Is WK addictive or is it just me?

It’s not an addiction. I can stop anytime.
After I’ve burned my last item that is.

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I’ve heard @neicul deals in the underground market if you need a new fix.

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I haven’t gotten there yet, but I suppose that’s a good thing? Maybe that means you are extra committed to learning the language.

It’s just you.

If my past 8 months has been any indication, at this point, it’s just you. Outside stuff got in the way and WaniKani took a big back seat.

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Haha. I am sure I would have to use it sometime but I shall keep this in mind to not get addicted :slight_smile:

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Yes, I am committed and in any case I tend to even slightly lose the motivation, my daily life in Japan reminds me to get back at studying :smiley:

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And when you reach the point of having to do 300 reviews a day and possibly some new lessons, how do you space them ? Like do you space them out on multiple time slots or just do it all in one go (which I suppose would be exhausting)

This looks so cool. Thank you for the suggestion. I shall try this!

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I use the wrap up button to do reviews in batches of 30 or 40. I take a short break and then go again or later. Whenever I try to do +100 reviews in one go, the success rate falls down a lot.

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True, its no longer fun, but you are still doing it. Like an addiction you can’t escape when the reviews keep piling in, you’ve got no choice. Maybe ‘slavery to’ could be a better word…?

vacation mode is always a choice

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I do vacation mode regularly, thank God (Koichi) for Vacation Mode!!

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Yes, I have absolutely noticed an improvement to my general memory since starting WK.

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Hmm I wouldn’t say it feels addictive to me anymore (although leveling feels nice) but it’s just something I know I have to do, and I do every day. Haven’t taken a break since I started so far. But it’s only been 147 days. xD

But yeah of all the resources I use Wanikani is the one I like best and use the most, and I find learning vocabulary in Wanikani fun, even though it’s not the main purpose.

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right, i haven’t thought about that for some reason, but the memory systems in the brain are basically a muscle you can train.
We should do a study with WK users, like the one with London taxi drivers, where they showed that after learning to drive taxi in London they acquired a lot more grey matter in the mid-hippocampus.
Though it’s interesting it came at a cost of reduced ability to acquire new visuo-spatial information. Maybe we’re also overtraining one or two brain muscles with WK :wink:

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We also have something called feature detectors that help efficiently process visual stimuli (eg. when you see “T” it activates the detectors for – and I shapes which your brain then puts together as forming a T). I think over time we become much more adept at doing this with radical shapes and features which is why recognition becomes a lot quicker :thinking:

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I wouldn’t call it an addiction but a new habit in my life. I’m not spending 4-8 hours a day playing around with wanikani (that would be an addiction). I do one 1 review in the morning and 1 in the evening, averaging 3.5 levels a month. It’s just part of my daily routine at this point. Habits usually take 90 days to solidify, so I have 30 more days to go! It’s hard for me to create productive habits but I hope Wanikani can be the magical stepping stone for me.

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Yes, very addictive. Getting the Reviews down to 0 is satisfying every time and ranking up the individual characters/words is very fun to see as well. Been waiting forever (only 1 month) for the holiday sale and now I can continue on the journey to level 60! ┐(0Ɛ0)┌

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It’s addictive like drugs are addictive for long time user wanting out. You just have to do reviews as you know you suffer more if you don’t do them now.

I’ve been struggling for 5 levels now and my speed has dropped considerably from 9 days to 12-14 days. But I know I have to keep doing this or it’s all lost in just few months if I quit. I’m too deep already to do that. I just signed up for another Japanese class for next 3 months to keep up with grammar and motivation as I still find Japanese reading materials way too heavy to translate and I’m not picking enough language from just consuming Japanese video content from Netflix

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