So firstly I would like to say that I’m not entirely taking the scenic route right now, but that’s because I’m trying to get back up to level 20 because I reset from there after taking a 3 month break. A bit extreme, yes, but I figured it would be better for me. Once I hit level 20, though, I intend on taking a bit longer on each level. Currently I’m not trying to speedrun back up there, but I am going as fast as I think I can handle. Doing 20 lessons a day, doing my reviews several times a day, and trying to manage my time doing reviews by not doing more than 35 reviews at a time is my current method. I’ll slow down to 10 lessons when I’m at level 20.
Currently, I’m close to levelling up to 6. I’m not sure how close, but not more than a day or two I believe.
Edit: lol I meant 7, but everyone enjoys my silly blunders so I’ll keep it
Took just under 13 days this time. I also completed my just under a month long listen every day challenge, and started the summer read every day challenge (I’m slow to update the calendar, but have successfully managed to keep up with it every day so far)! Trying to do both Spanish and Japanese again.
I’m a little behind on my wrestling translations, so I’m currently trying my best to catch up on those before the next Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling show on the 9th . Talk about incentives to read every day .
This was a lot faster, being 13 days. I have a lot more spare time now that I accomplished a lot of other real life goals and events.
I’m still slowly reading the visual novel I purchased earlier in June. We’ll see how far I can get with my current knowledge, but it’s been a fun challenge!
Made it to level 40! Almost two thirds of the way there!
Took just over fourteen days this time. I was actually pretty motivated over the past couple of weeks and got loads of stuff done! I’ve kept up with the read every day challenge with both Spanish and Japanese, and in fact have had by far my busiest past few weeks in terms of reading and translating. I translated four wrestling shows and one press conference over a two week period. It ended up being at least 9,000 characters one week, and then 7,000 characters the next .
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling is currently in the middle of doing three shows in a row, which is too much for me to keep up with at my current level of Japanese skill, but I’m hoping to finish all three translations within the next week at least.
I also started working on learning Japanese phonetics/prosody/etc. I’m not going too far with this, since I’m not planning on practicing speaking anytime soon, but I wanted to establish at least a basic foundation, because I think it might help my listening ability.
I also finished lesson 35 of Minna no Nihongo, and am officially 2/5ths of the way through the second book! So still progressing pretty smoothly on that front, despite being busy with other stuff.
I think I’m going to be slightly decreasing my daily vocab lessons (going from 3 kanji + 9 vocab to 3 kanji + 8 vocab), because my lesson buffer got pretty low at the end of this last level, and also with my steadily increasing number of leeches, I think I could benefit from just slightly reducing my daily workload. If I start to get a huge backlog of lessons, I’ll readjust again.
46 days on level 13 and finally reached the radicals for it
one of the last vocab on level 12 for me was 祭日. just yesterday a friend added it to a collective vocab list. funny how fast a word can go from unknown to recognizable.
I was a bit lazy at level 14, not keeping up with my reviews and lessons as rigorously. I think I’m in a lull period in my life right now. However, I’m surprised whenever I read some Japanese subtitles lately how many characters I can recognize now!
I spent thirteen days on the last level. Got quite a bit done during that time. I translated four TJPW shows, three of which were in one week, which was pretty tough. I also read 64 pages of the book that New Japan Pro Wrestling made to teach Japanese speakers English, haha. And read in Spanish every day as well. I barely managed to complete a Minna no Nihongo lesson chapter, but I did get lesson 36 done in time!
I’ve been stuck on level 14 for over two months, but I have been moving across country so I’m not too surprised. Missed a few days in there, just a few. I just paid for my second year! Off to try to wear away at the stack of hundreds of reviews…
If you just paid for your second year, may I suggest the possibility of upgrading to a Lifetime subscription? I’m certain they would be able to apply what you paid for your second year towards an upgrade to Lifetime. Just email them, they have great customer service in that regard. Alternatively, you could wait until the annual discount offer in December and upgrade then (again, they will pro-rate your current yearly subscription, I believe); that might be slightly cheaper, I’m not sure.
The reason I suggest this is simply because (for me at least, I’m sure for others also) it reduces the feeling that one might have that one needs to go as fast as possible to ‘get the most out of my money’. Having a Lifetime subscription just eliminates that factor, and really allows you to go at your own natural, comfortable pace, with no rushing required at all. Personally, I highly value that freedom of mind, and the Lifetime subscription has already ‘paid for itself’ by now for me (joined in 2019).
Anyway, it’s just a suggestion.
Keep at it! Bit by bit, it will tidy itself up.
I had to take a 3 week break from WK a short while back, and of all things I forgot to turn on vacation mode! So I came back to about 700-800 reviews I think! But I just took my time with them, about 40-60 reviews per day, as usual. Of course I stopped doing new lessons until things started to get back to manageable.
So, whereas recent levels have been averaging about 20-25 days, today I just got to level 21 and it took 53 days! Whew! But thankfully, no stress because I’ve been Durtling the Scenic Route the whole way! I’ve even been ‘revisiting old friends’ by resurrecting items from the early levels. Now I’m on track to work through level 21 back at my usual pace. Yayy!!
Accidentally leveled up to 48.
I didn’t realize I was so close (kanji-wise) and was just merrily doing my reviews and then boom, 48. I’ll have to be a bit more careful not to go too fast. xD I gotta durtle properly!!
However, this has been my fastest level up since level 34 (which was almost 2 years ago!?)!!
Here’s a chart so other people who may have fallen off the wagon can feel the unwavering determination of one who has fallen off the wagon like 10 times already.
Levels Updated 
. Talk about incentives to read every day 
Almost halfway back to where I was
I just paid for my second year! Off to try to wear away at the stack of hundreds of reviews…
