できた
I’ve reached Level 60. No, I haven’t burned everything and I’ve got a bunch of kanji and vocabulary still to do… but I’ve reached the point where I can see the end of my WaniKani journey coming to a close, at least in terms of relying on it as a learning tool.
Let’s see, how did I get here?
First, I signed up in 8月 2019. At the time, I was still living in Korea and studying Korean, but I had visited Japan a few times and my (now) wife and I had officially begun dating a few months prior. Within six months of signing up for WK, I had moved to Japan (Kyushu) and begun my life in Japan. Lots of life happened in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. That first year I made a lot progress once I started focusing on WaniKani… but then lots of life transitions happened! I got married, moved, and had a kid.
What am I doing now?
- I recently watched 千と千尋の神隠し (in日本語 w/subtitles but may not have needed them as much)
- I borrowed The Chronicles of Narnia… (in 日本語) from the local library.
- I’m reading おじさまと猫
What do I recommend?
If possible, get the Lifetime membership, which will allow you not to worry about the timing of everything as much. I know it’s a chunk of change. The question is whether your subscription costs will match or exceed the lifetime cost. If you’re brand new to most kanji like I was, 2-years is kind of unreasonable to expect… unless you are a full-time student with hours to spend on studying Japanese every day. Even 2.5-3 years would have been pushing it for me…
Go at a pace that keeps you motivated. Resetting a few levels is OK. At first I went at a challenge pace, which helped me push on and make quick progress. However, this ultimately prompted some stress in my life and increased heartbeats which were motivational at first but nearly led to burnout. It also resulted in a MASSIVE pile of items I was sifting through once I reached the mid and late 20s, which is why I reset a few levels and started readjusting my expectations back to something more realistic.
Get an app or use scripts so you do not get overly frustrated. When I started out on WaniKani, I really wanted to learn it all well, and my mindset was that I didn’t want to cheat. However, over time I realized that a big chunk of my mess-ups were just typos or minor issues that WaniKani wasn’t designed to address. Tsurukame has been a lifesaver for me because it took away those moments that would make me annoyed by the learning process. Removing those annoyances allowed me to enjoy learning the kanji and vocabulary, helped me go faster again, and just made everything work better for me.
What are my next intentions for Japanese?
- Continue with WaniKani until everything is burned, including new items that pop up. My motivation to check the app has lessened in recent years
- Use Lingocard to practice sentences, including WK sentences, and other language I find.
- Read and Absorb more Japanese, and probably try to finish up some of the textbooks that have been hanging around on my shelf.
- Occasionally pop up around the WaniKani forums
hahaha, I’d done it on the WaniKani side but not the Community side
