However, being completely honest I’m a bit disappointed in myself. I have put all my effort into finishing all levels in the fastest time possible. I woke up in the middle of the night to do reviews and I scheduled every week to make sure I would have free time when the reviews showed up, yet it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t get the absolute fastest time at all levels.
I didn’t use any scripts. For this reason, sometimes it was impossible to finish all reviews and lessons in less than an hour (Of course the last kanji I needed to level up was the last one in the queue!). Some fast levels required 100% accuracy in all kanji items. My memory has a limit and I have never seen many of the late levels kanji during reading. I had zero prior knowledge so the first levels were very tough for me. I also have a full-time job so my studying time is limited. I know those are nothing but excuses but I desperately want to believe I did my best and that’s what matters.
Depressing rant aside, I’m glad I found WaniKani. It’s by far the best learning tool I have tried. I also gave Anki and RTK a try and “finished” both of them, but I only got confident enough to say I knew a kanji after reviewing it a few times on Wanikani. I loved the system, the surprisingly useful vocabulary (always saw a lot of them right in the next book I read), and how motivated it kept me.
I started studying the language on May 14 2019 and I can say I’m very satisfied with how fast Wanikani helped improve my reading skills. One of my initial goals was being able to read a whole novel volume without checking a dictionary, and I have finally managed to do that in the past few months! Sure, they were very easy light novels, but it’s a start, right? So far I have read 29 books, over 100 manga volumes, and a few visual novels and games. I don’t think I would have been able to do that without WaniKani. I know there’s still a long way to go but I remember when I tried reading my first novel and I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out the very first sentence. It wasn’t a bad improvement for a year, I hope.
The only other service I love as much as Wanikani is Bunpro. I have dropped it after reaching level 70, but I’m forever grateful for it. Those two websites combined are a blessing for learning.
This is only the start of my learning but it sure was an amazing one thanks to Wanikani.
Next Goals
Slowly burn all items.
Pass N4 in December. (And apply for a visa and maybe move to Japan)
Start reading more complex books and literary works.
Practice speaking and writing more.
Sleep for a whole night without worrying about my Wanikani reviews.
Thanks to anyone that read my post. I’m sorry it’s not the most interesting level 60 post. I just wanted to put all my thoughts into words.
Good luck to everyone with your studies. Let’s keep doing our best!
It amazes me the dedication of some people, well done. I couldn’t go half as fast as I am now without quite a bit of prior knowledge of kanji. That is some serious good going, well done!
Congrats on reaching level 60!
You should’nt be disappointed at all, you were extremely fast and you achieved a huge amount of goals in just one year. Learning a language is a life-long journey, and as we say in French : “if you want to travel far, spare your mount”.
Now, have a good night and keep enjoying learning!
No reason to be disappointed at all, you’ve achieved an amazing pace! Especially considering the fact that you don’t use scripts! I couldn’t match a single level of your pace with scripts!
May the Crabigator bless you with a deep and restful sleep!
If you feel bad about finishing in a year, I will feel really bad when I finish in 2 - 3 years (I think it will actually feel amazing to finish). But jokes aside, good job!! That is an amazing feat you accomplished!
WHAT !? please don’t be disappointed in yourself. If you are disappointed in yourself for finishing in a year, then I will have to proceed to commit seppuku for taking 3.
Congratulations! And I can only second all the ‘you shouldn’t be disappointed in yourself’ - the reading part in your post is quite inspirational to me honestly!
But honestly what seems even more impressive is your reading! 16 books in 4 months already? And all in Japanese? Incredible!
I’m surprised you’re aiming at higher JLPT level. N4 should be way too easy since you’re reading so many native books. And it’s teen/young adult targeted too!
It amazes me how some people can dedicate so much of their free time and energy on things like learning kanji. It’s already been pretty exhausting for myself trying to keep up with my reviews and get forward to new levels, but my pace is only half of yours (30 levels in 1 year~) so I can only imagine the amount of stress you’ve went through achieving this. Congrats!
On another note, would you recommend using bunpro? I’ve never heard of it before, but I checked it out now and it seems like something worth a try. I’ve personally studied grammar in uni so I wouldn’t say I’m too lacking on that department, but extra grammar studying would never hurt though!
How did you find enough time in the day for all this? I’ve been studying for over four years and I’ve only read 6-7 books. I honestly have no idea how you read 29 books in your first year, on top of everything else.
Thank you all for your kind posts! Every comment means a lot to me. I’m feeling much better about the disappointment part now. I’m very grateful to you all. Sleeping again sure feels great!
Thank you, wkstats says 152 days!
I mostly felt disappointed because I set the goal to myself of finishing in the fastest time possible. In retrospect, I don’t think I would recommend going fastest speed unless you have a goal that requires that. Going at a speed you are comfortable with is always the best way. Nothing wrong with taking more time on levels!
There’s a reason I’ll go for JLPT N4! The visa program I want to attempt requires N4 at first and the next JLPT level every year. I’m confident I might pass N4 this year, N3 next year, then prepare more carefully for N2 and N1. However, N2 this year and N1 next year sounds too challenging. It would be an issue if I barely passed N2, moved to Japan, but then had to move back to my home country for failing N1. I want as much time as possible to study!
I definitely recommend bunpro! You can skip the grammar points you know already. I think it’s a fantastic tool for improving your grammar.
My schedule was something like this:
6 hours of sleep (willing to sacrifice for Wanikani anytime)
8 hours of work
1-5 hours doing chores and time for myself
5 hours to study Japanese. Usually 2 hours reading. 3 hours for Wanikani, bunpro, anki, and other studies. If chores only took me 1 hour, that means 4 more hours to study or consume any Japanese media.
My reading speed on very easy light novels is about 30 pages/hour. So it isn’t too hard to finish one volume per week if I read 2 hours everyday.
Also, during weekends, I spend easily 12 hours a day reading and studying. It’s very hard at first but after getting used to reading a bit everyday, completing books become much easier!
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