Throughout the years of doing Wanikani I always found reading these level 60 posts motivating, so I’m happy I can finally write me own!
Its crazy to think I’ve been using Wanikani for almost 7 years. I quit or lost motivation so many times, but I always kept sight of my Japanese language learning goal and that kept me coming back. 7 years is long to get level 60, but now that I’ve done it, I really feel the amount of time it takes doesn’t matter. Learning a language is lifelong pursuit, and as long as you’re still learning you’re winning.
My Level up chart:
Some background on me: I started Wanikani after I moved to Japan in 2018. I work for an American company so despite living in Japan I use no Japanese at work and very little in my daily life. After my Japanese got good enough for daily life and small talk I found it very hard to stay motivated to keep studying. Many of my coworkers speak barely any Japanese despite living here longer than me. I think what really kept me motivated to keep learning throughout the years was I’ve always dreamed of being able to read manga in Japanese, and the pain of regret every time I wish I could’ve spoken or listened better with a Japanese person.
How I stayed consistent on WaniKani: I found what worked for me was every day when I sat down at my computer for work the first thing I did was study WK. I used an app on my phone called “forest” to set a 25min study timer. This App grows a tree while your timer is counting down, but if you use your phone before the timer runs out the tree dies. On the days I was super busy at work or didn’t feel motivated I would set a shorter timer of 10 or 15mins. I knew if I studied consistently at least 5 days a week my burnrate would outpace the review pile up.
This year I studied WK for 96 hours:
If I could start over WK again I would’ve done this 25mins a day approach from the start. I remember when I first started I would always try to do 0 lessons / 0 reviews each day, and that just ended up with me getting burnt out. Also using vacation mode would’ve saved so much time.
Times I quite WK:
- Around level 19 I got dumped by Japanese girl I was dating and lost all motivation for Japanese lol
- In the early 30 levels I realized I could read shonen manga with furigana with the aid of a dictionary and questioned if still doing WK was worth it (it was)
Things that kept me motivated to study:
- Living in Japan. Not going to pretend this isn’t a cheat code. Even though I don’t speak much Japanese in my daily life there is so much passive exposure living here. I always remember when I learned a new kanji and there was a new poster or sign I could read it felt like unlocking a new ability in a video game
- I’ve been doing weekly Japanese classes since 2018. Having a class I pay for keeps me accountable even when I’m unmotivated or can’t be bothered. So even the times I quite WK I was still studying other ways
- Accepting that learning Japanese is a hobby I’m choosing to do, and remembering what my goals are. Whenever I started prepping for the JLPT or learning keigo I started to hate Japanese. When I focused on improving my conversation abilities or reading it became fun.
Next Steps:
- I want to guru all the remaining kanji at least. Not sure If I will burn out all the items though.
- I will replace the daily 25mins of WK with 25mins of reading in Japanese. Right now I’m enjoying 死に戻り騎士は今日も生きる. There’s no furigana and I’m finding it a good challenge
Thank you for reading!