Level 60. Breaking a routine is hard!

Yesterday I finished my marathon, or is it sprint, because I reached level 60 in less than a year?

Either way, a goal that I’ve set for myself last year has finally been reached, but honestly, I have some mixed feelings about it… Why?

When you finally get to the finish line, the feeling of accomplishment and personal satisfaction is amazing. It’s something you know it took a lot of work and dedication. So you feel relieved. It’s done, finished, conquered. However, when you spend a year with a well established routine, soon it becomes automatic, as second nature. You wake up, you know what you have to do. It feels comfortable, you don’t even have to think about it. So what happens when all of that comes to an end. As for me, I can’t help but feel somewhat empty. Breaking a routine is hard… I have to fill that void with something else.

My routine hasn’t come to an abrupt stop, though. It’s like when a runner gets to the finish line and continues running for a few more meters. I still have reviews to do, which will give me time to adapt to a new routine. I have to get out there and consume more Japanese media… As if watching over 10 J-dramas a week and reading 5 different mangas at the same time wasn’t enough already :sweat_smile:

How does it feel, though, being level 60? Well, not very different from level 59, or 58, or 57… You get my point, right? You don’t suddenly wake up and you’re level 60. You had to gradually get to that point. It’s like the path to fluency. Your knowledge grows slowly, like a snowball. When you look back and see how far you’ve come, that’s what’s important. It’s a growing feeling, not an immediate one. But it feels great, nonetheless.

Now, I wish we had some level 60 prize from WK. We spend one year, in some cases more, learning one of the most difficult writing systems in the world, and all we get in the end is an e-mail? I need closure, some validation from the almighty Crabigator.

Here’s a couple of suggestions: a fridge magnet in the shape of the level 60 golden badge. Or some sort of diploma, with your name or some congratulatory document. Yes, the e-mail is technically a congratulatory document, but I wanted some physical evidence of my accomplishment :grin:

To end, I just like to thank the WK team for creating a resource that makes learning kanji, that monster that so many people are afraid of, fun and engaging. I’m glad I found it and stuck to it 'till the end.

Hope my story also encourages and inspires more people to learn Japanese and keep at it. Even if you feel down and think it’s hard, just think that your future self will thank you one day for not giving up.

頑張れ!

Gabriel

94 Likes

Parabéns e bem-vindo(a) ao lado da malta fixe! :wink:

There were some ideas of giving a shirt away, if I’m not mistaken…? :grimacing:

31 Likes

Congratulations!! I’m pretty sure you’re gonna find a new way to make your japanese learning path exciting!

3 Likes

Congratulations!! :tada::tada::confetti_ball::partying_face::tada:

2 Likes

Congratulations :partying_face: :cake: :confetti_ball:

2 Likes

Just do KaniWani man, its like a fan site where you do the same with but with vocab only and its very helpful to improve recall

check it out trust me

7 Likes

Congratulations! So the cake is a lie?!?!

7 Likes

Congrats on getting to the top! Get yourself some good good cake! :cake::cupcake::birthday:

Man I couldn’t have put it into better words. I still have the reviews from all the previous unburned lessons, but I’m already seeing them slowly diminish… So far, I only have 32 reviews coming Sunday :sob:
Fortunately, I’m slowly substituting the void with a BunPro routine (maybe also a 10K deck in the future), and am dipping my toe into reading and listening. (Somewhere on the forums someone suggested a pretty simple but cool podcast today; it’s called “Let’s talk in Japanese”). I definitely recommend spreading your wings and filling that empty bitter void with more Japanese development to keep racing forward to fluency.

That would be absolutely incredible. +1 please. Also there has been push for a t-shirt somewhere. Not sure if I can find it.

EDIT: Should’ve at least read the first comment :expressionless:

5 Likes

If you want to keep a routine, you can start using floflo.moe to read more books and learn words as you go. It works exactly the same as WK :grimacing:

(Personally, I’m happy with having like 30 reviews a week; maybe I’ll get back to use an SRS in the future, but not now)

6 Likes

You could switch over to Bunpro and keep at it!

5 Likes

Congrats!! :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face: … Done with WK … :white_check_mark::white_check_mark:

I totally get the feeling.
I felt when going through the last levels, that the reward of level 60 simply wasn’t there (though I would definitely go with the last 2 levels if they came up with a reward of sorts :slightly_smiling_face:). I got all I wanted / needed from WK and then just started worrying about how to keep the flame alive in terms of motivation.

Setting then personal proyects not related to any specific word count (like the 10,000 sentences paradigm), a kanji number or JLPT, I think has helped me in integrating japanese learning into a more balanced routine alongside with the rest of my proyects.

I’ve focused now on long term plans related to japanese culture (learning calligraphy and then revisiting the filmography of one of my favorite movie directors), which by themselves are motivating, and then adding japanese makes them even more challenging and altogether richer.


Where are you aiming now?

There’re lots of unsubbed dramas out there, or with only jpsubs available, maybe something like that can keep you busy :grin: .

I can tell you that keeping SRS to a minimum can be a refreshing feeling after keeping a strict regime of reviews for so long :wink:

7 Likes

I think that the 60 shirt was scrapped

6 Likes

19 Likes

@jprspereira

Obrigado :wink:
A shirt would be a great gift. Hell, anything physical would be nice. OK, maybe not anything, but definitely something cool.

@Cryptomilk

Hope so. I’m definitely going to find something Japanesy to do :smile:

@Powerpuncher, @pragmata

Thank you very much :bowing_man:

@dehydration

I did something similar in the beginning, KameSame, but had to leave it, since I wanted to focus more on input, given that my focus is to be able to read and understand. I might return to it soon, since my workload is going to slow down from here on out.

@Saida

Apparently. Wasn’t offered any cake. Where’s my cake coupon? :stuck_out_tongue:

@Pep95

Will have to get some cake, since WK didn’t send me any :unamused:
Yep. Gotta fill that void somehow. Been doing BunPro as well. Finished N3, and will soon start N2. Maybe now will be a good time to start. Will check out that podcast.

@Naphthalene

I’ve tried floflo, but didn’t find it as intuitive to use as WK. When I read manga, I have a dictionary app and add words I don’t know to a list and use the SRS function. Has been working so far.

@Daru

I’ve been using it for a while. Has been a great help to practice grammar.

@Ncastaneda

I’ve been creating my own list of words I encounter while I read manga and using SRS, although not to the extent of WK. (5-10 words a day).

Subbing is still a long way away. First have to refine my N3 knowledge and then go through N2 grammar. I don’t feel a need to go through N1, at least for now. I think that will come naturally as I keep reading and consuming media. But definitely need to at least study N2. After that, just enjoying what the Japanese culture has to offer :grinning:

10 Likes

Congratulations!

I’m planning to finish on my birthday (November 9th) but the fast levels are killing me…

3 Likes

I feel like there’s a missed opportunity here to not write this in kanji…

1 Like

Oh boy DivX logo… 懐かしいね~

2 Likes

Wait, that’s possible? I thought it was hardcoded to take at least a little over a year.

2 Likes

You do get a prize. It’s called knowledge. Cherish it.

4 Likes

@emucat

Yes, I can confirm, the fast levels were hard to keep up with. They should be called Death and Hell. Still have over 70 new lessons to go through until the end of the week :sweat_smile:

@andresanchez

Took me 358 days to reach level 60, but could’ve been even less if I had taken 6d20h to level up instead of exactly 7 days, like I did. But I value my sleep, so…

Yes, knowledge is power. I do appreciate it, but that shiny prize… :trophy:

1 Like