Officially joined team Durtle. Letās do this! ā¦eventually.
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Welcome! 
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you can see this book is bad when they point to finger saying āteā
lmao
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That is so true!! 
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Iām delighted to see there are more folk taking the scenic route. Iām still experimenting with my routine but for me the issue is that I have limited time during the working week, (which for me is mon-thu), so I want to have a manageable number of reviews on those days, and do my lessons as close as possible to first thing on fri/sat/sun, where I can take more advantage of the SRS.
A lot of the discussion Iāve read so far assumes fairly even amounts of effort through the week, does anyone else have more of a weekend focus?
What else do the slower folk do to keep their Japanese up elsewhere, at the moment I am doing duolingo, because I can do that in short snatches, and I intermittently listen to the tofugo podcasts - because I find the discussion of the language interesting, and can listen to it on my daily walk. Iām not advanced enough for podcasts in Japanese (including ones Iāve seen recommended here), they just sound like noise to me because I canāt decipher enough.
Worth saying I donāt have a real goal in terms of proficiency, I am studying more for the intellectual challenge.
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Welcome, come on and slam and welcome to the durtle jam! 
I have a more time specific focus like mornings and late evenings to do my lessons and reviews than weekday/weekend focus. Iām breaking my lessons into 10-30 chunks a day and doing all my reviews whenever itās available.
On down time, Iāve been using Bunpro to brush up on grammar and KameSame to remember vocabulary. For immersion, Iāve been listen to Japanese songs that caught my interest.
All the better! I think any goal or reason is a good goal or reason. I have goals like visiting Japan, but Iām honestly learning Japanese just because I can at this point and Iām having a fun time
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Iāve been watching Japanese Ammo with Misaās Grammar Lessons for Absolute Beginners. Iāve just been watching one video a day. I havenāt been taking notes on them because Iām mostly using them to start to gain familiarity with grammar and just reading Japanese sentences in general, and am planning on later reinforcing the knowledge with other sources (Iām also planning on coming back and rewatching them months from now). If you take notes, it takes a lot longer to go through each one, but if you donāt, itās only like a 20 minute time commitment to watch an episode. Itās great material if youāre a complete beginner and donāt know where to start!
I also use KaniWani alongside WK to practice recall, but currently KW and WK are the only SRS systems I use.
I also spend a lot of time each day just watching/seeing Japanese, lol, because I watch a lot of Japanese pro wrestling and follow a bunch of wrestlers on twitter, so I get a lot of exposure to listening to the language and reading it, though Iām not proficient enough to understand much. But it helps reinforce a lot of what Iām learning here and elsewhere.
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Iāve actually picked up my pace recently! Iām still definitely going slower than the average user, but I went up to 15 vocab lessons a day instead of my former pace of 10 (Iām sticking to just 10 lessons a day for kanji, though).
The reason why I increased my pace is because I started using the self-study quiz script to drill all of my lessons immediately after doing them, and as soon as I started doing this, my retention went drastically up. I now reliably get like 90-100% of my first batch of reviews after my lessons correct! Previously, just using WKās SRS system alone, I would fail a lot of items (especially the kanji) several times before they started to stick, haha. Using this script caused my daily review load to go down, since apprentice items are moving out of my review queue a lot faster, and I realized I had the time/energy to learn more items, at least for now. The self-study quiz also tests your listening comprehension, which is really useful, imo. Iām currently not using it to practice anything else besides brand new lessons, but just that alone has made such a huge difference.
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Made it to level 7! Spent fifteen and a half days on level 6, haha! But I got a lot done in that time. Iām excited to make it to a new level, though it always takes me at least a full week into a level before I finish learning all of the material from the previous one!
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Ding dinged to level 15 now and managed to clear my lessons :). Somehow I have below 100 Apprentice items and I started the level with around 27 before doing lessons. My item ratio is getting weirder and weirder as well 
Feels like the items are disappearing somewhere.
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Excited to see you burn some items soon!
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After 4 months on level 21, I made it to level 22! I just started a new career opportunity so I have a feeling that level 22 is going to be a long one, as well.
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Do you like Tiger Mask? I just watched Tiger Mask W last year and it was quite a ride.
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I do like the current New Japan Pro Wrestling wrestler who goes by the name Tiger Mask, though he isnāt one of my faves (I believe heās Tiger Mask IV?)! I havenāt seen much of the other wrestlers who have used that name, though I have seen Tiger Mask W wrestle because he was actually portrayed (in the ring, at least) by one of the wrestlers who got me into wrestling (Kota Ibushi)! That said, I still have yet to actually watch the anime that the Tiger Mask W character was created for! I know a lot of the characters in it because theyāre NJPW wrestlers that Iām familiar with, but I donāt know much about the specific plot of the show. Iām glad you enjoyed it, though!
Thereās a tiny bit about Tiger Mask W (the character in the flesh) in the essay that was responsible for getting me into wrestling, though the character didnāt wrestle in many actual matches. If you enjoyed that show, you might also enjoy the movie My Dad Is a Heel Wrestler, which NJPW was also involved with, and which also features NJPW wrestlers!
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So this is what I looked like first thing today, before doing a batch of lessons, I had hoped to get my apprentice closer to 0 before doing more, but I had a couple of bad review sessions yesterday. I wanted to get them in today when I knew Iād have time to do the reviews close as possible to when they came live.
I was very pleased when I got my first Enlightened, and still satisfying watching it slowly tick upwards.
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Got my first enlightened today!
Canāt wait to burn them. Iām nervous Iāll confuse them for kanji because Iāll have forgotten the mnemonic lol.
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Very nice! Thatās quite a bit of radicals in one go! 
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I leveled up to level 8, level 7 was my fastest (except for level 1), at only 13 days. Letās see how level 8 goes, if I manage to follow my lesson schedule and unlock new items as planned it will take me around 15 days. Iām feeling quite comfortable with my current pace.
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Level 8 
I gurued several Kanji at once at the level up, so got 30+ level 7 vocab I need to deal with before I even start with the new level. But that is ok. I will do them first, then level 8 vocab, then kanji, lastly radicals and make sure to get my 0/0!
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