I got to level 20 today ! and thought I would share
Started in August and the time has flown by ! Wanikani has proved to be such an amazing resource and worth every penny. I’m still in the early stages of learning Japanese - but if i ever do get to a reasonable level, then i will without a doubt look back and view Wanikani as the catalyst for the achievement. so FINGERS CROSSED for me
I was planning on having a slow down at level 20 (not that I’ve gone painfully fast compared to some) in order to deal with my leeches, and consolidate what I’ve learnt to date - but then i guess the SRS is all about reinforcing the knowledge intrinsically?
has anyone else consciously decided to slow down to consolidate or focus on other aspects of Japanese at any point in their Wanikani journey? or maybe i should just continue full steam ahead.
Final point - the community on here is frickin’ awesome - genuinely love hearing about everyone’s progress, and reading all the advice ! ありがとうございます
When I hit the fast levels, I slowed back down to match my pace with previous levels, I’m not sure if that really counts.
Also, before I hit 60, I hardly did anything to progress with my Japanese other than WK, so my grammar and listening/speaking skills are still terrible. However, with pretty much any resource I use, kanji is never an issue, so that’s pretty nice. Prior to WK, I just didn’t use anything that had kanji in it =P
Given a limited amount of study time, long term, I think full steam ahead with WK is a good move, but short term, it may be a little depressing since you still can’t read anything without the proper grammar skills =P
I stopped reading Genki 2 months ago after page 95, and I don’t know when I’m gonna finish it. The thing is that Genki isn’t suited for self-studying I believe.
It’s good to read the dialogues and learn the grammar aspects, but most of it is a classwork with a friend or your group. There’s a workbook for it, but I didn’t check it yet
Seconded! I think the workbook makes a big difference.
I’m doing self study for Genki. I took a class in the past (we used Nakama at the time), but I’m solo now. I have a conversational partner who’s also learning to help me get through those parts, though. I feel like Genki is really great, as long as you go over the information a few times to let it all sink in well. Say things out loud, etc.
Well done! I’m hoping to be there soon and also do a bit of a slowdown once I hit 20, get some of these leeches down and try and finish all of N4 grammar on bunpro (If you aren’t using bunpro, you should be!)
Thanks ! it’s arriving today ! so i’ll get cracking this weekend
Thanks ! you have been going at a really nice pace - well done to you ! LEECHES ! i installed a script which shows how many you have - and it is embarrassing haha
bunpro - i have started - but maybe need to give a bit more time now !
I second (third? fourth, fifth?) everyone’s suggestions to start making a good grammar habit now, you’ll thank yourself later ^^
I’d just like to add that I think it’d be great to also start making a habit of reading things (if you haven’t already!) – at your level, you should be able to more comfortably recognize the kanji that appear in things geared for beginner-intermediate learners
My go-to sources for that were NHK Easy News (which also has its own dedicated translation subreddit) and Satori Reader (subscription based) – both great for beginner-intermediate
Even if you just read one article a day, you’ll be reinforcing the kanji even further, which will pay off for your accuracy here on WK, and also getting to practice some grammar in context – the biggest strides in my proficiency with Japanese came when I started to read!
Oh, and last but not least, CONGRATS! You’re 1/3 of the way there! ^^
EDIT: As far as slowing down or not, I think that’s entirely subjective, if you can handle adding on other resources to do concurrently with WK, do it! The SRS will take care of items for you as you mentioned – but if you want to focus a little more time elsewhere and think it’d be best to slow down a bit here, that sounds perfectly fine too! The end goal here is learning Japanese, so assess what’s comfortable to you to avoid burnout and go with it ^^
Thirded! I think that Genki would be miserable without the workbook. I quickly stopped even doing the textbook exercises once I started the workbook. I still look at them and do them mentally if possible, but often times the workbook’s exercises are just better. I definitely recommend getting the answer key book as well if you have self-discipline. While the answers are always extremely textbook-y to the nth degree, it makes it very easy to see if you messed anything up (as opposed to simply leaving out the unnecessary 私).
Have continued going at full speed on WaniKani, but in terms of consolidation, that does tend to happen as you progress past N3. Specifically, you go away from memorizing lists and reading practice sentences for grammar and just focusing on reading native content. At your level, you should be starting to move a little away from textbooks and into reading any sort of native material like NHK Easy. Like, focuses 80-90% on WaniKani and grammar exercise and spend 10-20% on reading native content.
I was in a very similar situation a couple months ago. Also started in August, was going very fast until about level 20, and then I decided to slow down on WK from 7-day levels to 12-day levels. First of all, I wanted to really start getting into Genki, and since then my comprehension has skyrocketed. I also use Bunpro to review the grammar points I know from Genki or from other places. And now, I’m starting to burn items and so I’ve started using Kaniwani to solidify the burned vocab items in EN–>JP.
I plan to speed up on WaniKani to full speed once it’s summer, as I will be a lot more free then. I have been very happy with my 12-day levels, though! It takes a little while for the rate of reviews to slow down but now it feels like much less work than it did a couple months ago, and it really gives me time for other resources. My review accuracy is increasing too.
If you got the email from Koichi on New Years about learning Japanese in 2018, that’s the plan I am following. If you didn’t get it I can forward it to you.
How long has it been since level 1? Congrats on your dedication friend, wanikani aside, I hope you’ve also been reviewing grammar, verb conjugations, adjectives. The most fun part about japanese
I’m doing so right now. Got 100 leeches, really need to work on them. Also focusing on reading- practical usage of wanikani. So I expect level 15 will take me a good month, but I don’t mind.
Not quite 20 yet, but I slowed down. At this point new kanji won’t be as helpful as working on mastering current kanji and grammar (at around level 20, you are looking at about ~75% frequency). I used to level about every 9 days, but now i’m down to about 13 days because i’m not putting the queue as high to give me time to work on other concepts.
I know a good bit of grammar from the first 3 Japanese From Zero books (still haven’t started the 4th book), so I started a lifetime membership to iknow.jp and it is really helping to iron in grammar/listening skill since you see and hear full sentences. For example, in the last couple of weeks, my verb conjugations have gotten much better. My primary goal right now is mastering basic sentences without have to waste time “translating” them in my head.
My schedule is now pretty much get home for work, clear out my wanikani reviews, do a 5-10 lessons (sometimes more). Then I go to iknow.jp and do practice (I try to do at least an hour, maybe even more). On days I don’t work, I’ll do or review a lesson from my books. Then before I go to bed, I’ll clear out the wanikani reviews again.
Only downside is because I work 12 hour shifts, on days I work, it is literally just japanese from after I get home till I go to bed (I may get an hour of TV time in). However, I only work 3-4 days a week.
Ah satori reader ! is it worth the subscription from your point of view then? thanks for your response.
Oh my ! another book - i’m gathering enough to start a dedicated Japanese shelf on my bookshelf ! thanks for letting me know about it - didn’t even know about the workbook until i started this thread !
Nice advice - I think i’ll definitely shift my focus to reading - even if i don’t slow down my levelling.
Oh perfect - So working through Genki really pushed you forward - that’s good to know. I’m excited to get started on he workbook. Well done on your progress so far - level 24 from starting in August - that’s a real nice pace !
That email was awesome - i was so fired up !! really, thanks for the help.
I guess 7 and a bit months ! i hope i also learn to love conjugations, adjectives and grammar !
dose leeches though ! i hit a real rough patch of vocab that just wouldn’t stick in the mid teens - don’t know if you noticed it yet ! but i am still struggling with them need to take an afternoon to sort them out !
haha
