option of going back to it and refreshing my memory if I want to. Haha yes!! I’d love to move to Japan or spend an extended time there at some point – hence the Japanese learning!
Took me about a year and a half, I took some time to level up in the beginning but after I figured out what I was doing, I would level up maybe every 10 days. Don’t feel pressured to go at anyone else’s pace tho!
Also I’d love to ask you more about your trip to Japan, but I don’t want to spam this thread
By the way, you’ll see less radicals after level 14 or so. Something to look forward to, maybe?
Wow that seems really fast! I started off levels 1-3 really strong but lately, I’ve been struggling a bit to fit WK into my daily routine in a way that makes the best use of the SRS system. Still trying to find a good rhythm
Oh I love talking about Japan and Japan travel haha, but yes, totally get not wanting to spam
Thanks for the head’s up about level 14! Though, at level 4, I still feel it’s sooo far off haha.
Thank you for all of the pointers! Definitely got a ways to go, but that will help out! I was doing my Jalup cards today and hit the Te form + います pattern and was like, “Dang… I could’ve used this a couple days ago”. I do get your point about で though, as I am studying Japanese at the WaniKani site. Never thought about it that way but I do see the logic.
@Dresseswithpockets
As for script recommendations, the ones that have been the most helpful in a functional sense are:
Wanikani Heatmap - Adds a really attractive looking heatmap that displays your review/lesson history as well as all of your upcoming reviews. I find this one a motivation booster, and it’s also good to see those burn reviews slowly approaching.
Wanikani Lesson Filter - This script lets you do lessons out of order (Don’t skip the Vocab!) but it can be a good tool if used properly. This is my general setup with it:
Lesson Schedule
Self-Study Quiz - Lets you study and quiz yourself on items, without affecting the SRS intervals. Main thing I use it for is reviewing Leeches. (You need to install the additional filters script also on the page to get leech training.)
ConfusionGuesser - When you get a review wrong, it will try and guess what WK items you confused the review with and display them on the screen. Very useful with similar words, or ones with weird On/Kun combinations.
Progress Percentages - Another motivation booster. Shows info similar to wkstats, but shows it on your dashboard! (Shows % of Kanji learned sorted by JLPT Level, Grade Level, Frequency, and then sites like NHK, Twitter, etc.)
And finally, Double-Check - Basically, if you get a review wrong, you can hit the undo button and try again. Great for typos, but not so great when you are close and go “Oh, I definitely knew that”. Except you didn’t. Use with caution! (It is really great for those typos though.)
There are plenty of other scripts like the Leaderboard script (Check out this thread. Leaderboard/motivation group) and others that do random things. Jitai’s Font randomizer, 100% Review Fanfare, Pitch Accent indicators, Dashboard Progress+, Dashboard Cockpit… Just have a look at the Master List and see what looks appealing.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for such a thorough and detailed response! This is awesome. I will look into these. I also read through the WaniKani Ultimate Guide as you suggested and it was super helpful. Thank you!
I was just popping in to say the exact same thing (I’ve even learned to sew so that I can make garments with as many hand-sized, actually-usable pockets as I want)
Glad I’m not the only one that felt that way! Agreed! I think if I had gone for a monthly or annual route, I would have felt a lot of pressure to do it really fast rather than go at my own pace.
Oh and thank you so much about my username. Dresses with pockets are the best!
I also made the lifetime crabigator commitment recently and feel the exact same way haha. It truly is very exciting. And the community here is just fantastic, I’m so glad to be a part of it. Looks like we’re around the same level so I’ll definitely see you around! Let’s crush those levels
Plus, gotta make the most out of this purple badge!
), I figured learning Japanese was travel-adjacent and might scratch that itch. (It worked!) I started with the free version of Duolingo, then signed up for a conversation class in the summer through a local Japanese language school. And then, in September, I registered for the school’s year-long beginner’s course. A friend introduced me to WaniKani about two months ago and this learning approach has really resonated with me. I finished Level 3 in early November, and read about this potential sale so figured I’d wait before committing to anything. I debated a LOT about shelling out more money for this “hobby,” but knew I’d regret it if I didn’t (or if I just did a monthly or annual). What can I say? I’m in love with this language.
It’s cool that you’ve been to Japan! I’d love to travel there one day. 
