What a journey. I started WK in August of 2020, during those most isolating early months of the pandemic, after a couple weeks of rote memorizing kana. I actually didn’t mind the isolation. I finished up and released some music, continued prepping for a marathon that–naturally and understandably–ended being delayed over a year, and just kind of kept to myself. Just me and the dog surviving the pandemic.
Anyway, like many people I grew up watching anime–I have a particular memory of my parents taking me to an import store in the late '90s and buying bootleg VHS tapes of DBZ movies–and gaining a casual interest in the language, learning a few phrases, but never taking it seriously. I was fine enjoying Japanese (and other Asian) content subtitled.
However, during quarantine in Spring of 2020 I came across a wonderful series of YouTube videos I’m sure some here know: Let’s Mosey: A Slow Translation of Final Fantasy VII. I found Tim Rogers’ style captivating; blending humor, linguistic analysis, insightful analysis of a video game I’d played a half dozen times, with personal anecdotes about his life and Japan, all built to an emotional conclusion that resonated with me. All of Tim’s videos are great, by the way (don’t be scared of the runtimes, they can be broken into chapters and watched over several days like a Netflix series), and some are particularly enjoyable to those who are studying the Japanese language.
I watched this series a few time through and felt two things:
- Inspired enough to try to learn Japanese
- That apps, website, and technology had probably progressed sufficiently to make this endeavor more accessible than 20 years before when my teenage self first typed “how to learn japanese” into Alta Vista and read a very discouraging article that apparently still exists. Perhaps you read the same one!
I now needed to play some of those Japanese-only games I had heard about for years. And maybe read some manga. Maybe visit Japan and not being an annoying, ignorant tourist. What did I have to lose?
I used Lingodeer (abandoned after a year), WaniKani, Genki I (completed), and tried a few other things before settling into NativShark (currently midway through Phase II).
I never clicked with Anki. It makes me fall asleep. It feels passive. It feels like work. It’s not fun. WK clicked because I had to type answers. It felt active, it kept my brain engaged, it also felt like work–but in a good way–and, thus, was fun. The Gamification on offer was easy to latch onto.
But here I am at level 60. I rewatched Let’s Mosey yesterday, for the first time since probably 2021, and was like “oh, I know that” a bunch of times. There isn’t a kanji in those videos I don’t recognize, and aside from the more idiomatic phrases and Tough Guy Language, I can intuit just about all the Japanese text. I’ll probably play FF7 in Japanese this year! #wow #whoa
I’m currently:
- playing Dragon Quest XI
- reading ハピネス and はじめの一歩 mangas
- regularly listening to Japanese with Shun
- and watching Terrace House (the most difficult thing of all for me)
- occasionally importing an issue of Famitsu Weekly
No, I don’t understand everything. Yes, I do pause and look up a lot of things, but I’m amazed at how far I’ve come. I can even sometimes converse with representatives from two Japanese companies I deal with at my dayjob. I’ve been nihongo jouzu’ed a handful of times. I just recently briefly chatted with a Japanese woman at an optometrist office who had brought in her elderly mother for an exam and didn’t seem to embarass myself. Woot! I took an N4 practice exam last month and just barely passed it. Hooray!
You can see on my level-up chart where I had lapses of activity. They generally coincided with IRL troubles (death of a close friend, new romance, moving, temporary re-focus on other hobbies). I’m not the most diligent student. I have many hobbies, a high-energy dog, and a partner. Dividing up my time between everything can be a challenge. That is all to say, my progress is much slower than many others, but that’s okay! I have no reason to hurry.
Okay, criticism time. WaniKani could and should do a better job explaining nuance differences between synonyms. I mean, they do this sometimes. But, uh, just one example:
耐える
忍ぶ
堪える
凌ぐ
They all mean “to endure,” I guess but WK does nothing to help my understanding of these. I know, I know, “Wani Kani doesn’t teach Japanese, it teaches you kanji with some vocabulary to reinforce the readings.” Okay, then why have brief nuance notes for some vocab, such as for 冷たい? Either go all in on it or don’t have it at all. The half-measure/inconsistency is a glaring weakness.
The lack of an official app was a bummer at first, however, there’s no guarantee something official would be anywhere near as good and customizable as Flaming Durtles. Thank you, FD! I actually don’t know if I would have made it to level 60 without you.
I do look forward to WK adding more kana-only vocab (assuming that is still in the works). The first batch was mostly redundant for me, but I know there is plenty out there for them to give us.
Thank you, WaniKani and Tofugu. If I can make it to level 60, anybody can. Being able to indulge in and enjoy fresh aspects of long-running hobbies is incredible.
what an accompishment! And truly motivating to see people with many things going on in their life succeeding!
Cheers!