Now obviously I realise that this is going to differ somewhat from person to person, but especially if you are a level 60 (or somewhere close) I’d love to hear how long it’s taken you.
Obviously I’m very near the beginning of this learning experience, and have a long long way to go, but I’m really enjoying WaniKani so far. I do all the new lessons that are available each day, and so far I’m managing to always stay in the ‘learning zone’ 92-93% generally.
A couple of times I’ve studied an extra batch of 5 lessons, but I’m wary of being overwhelmed by reviews so I’m being careful with that.
I’ve been studying Japanese for about 3 months now, working my way though Genki and have 1 or 2 sessions a week with a wonderful Italki tutor, depending on my schedule. I also use Anki for vocab, which seems to be working pretty well so far too.
I reached the point about 6 weeks ago that I’m sure we all reach fairly quickly:
‘I really need to learn Kanji to make progress!’
I bought the ‘Kanji learner’s course’ book, but was pretty overwhelmed trying to figure out which On’yomi and Kun’yomi I should be trying to memorise etc. Of course WaniKani is great for that, it’s all figured out for you.
Anyway, I’m assuming that the time frame to reach level 60 is perhaps a couple of years, but I’d love to hear from people that know more than I do.
If you were to add in all your new Radicals and Kanji immediately upon being available, consistently do your lessons for them right when they show up, and not really ever make mistakes;
Levels 1 through 45ish would take about one solid week each accounting for the second wave on Kanji unlocks, which are necessary for reaching the level completion threshold
45ish through 60 have so few new Radicals that they don’t get gated in the same way- and could be optimized to ~4 days
~45 weeks + ~9 weeks, ~54 in total- so reaching level 60 could theoretically take roughly one year to accomplish
That said- I think that kind of optimization goal is really impractical unless willing to commit yourself to the program for hours a day, never feel burnout, and somehow avoid any tangible human error. A more reasonable estimate for someone putting in a very strong effort and not trying to linger would probably be more like ~10 days per level? but it is almost impossible to nail down one answer based on how many variables life naturally brings with it
There’s really no ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ timeframe, though, just whatever you can personally manage and are actually having a meaningful experience with
There are 9206 items on WaniKani. If you do 5 lessons a day, it would take 1841 days or 5.04 years to learn all lessons, 10 lessons a day would take 920 days or 2.52 years, 15 lessons a day would take 613 days or 1.67 years, and if you do 20 lessons a day it would take 1.26 years.
And here is a pro tip using the Lesson Picker feature:
Leveling up is based on guruing 95% of the Kanji in your level. However, you don’t unlock all the Kanji before guruing all the radicals in a level. Therefore, you will level up fastest by first doing lessons for radicals, then doing lessons for Kanji, then doing lessons for Vocabulary. Additionally, the more often you review those items, the quicker you will get them to guru. and the quicker you’ll level up. I like to have 2 review sessions a day, at least 4 hours apart. This way, I learn new items in lessons, do all reviews, then 4 hours later do all reviews again, and by then the items I learned earlier that day will be in the reviews so you can level them up.
I’ve seen many posts in the past where people reach level 60 in 1 to 3 years, but these people either only used WaniKani for study or very few additional sources. With Japanese, in my experience studying it for ten years, you need a variety of sources if you want to be an all-rounder (vocab, kanji, reading comprehension skills, listening comprehension, speaking, etc.).
I’ve been on WaniKani since 2017 and as you can see I’m still in the mid-20s. I only got back into regularly studying Japanese this year and I never get more than 40-50 reviews now. There’s ebbs and flows with a hobby like language learning and that’s totally okay, what matters is seeing progress even if that means learning one new word today.
Wishing you the best on your Japanese learning journey. がんばって！
Only level 16 but I think doing a lesson every 2-4 weeks is a healthy pace. One per week is “doable,” but WK won’t do you much good if you can’t recall the words you’ve learned, which I have struggled with when I burn myself out on learning! Sounds like you are already aware of the risk of doing too many lessons.
There will be days when you’re too busy or when your brain just can’t do reviews. It’s OK to take a break those days. You’re learning a lot!
I zoomed through the first 10 or so lessons since I knew many of those kanji already, and now I’m taking time to really learn levels 10-30 (roughly N3 level kanji, good enough for daily life). Once I hit level 30 I think I can slow down even more. It would be great to finish WK within 2-3 years (from now) (so probably 3-4 years total, at least).
Not everyone starts from zero. Also, some people spend more time than others, including other parts of the language (not just SRS).
I sped through WK in 1 year and a few months, but that was a few years after trying to learn Kana and grammar at all. I didn’t wake up at night for reviews, but when I do, I do. I did not only all reviews, but also all lessons, if not 1, 2-3 sessions, until 0/0. Also writing, reading, and gaming, then. Many hours per day, for over a year, indeed. (Max speed is 2 weeks less than 1 year, btw.)
Then I stopped actively learning the language for a while before resetting. Now, not trying too hard with the reviews, only to notice one thing – it’s essential to 0 the review, everyday if possible, 0 in 2-3 days if not possible.
I believe 0-review is the path in finishing in 3 years or so without too much stress. It could be a plus if you don’t have that big a pile in the place, say 100 per day.
