I’ll never understand the fascination with rushing through Wanikani, unless it’s an issue of the cost and you need to get through it so as not to go broke, but I’m about to cash in on a lifetime membership if/when they do their annual New Year’s sale in a few months, so I can go at my own pace, and when I finish I can reset to whatever level and review it all again. I’m planning to complete WaniKani within around 3-4 years to give myself plenty of time to study grammar, listening/speaking, reading/writing, and do stuff with the language (actually use it in real life) instead of just studying all the time. I would never remain motivated if all I did was study, study, study, and I can’t imagine actually retaining any of what I learned. I go at a pace of about 1 level every 2 weeks and I find things stick with around 95% accuracy.
Honestly these forums can turn learning speed into a pissing contest, the likes of which I’ve never seen in a school classroom. I think people might just need to relax a little. Unless you’re 80 years old I think you’ve got plenty of time left to learn Japanese and explore Japan. If you’re feeling defeated and overwhelmed, it sounds like you are going at a pace that isn’t right for you and should probably just slow down and study some other parts of the language that do motivate you more. It’s all learning. It’s all knowledge in the bag.
I’ll never understand the fascination with rushing through Wanikani,
For me, I am looking at having spent 20 years trying and pretending to learn (I understand a lot of spoken, can barely speak and barely read).
I am rushing because I can (what I mean is, I have the ability to do so) and because I want to be able to read before I die (I am 41 and I hope death is not imminent, but another 20 years “learning” puts me 20 closer to dying and not knowing Japanese properly )
I want to hit the JLPT at N4 or N3 next year which means Dec 2021.Just for myself to prove I can. I don’t need it for work or travel or anything else. Just for me.
With WK I found something that works and I know, based on 20 years of “learning” that if I allow myself a break, there is a huge chance I won’t ever come back. I have 20 years of experience doing this poorly and know myself. I need to push myself. But this is just about me, for me and not to win some fake contest.
And while there may be pissing contests, legitimately coming to the community section helps keep me motivated when I get slammed with 200-300 reviews in a day. But I agree that people need to find the pace that works for THEM. I NEED to do this for myself but hopefully others can and are more leisurely in their lessons/reviews.
My wife thinks I am crazy but supports me doing this.
I have a job that allows me to do things some may not get away with because I work from home and end up spending the first 20-30 minutes of my work day WKing. I then stop for lunch and that consists of eating and doing whatever reviews I have, followed by spending a 30 minute block in the evening closing out the day and zeroing my reviews as close to possible.
I may have also done lessons during conference calls where I am actually doing the daily work on the project and don’t need anyone to update me on the status…
But that is me. And I will pay for the lifetime subscription regardless.
For me, getting through WK means hitting level 60. My plan is to burn all the items before I officially call it quits with Wk. So my plan/hope is level 60 by end of 2021 and done burning by mid to late 2022.
Just don’t let it hit you too hard if you experience burnout at some point, or if the material causes a need for changing pace. Things happen, and getting through the kanji in 3 years is better than 2. Some people lose hope if they lose pace b/c of how much energy they pour into it, then if they hit a wall for a while it feels like a catastrophe.
I think the most important thing is to make sure you are learning and not “learning”, like you said, no matter what speed you can handle.
Just don’t let it hit you too hard if you experience burnout at some point, or if the material causes a need for changing pace
Thanks for this. Motivation is always good to keep the hamster wheel spinning!
One of the reasons I check into the WK Community is just to keep the motivation. The other day when I woke up to 125 reviews I debated just stopping for a day. Came here, read some posts, remotivated and just got back to it. I know that if I let myself stop, I will STOP. Not just “stop.” I hate this part of me but I know it so work around it.
If I can get this in 3 years it will have actually taken me 23… sort of depressing to think about but something I’ve accepted.
I don’t usually reply, but I can relate to the issue.
Me and my wife are going full speed WK and at about levels 35-38 the load became unbearable. We have a full time job, our daily lives and it worked just fine until now.
Also, I was investing time into reading one of the guides at bunpro - the rules doesn’t just stick and generalize in my head well enough without a proper reading. Going through BP without a detailed guide was leaving me with the infinite review loop. Basically, it worked quite well - I’m in the middle of N4.
Full speed WK JUST ate all of the time and will I had for the day, lessons and reviews started to pile up, I feel how it affects my job. I’ll try to change my routine once again to make Japanese fit into it, but it’s very challenging and I don’t want it to hurt my personal time and the main job. At the same time I’m worried that breaking the tempo and the old WK routine will hurt my motivation.
Speedrun should come with a huge solid WARNING, even though numerous posts here gave me a motivation to dive deep into Japanese.
I 100% confirm the topic starter’s message from my own and my wife’s experiences. Probably it’s a useless challenge. I don’t know what I’ll do next, but something needs to change.
Can’t agree more.
The speedrun and the tempo are The Train pushing the Japanese learning activity forward. I’d never jump into it with such recklessness if not for the tempo.
I have a few ideas I wanna try to keep “the train” going and the load to decrease:
dedicate a day once a week or two to sort out ALL reviews and lessons left,
extend learning cycle from 3.5 days (Lesson-Apr-Guru) to 7d,
You brought this on yourself by rushing through WK. People don’t rush WK. People take their sweet time and go at a pace that is comfortable for them.
