I love those eureka moments That reminds me of the time I realized the rice cooker brand zojirushi literally meant elephant symbol, hence why they have an elephant logo. Or recently, I discovered the meaning of the title of this one show I liked called Manben. It’s a show that showcases different manga artists and their process. It was only after learning kanji that I realized the title was made up of “man” from “manga” and “ben” from “benkyou” together. Makes so much sense why the show is called that
These moments are why I still keep coming back to kanji studies, even when there are hard days.
Today was a weirdly easy durtle day…. After morning and lunch reviews I was still outside the learning zone…. And the angry face of the character motivated me to go pick another five lessons from my queue …. And I saw three that were already partially known to me …. And well…. Im still outside the zone for today ….. I’ve hit the opposite of a plateau. My ability to hear vocab and absorb it by listening to podcasts or anime has always been really really high but my ability to read has been N5 level for the longest time because I didn’t have pictures to match up with words that I already knew. But the end of level 9 and the beginning of level ten have been days on end of ‘oh I already know these words’. Now i finally have the picture to match.
Starting out in late 2020, burning out, reset on 2023-01-01, then burnt out again taking ‘a little break’ on lv 10, and resumed on 2025-01-01, and finally finishing it all today.
My favourite number is 2, but maybe third time is the charm. Or burning out twice is the charm, eh?
I will probably do a proper Lv 60 Post at some point, but right now I just really glad I could stick with Wanikani to the end . Doing a Lv 60 Post is just the dream I had 5 years ago. But now its finally here, I still can’t belive myself I actually have the discipline to do it.
Haven’t done any of the Lv 60’s lessons themself tho, just let me rest a bit hahahaha. Ahh doing the fast levels at almost max speed is really taxing on my mental focus.
I will go have this nice tea I saved up for this occasion
It took me 161 day to level up. It was hard to level up, but I’m glad I did. Since the beginning of the last level, I read my first light novel in Japanese (and then three more, and then all the Ace Attorney trilogy). Another plus side, my number of burned items it really high - I just don’t do many lessons, because I’m always overwhelmed by the daily review stacks.
Thanks! Didn’t have cake, but I had very nice loose leaves tea, about a litre. Then I felt jittery for the rest of the day hahah.
Just finished the last of Lv60 new lessons ytd. Now it just felt weird, I dont have to do any more lesson? Used to do new lessons every day, and now just working on the reviews.
As soon as I said no more lesson, WK added 2 more kanji and 2 more vocab, with 3 more after I Guru the 2 kanji hahahahaha.
I want to read Japanese LN, which aside from the issue of relatively low gramamr skill (N4 ish), I also hardly read in English to begin with hahaha. Mostly a manga reader, which also works since a lot aren’t being translated anyway.
It would be nice to be able to speak and listen to Japanese in real time, but I don’t count on it any time soon, knowing my own previous experience from learning English (my 2nd language). I was fluent in English reading/writing about 4 years or so before I felt the same with speaking/listening.
What lightnovels are on your mind? I am currently reading a side story from the „That time i got reincarnated as a slime“ or „転生したらスライムだった件“ lightnovel.
I am also around N4 gramma and that part works well, but my Kanji Knowledge is still low, so I take a million years looking the words up on jisho.
This is the first page from the side story. In the beginning are still some stranger words like „創造神 そうぞうしん → Creator God“ but all in all it is the same 6 unusual words that pop up throughout the story and the rest is more „normal“.
I want to read Slime Tensei too, been reading in Eng. So far I bought また、同じ夢を見ていた after being recommended, and read a few pages. But I’m still feeling uncomfortable when I see unknown vocab, which is a lot right now cause I’m just starting to read lol. I have to build up habit first, and since normally I read manga more than LN, I’ve been trying to make a habit by starting from reading 雨と君と. Along with any manga raw that I kinda didn’t want to wait for translation.
I’m feeling much less self pressure while reading manga, so I’m building my habit out of doing that first. Then I will try to read more LN later, since I know unless I make the switch, it won’t ever get used to reading LN.
From your example, there are 2 kanji I don’t know, since they aren’t on WK: 眷 and 熾. I could guess a lot of the vocabs, so that’s fine. But looking up a lot of words on dictionary make me feel bad haha, but no way around it, just have to build up my vocab counts.
There’s also the issue of grammar, I heard it’s smoother to read LN if I’m around starting N3, so since I’m having more free time from finishing WK, even if the review count is still very high, I’m trying to study more grammar than before too. Very lobsided knowledge on kanji atm.
Finally dragged myself to the Paradise levels… I didn’t think I’d make it this month, but somehow I did it!! I’ve accomplished my 2025 goals for WaniKani. Now, I’ll just see how far I can get before the new year. I’m assuming level 42 is achievable, though the holiday season is always unpredictable. If I’m feeling extra cheeky… maybe level 43
Also, funnily enough, I’m now on my longest streak ever according to the WaniKani widget. Let’s see how long I can keep it up
just started and am now in level three, equipped with lifetime and planning on finishing whenever ^^
and while im not in a hurry, im still surprised those first two levels took so long? i thought those were supposed to be fast level and yet, the both took me 9 days each. looking at level up charts i saw a lot of 3 days per level there ^^ well, i don’t mind that much. im just gonna chip at my 15 lessons a day, not prioritizing radicals to unlock kanji, not trying to quickly guru those. if anything, i would probably focus on finishing vocab first before starting with the next level stuff. well, it makes sense im taking longer that way ^^
anyway, lets enjoy those scenic vocabs and low amount of daily reviews together
I am on level 20 for 1085 days now. Today, I reached 0 reviews for the first time in 3 years. Does this count as scenic?
Also @Chimmsen thats exactly the right way to go - in the past, I have seen people “levelmaxxing”, gobbling up radicals to level kanji to level up and - end up with a majestic mountain of apprentice vocab. You will probably feel better doing it the way you do, and once you reach a certain level you are way more likely to actually know your stuff. What is most important though is that you will avoid getting swamped by a mountain of vocab reviews, so you are more likely to stick around long term and avoid burnout.
im not to worried about burn out, im already two years into the japanese journey im just late to the wanikani party i noticed wanikani reviews being done much quicker than the bunpro ones. and since i didnt want a too big of a workload i just put bunpro in vacation mode for a while, until im settled in on a steady pace on wanikani
This is my first level up of the year. After some hmming and haaing with new years goals, I think I’ll still try to keep a moderate pace on WaniKani. I’ve been trying to prioritize my interest better, and Japanese, while important to me, isn’t the most important hobby in my life right now. So, durtling we go! I might have a “fast” season this year, but for now I’ll aim for one level up a month. So, ideally, I’d love to get a minimum of level 53 by the end of this year. If I go beyond that, it’ll be like a little bonus.
That reminds me of the time I realized the rice cooker brand zojirushi literally meant elephant symbol, hence why they have an elephant logo. Or recently, I discovered the meaning of the title of this one show I liked called Manben. It’s a show that showcases different manga artists and their process. It was only after learning kanji that I realized the title was made up of “man” from “manga” and “ben” from “benkyou” together. Makes so much sense why the show is called that 
….. I’ve hit the opposite of a plateau. My ability to hear vocab and absorb it by listening to podcasts or anime has always been really really high but my ability to read has been N5 level for the longest time because I didn’t have pictures to match up with words that I already knew. But the end of level 9 and the beginning of level ten have been days on end of ‘oh I already know these words’. Now i finally have the picture to match.
. Doing a Lv 60 Post is just the dream I had 5 years ago. But now its finally here, I still can’t belive myself I actually have the discipline to do it.
Congratulations!!
)
