DO NOT TRY AT HOME
Let’s take this level 60 celebration up a notch! I thought it would be a fitful tribute to burn the Crabigator atop the sacred level 60 cake. The holy beast quickly punished said trangression by blowing ashes all over the top of my cake 
Ashes removed - the cake tasted like VICTORY.
I completed the last lessons in level 60 a few days ago, and it feels great!
Per tradition, here are some level 60 reflections!
My Japanese Journey
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My wife and I planned a trip for May 2020. In anticipation of the trip, I started learning Japanese in 2019 in hopes of being able to communicate during our stay.
Unforunately, the trip got cancelled, but I’ve stuck to my studies.
I’ve been away from formal ‘academics’ for some time, so I’ve really enjoyed the pure pursuit of knowledge that language learning provides.
I’ve always been a fan of Japanese media, so besides our trip, I’ve really enjoyed reading, listening, watching, and gamin’ in Japanese. With WaniKani fading in the rear-view mirror, I plan on focusing most of my efforts consuming such native media! I just picked up Yakuza: Like a Dragon / 龍が如く7. It has some dense dialogue, but I’m pleased how much I can follow along with, and look forward to other native material!
WaniKani Progress + Tips
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I took about 1 year and 9 months to get to level 60. In hindsight, I would have like to have gone slower. Especially in the last 15 levels or so, I was more motivated to complete the course than enjoy learning the kanji. I’m happy the learning is in my brain either way!
I recommend:
- The lesson reorder script. When unlocking a new level, a liked to do my lesson batches with half kanji and half vocab. This cadence felt better for me, as I find learning new kanji more brain consumptive than vocab, and doing only kanji back to back is pretty draining. I’d recommend giving this style a try!
- When doing reviews, say both the meaning and the reading out loud or in your head, every time an item appears. For example, if you start your reviews and you need to enter a reading; try to recall not just the reading but the meaning. Then when you are prompted to enter the meaning, again recall both the reading and meaning. I found this doesn’t add substantial time to reviews, but does help me imprint the items better.
General Japanese Recommendations
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- Don’t put optimizing your learning efficiency over enjoyment. Learning a language isn’t always 100% fun, but I find myself, and a lot of the language community is obsessed with optimizing the learning process as much as possible. Optimization is great! But if you find yourself spinning in circles trying to find the perfect media to immerse with, you’re going to get frustrated. Something I need to remind myself about, and I hope you can take that to heart as well if it is something you struggle with. You’re making progress no matter what!
- Similar to the previous point, but I suggest picking media you enjoy over media ‘at your level’. I played thru Pokemon Sword a few months into my Japanese journey. I struggled to understand much of anything, but spent dozens of hours on it, and enjoyed it nonetheless because it was a game I enjoyed. After completing the game, there was a lot I learned, despite it being ‘over my level’.
- Grammar! I found the Genki books pretty help, but I cannot recommend japanese the manga way enough. Grammar points are explained within context of frames from manga, and it really clicks for me the way it is described.
Finally, thank you WaniKani and all you forum-goers! This tool has been invaluable, and the knowledge and kindness of the forum users has been incredible. ありがとうございます!