Slow down and enjoy the journey… As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Update: Today I started lvl43, the first fast level. I decided to power through and do the fast levels at full speed after all. It’s probably going to be pretty rough, but it’s only 10 weeks either way.
I did however stop doing Bunpro. I plan to only start Bunpro again after I’ve hit level 60 when I’ll have the time and energy to actually make a good go at it.
oh how did you do that?
My pace is also like 12 13 days /level but I often have more than 150 reviews / day, 200 reviews /day is not abnormal.
Some days I don’t do lessons or just 10 lessons/day.
I would honestly advice against that.
It’s not “just” the same amount of kanji. Its more conceptually complex kanji for the most part which will be harder to remember. And at the same time its less frequent kanji. Youre going to be burning a lot of energy at a low return on investment when you could just cruise and get a better return on your time spent doing other japanese related activities in parallel.
dont get lured by the “completion” trap into a complete burnout.
I do understand the appeal of “finishing” something and shelving it, but thats just not how learning a language works.
I think youre gonna want to give up even more after a few weeks, these are just my 2 cent.
Do what you think is best for you
This is exactly my situation, so I just want to give you a forewarning that everything was fine until I hit around level 27 and many more abstract words start to creep in. But also to reassure you that it’s still doable as I am still leveling up around once a week (7.5 days or so).
Oh, I don’t doubt that. But I think I’ll be able to manage it, and it’s only 10 weeks. And I think it will be nice to just get WK over with. Besides, this way means I’ll be passing level 60 shortly before Christmas (morning of 12/23). Talk about a great Christmas present!
Having everything unlocked means you’re going to be piling up apprentice items. Instead of 3 days of lessons, 2 days of review, 3 days of lessons, etc, you’ll have 5-6 days of lessons even keeping to the 20 items per day.
I burned through 42 and 43 at a slightly faster pace but I’ve been on 44 for 16 days and counting trying to get my apprentice back under control.
By my rough estimate, going through the fast levels at speed is going to add about 100 extra reviews per day from now till the end.
Totally doable, but I’d honestly rather slow down and spend the extra time reading ワンパンマン
Saw once an advice to keep Apprentice at around 100 and have found it quite good in order to manage the overall load from 40 on when the “Burn” start piling up and make reviews sometimes a little overwhelming (and sometimes discouraging since I typically fail a good chunk of the “to be burned” kanjis).
Depending on one’s energy/やる気, one can go up to 150 at times, especially in the “fast” last levels that can be wrapped up in 4 or 5 days if one fancies it but going on at that pace for a few weeks can again end up in “wall of kanjis” that can make waking up to 220 reviews not so much fun.
Anyway, find your own comfort level but stopping lessons once the apprentice level as reached it (100 or more) can help.
My apprentice count has only dipped below 100 twice since April. And it’s definitely not going to with the fast levels. (The fast levels all have more than 100 items each, so that would be a literal impossibility even with perfect accuracy)
Anyway, I definitely expect my review load to get worse over time. But it remains to be seen how bad it will get. I think I’ll be able to manage it though.
It is a blunt and dangerous tool, but have you tried the userscript “Anki Mode”? It makes reviewing a lot faster, but you can accidently progress things you are having trouble with if you are not paying attention. If you have an Android there is an app called Flaming Durtles that has this plug unlockable under advanced options.
You sound like myself when I started. It is a really long and hard road. I visited Japan with a friend with no Japanese skills and was like “wow, this is great, Im coming back next year a Japanese speaking master”. Ran through wanikani while self studying through text books. When I got back to Japan after a year of sprinting and trying hard it was a rude awakening. Just saying, maybe I am stupid.
Edit: I was decent with Kanji from Wanikani, but only when it was perfectly printed. Which from what I remember it was not usually besides transportation and the like. I remember being crushed by the amount of cursive kanji, or where they use some cute font, and just being like “wtfmate”.
I’m really sorry you’re feeling this way but… how about just slowing down rather than give up all your progress? There’s literally no reason you need to finish in a year, especially since your trip to Japan has been postponed (it’s not like you need level 60 to have a fantastic time in Japan, but I do get this was a motivating goal for you). Give yourself a few weeks of no new lessons to get reviews to a manageable level, or tack an extra 6 months onto your original goal so that you don’t completely burn out.
Spending all your time on WK, something that you say makes you want to give up, is doing you and your language learning no favors. It sucks to be burnt out, but you need to adjust your strategy and goals ASAP into something that actually works for you if you want to avoid giving up all together. Even if you don’t reduce your overall study hours, if you spend more time engaging with material that is fun for you and less on reviews, you’ll get the positive feedback for the progress you’ve already made and reinforce what you’ve learned so far!
Good luck, OP. I hope you go easy on yourself for awhile and can adjust your strategy. You can do it!
Me too! There’s a lot of “I know that kanji, but I don’t know that kanji” when I get outside the context of WK. A “randomize the font” userscript on WK would be useful, but would probably just make me pound my head on my desk more than I already do.
Hang in there! You can do it! Just be careful not to burn out too much that you quit the language all together! Do you plan on burning every item or just quit once you hit 60?
)
Some people lose hope if they lose pace b/c of how much energy they pour into it, then if they hit a wall for a while it feels like a catastrophe.