I’m not sure what you mean by “unfair comparison.” I’m not saying that everyone should do what I do. I agree that living in Japan and having access to the benefits that entails aren’t an option for everyone. But I’d be going fast on WK whether that was the case or not. I just didn’t want people to accuse me of ignoring the other parts of Japanese study by only being concerned with WK levels.
I meant in regards to speed. I think even WK is easier when surrounded by Japanese. You’ll likely have a lot of pre-exposure, and reinforcement, than others. So less likely to fall into the ‘stuck at 89%’ and such. Higher right/wrong ratios. Maybe not light years faster, but still faster. Also don’t mean to make it sound like I think you think you’re better than anyone or anything. So, sorry if I did.
I just know how hard WK and Japanese in general can be, and bit depressing the number of times I’ve seen people on here complain about not being at “optimal speed”, and then others coming in and be like ‘It only takes me 8 days per level’. Like, the guy needs some encouragement, not people humble bragging. Again, not that you’re one of the ones bragging. But a newbie may still look towards you and think ‘man this guys so much smarter than me’. I also was skimming through the topic, so I very well may have missed some things you mentioned. Sorry
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Yeah, I see what you’re saying, but I think there are two kinds of “help why am I so slow” threads. One kind involves people struggling to keep up with the workload of getting high enough percentages to level up, and the other is one that just hasn’t yet looked into the details of how the SRS works and how to optimize it. This seemed like the latter, because it sounds like he thinks he could go faster but doesn’t know why WK isn’t moving faster. So the explanation of the mechanics, rather than study habits, seemed like the correct route.
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Nothing wrong with only being 15 after a year. knowing wink
What else are you studying outside of Wanikani? Balance in your studies is more important than your level here. By the tine you hit Level 20 you need to know N5 material like the back of your hand.
you belong to us 
: Team: Taking it Slow (Little progress is better than no progress!) - #18 by QueenQuack
at least your faster than me and you using wanikani consistently is a good thing. Sometimes i also want to got faster but im to distracet by other things at the moment. The most important thing is to keep beeing motivated.
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Go to wkstats and take a look at your statistics, it will give you a better sense of how much you will level up in the future. ganbatte kudasai!
Agree with @Leebo with there being two kinds of “help i’m slow” threads.
If you want to go slow, go slow, slow and steady will get you there too.
If you want to go faster, look into how WK works, use lesson reorder script (I don’t use review reorder but lesson reorder), check it way more than once a day when you just did your lessons.
I’m trying to go fast because I like to go fast, as a challenge to myself (and JLPT is coming.) Not everyone who goes fast just wants to be in some shiny “weird leaderboard”, i don’t think such thoughts can sustain one’s effort over months.
So people: it’s ok to go fast or slow, but if you’re not going at the speed you wish you were, then that should be changed 
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Coughs awkwardly I’ve been on wanikani for almost 4 years and I’m only half way now. Lol. I should’ve reached the max level last year. (That was the estimate given to me at least)
Don’t be like me and sit on your lessons for months on end. Do the lessons, do the reviews, and try to limit the amount of times you take off days.
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@Aleithian, I admire 44 levels in 3 years more than going really quickly!
I think it’s harder to be consistent at a slower pace, when you have less frequent encouraging feedback like leveling up often. Incrementalism is a successful strategy, but you need a lot of mental fortitude.
Many kudos to you!
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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.
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
Regards
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Heh, today is exactly one year of WaniKani for me too…
Haha I guess I move quickly for now because it’s just starting to get to Painful 
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 
I hope I’d have made learning japanese (not just WK) a habit by then though.
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.
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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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.
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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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.