Just realized I have been using WaniKani for a year, I'm only at 15

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#31

I moved very quickly at the beginning without any problems. Around lv 20 I started to slow. My strategy (due to limited time) was to build a solid vocab base then move into reading and grammar. It worked like a charm. But then other factors arose (dissertation work, new job, burn out) and I slowed. I’ve had two very long periods without progress: once in 2015 and once at the end of 2016/start of 2017. I’ve been at around lv 40-44 for a year now I think. But during that time, I spent a lot of time pinning down my Latin and Greek proficiency. So I made progress, just not in Japanese.

I’m taking care of my review queue now, which is in a dire condition. Once that’s under control - which will take a month or two more - I’ll start up regular progress again, by which I mean 5-10 lessons a day. I’ll also unlock another lv on Kaniwani. At this point, gains come more from use of the language than from reviews, so that will be my strategy.

#32

Hello,

I am also part of the “1 year and ~15 levels”. My way towards self-learning Japanese here

@Leebo: what is the reorder script you mention? I’m interested in speeding up my reviewing process…

@pwharned: congratulations! keep on with regular review :slight_smile:

Regards

#33
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#34

Heh, today is exactly one year of WaniKani for me too…

#35

Haha I guess I move quickly for now because it’s just starting to get to Painful :stuck_out_tongue:

Honestly I don’t know how I’ll be throughout this year commitment-wise, there’s a thesis to be done, then job search and moving across continents. So I guess I’m trying to be quick now in case I’ll slow down later :frowning:

I hope I’d have made learning japanese (not just WK) a habit by then though.

#36

Now, I’m learning to go slower, at minimal fastest speed, for the sake of textbook. If I go too fast, I will fail. The thing about WaniKani is, it limits your level up time to no faster than 8-9 days, and eventually, I’ve achieved it, the 8-9 days; and I can do it consistently too.

I do believe the otherwise too. If I go too slow, I will fail, especially if I am doing nothing beneficial to Level UP.

#37

It’s only 300 and they usually knock some off if you’ve already paid for a year. I got mine in the sale for $200 less a bit for that reason. I actually paid $154 when I bought it.

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#38

Yes, same with me. I paid for lifetime during the $199 sale and they knocked I think about $30 off because I hadn’t yet gone through the entire year that I’d last paid for.

#39

One thing that I think really helps progress faster is to use KaniWani. Since it will reinforce what you’re learning in a different way, English > Japanese, making these words even more tightly bound early on, reducing risk of screw-ups in further reviews.

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#40

I’m in the same position, but my excuse is that I stopped using WK around August when my father passed away, I’m just getting back into it now. If I had stuck around I’d be well into my 20s by now at worst, based on the rate I was leveling before my hiatus and my previous knowledge before finding WK.

I consider every item important even if it’s not going toward leveling up, because my end goal is just fluency for fluency sake and not for career or some other goal. Not even interested in test taking at the moment. Not that tests aren’t useful, but the study methods for a test prep are sometimes (often?) different from methods someone would use to become just organically fluent over time.

My former tutor made this very clear to me when she first took me on as a student (a couple years before I found WK), I started asking her what I needed to move forward as an intermediate and asked about JLPT, and she asked “Do you want to learn Japanese, or do you want to take tests?” and she made it clear that she thought focusing on tests was not learning the “right way” in her opinion (as a native speaker).

I personally have no opinion or judgement on that (of course there are many who need to go fast and take tests for career and other reasons), but for me, personally, I followed her advice which fit for my own end goal, and I’ve been much happier with my progress and outlook. There are lots of ways to study Japanese, and no one is the exact “correct” way because it depends on you and your goals.

Unless you have a life/career deadline you need to meet, I would really not stress about leveling speed at all.

#41

I often feel my tutor is slowing me down, but she is Japanese, she is a professional tutor, she is good, and she has known me since I started, so she must know what pace is right for me. I have to trust her judgement. She has no reason to hold me back. We work through the exercises in Genki and it takes about 4 sessions of 45 minutes each to get through a decent amount of the exercises in a chapter. Hence I do about 1 chapter a month which feels slow when I read about people doing 2 a week! I suppose if I did more work in between and answered the questions quicker we would finish the chapters quicker.

I’ll probably be on level 15 or 16 after my first year on here myself.

#42

Hello @pwharned, keep on being consistent.
I’m progressing +/- at the same pace, my feedback here:

#43

Famous last words. I got od’d on wk at level 13, had a break, reset to zero and started again! Back on level 8, taking it easy. I’ve given up Genki and use Bunpro for grammar. I reinforce Wanikani with Kaniwani, keeping pace, and learn Genki vocab in Renshuu, which also tests me on the kanji I’ve learned in WK at the same time.

#44

After three years I’m on level 53, which is roughly the same pace on average. I got a little further but reset to level 50 a couple of months ago as I was getting very muddled.

Although they say on the site that it takes a little over a year, I’d take that very much with a pinch of salt; it takes as long as it takes.

#45

I’ve been using Wanikani since August of 2015, and I’m only at level 10, admittedly, I lived in Japan for last year and studied Kanji using different methods, but still, I had 700+ reviews waiting for me last week and I am at 0/0 now, gotta push through this.

#46

hahahahah cries

I passed N3 though so I know more Kanji than my current level.

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#47

Depends on how much time you have for your studies…
I’m an member since 5-6 months as i remember and i’m almost lvl 6
even though i got from lvl 9 to lvl 1 its still seriously slow…

Also it depends on how do you learn… i learned a lot of kanji while being in Yokohama and know that i have now a lot of time before my college in Japan starts ((Full 3 years)) and am learning kinda slow right now :slight_smile:

Remember also that “some” of the people who are at lvl 20+ don’t know how to even structure an sentence in Japanese.

#48

@YonaSchuh had same experience when i was in Japan, rushed seriously fast through levels i think i was about lvl 8 or smth before going to Japan and stopped doing reviews and after coming back after 3 months boy… it was a hell… 1000+ reviews waiting for me and i forgot 3/4th of kanji but my japanese improved but my kanji knowledge dramatically decreased.

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#49

yeah! but now I’m back, and since 2 minutes ago I am lifetime, so I’m not going anywhere!!

#50

Ahh, I could tell you a trick to get Wanikani even cheaper but since you got Lifetime you dont need it haha ;D