Also, regarding too many new vocab per day, it could be faster if you don’t use too much memorizing, not to mention mnemonics. More of recalling and guessing near-correct, if you have sufficient real Japanese exposure…
Just sharing my experience, I am 2.5 years in at level 52. I started with 15 new items a day, then dropped to 10 at about level 20 or so, after level 50 I dropped to 6. I’ve been pretty consistent with my biggest breaks just being for vacations where I pause reviews for a week or 2.
I probably put about an hour or abit more per day into Wanikani alone. I think balancing SRS with your other study is definitely key. I use both Anki and Wanikani and have often spent more time doing flash card reviews where I would have benefited more by actually engaging with the language more, especially later on. Having a tutor and using Genki is great!
Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone! I’m in no rush to get through it or anything. In the end with learning a new language, to be very cliche about it, it’s a jouney not a destination. As I said I’m not just doing Wanikani, so it seems like a couple of years would probably be a good lower end estimate. But it will probably take me longer, as I do other learning techniques too.
For those that mentioned it, I currently do 15 lessons a day, though that tails off towards the end of a level, as there are fewer new items available until I get enough guru’d to level up. But that’s fine. I think that gives a good opportunity to consolidate what I’ve learned.
I do plenty of other things too, such as, I drive for a living and listen to tistening practise podcasts whilst driving, I’ve just bought (haven’t arrived yet) some Manga books that I’ve found recommended for lower level beginners like myself. I think they might still be a little beyond my abilities as yet, but my knowledge is only going to improve, and they’ll still be here when I get a little better.
You may want to scour the book clubs here then. That way you can read along with other people and ask for clarification on anything you don’t understand.
It took me about 2.5 years. Looking at my level-up progress, I was pretty gung-ho early on, finishing levels in about 7 days. But in the 30s and 40s I lost a lot of motivation, so ended up taking some pretty long breaks (I took 6 months to get over the level 47 hump apparently). I came back recently with a good burst of motivation and finished out the course.
If I hadn’t taken all those breaks, it probably would have been more like 1.5 years. But WaniKani is a huge commitment and takes a lot of energy + time, so stumbles and pauses are to be expected. It’s like a roommate who moves in with you, constantly party to the rest of your life until you finish the course. But I think it was totally worth it. It’s like a gaining a superpower. Why the heck should I be able to read 2k kanji?? But somehow I can?! Compounding gains from habits are crazy stuff.
I’m actually just about to hit 7 years and just hit level 60. It really depends on how much time you have. When I went to grad school, I had nearly zero time for it, but when I graduated, I had quite a bit of time. I do feel like after a certain point (maybe level 30? I can’t remember) reading did become much easier because I had finally learned enough. You won’t need to make it all the way to 60 before you can feel like you are making big progress. It may help to look at wkstats and look at the reading coverage to see how much progress you are making and what sources may be easier to read. It puts your learning more into perspective than the level system.
As for reviews, I personally do no more than 5 kanji a day and 10 new items total. That way I don’t mix up new kanji with each other. Also, since I don’t do lessons at the same time everyday, it keeps them all from piling up in reviews at the same time. But everyone’s different, and it definitely takes a bit to get where you want to be!
I think most people should plan to slow down some time in the 30s. When you’re level 1 and you’re functionally illiterate, kanji study is a great way to spend your time. Once you’re able to do some immersion, kanji is better off as just a fun thing you fit in between your real studies. If WaniKani is your whole curriculum, it’s totally possible to find yourself at level 60 without actually knowing much Japanese.
Currently level 59, 20 months after beginning.
My levels went up fastly at the beginning, but the insane amount of reviews has made me slow down after level 40. Focusing more on reviews and less on new items. I’ve established a rule of no learning new items if I have more than 185 reviews that day.
We started around the same time! You have more restraint than me. I already know that when I hit level 59 I’m going to do lessons like it’s my job for 3 and a half days.
I’ll go ahead and give my number with a few disclaimers as it isn’t for the faint of heart nor those who might not have the luxury of being able to do reviews at the drop of a hat. Hopefully that means it will be a helpful reference for how long you might take with your own circumstances, plans, and other studying you intend to do.
Looking at my wkstats.com I took about 1.3 years to reach level 60.
I was only using WaniKani and didn’t start reading, grammar, etc. until afterwards.
I took 1 semester of Japanese 3-4 years prior (gave a decent foundation when starting back up)
The reviews finally became overwhelming for me in the mid 30s and I had to slow down the pace
Based on the WK Heat Map at my peak I was hitting 200-400 reviews a day
I also would do all new lessons so I saw one day with 70+ lessons and 200 reviews while checking
The heat map turns red after 100+ so I can’t be certain but it looks like I averaged 150-250 reviews per day from about 1.5 months into starting until 1.3 years later. That means I was still getting that number of reviews each day even after hitting level 60.
I started December 2019 and reached level 60 this month. I am still currently learning the lvl 60 vocabulary though. I have a full-time job and can go through my reviews only 1-2 a day. I did a reset from 48 to 31 about 1.5 years ago as I couldn’t retain much.
