Saved this for my first post 
I started learning Japanese two years ago after my second trip to Japan.
I’m over 50, and to be honest, I don’t need to know Japanese at all. It’s just a hobby to keep my aging brain active. However, what began as a simple pastime has turned into a bit of an obsession.
I started with Pimsleur Japanese during my commute and daily walks, actually went through all 150 lessons three times. At some point, I realized that knowing how to read Japanese would be a plus, so in April 2023, I found WaniKani. Since then, I think I haven’t skipped a single day - daily lessons and reviews, no matter what.
Some days were brutal, 300+ reviews made my head hurt, but I pushed through.
I love WaniKani. It became part of my daily routine for two years. Usually, I’d wake up early to get my lessons and reviews done before work - took about 1-2 hours. On some days, I’d also squeeze in evening reviews. Aside from WaniKani, I listened to JP podcasts every day and tried to read a page or two from Satori Reader or NHK on most days.
Hitting level 60 feels great, but let’s be real - my actual Japanese skills are still very limited.
• Listening: I can follow some easy podcasts, but watching movies or shows without English subtitles? Still struggling.
• Grammar: Bunpro, currently redoing N4 grammar. I tried Genki, but textbooks just don’t work for me.
• Speaking: Terrible. In my head, I can form decent sentences, but when I try to speak, I’m useless and just default to the most basic grammar. I take italki lessons - one teacher for speaking, one for grammar - aiming for at least an hour per week, but it’s tough. Also doing shadowing with podcasts, but I have no idea if it’s helping. Probably, but I just can’t see it yet.
• Reading: Still struggling with most materials. Thanks to WK, I can recognize a lot of kanji and words, but I read so slowly. And because my grammar is weak, I often don’t get the full meaning of a sentence - even when I know all the words. I guess I just need to read more.
• Vocabulary: One-way only. If I need to recall words and translate from my native language into Japanese, my vocab shrinks from 5,000 words to… maybe 100.
So yeah, not huge progress.
But looking back - two years ago, I couldn’t read a single kanji, and all I knew was konnichiwa and arigatou. So that’s some progress, ね。
Future Plans
I’ll stick around to finish the last lesson and burn all turtles. Actually, I’ve been resurrecting a lot of words and kanji that I encountered elsewhere and realized I had already burned (and forgotten), so I’ll use WK to review those.
I never really learned to like Anki, but I’ll give it another shot.
I’ll use my free morning time to read more and focus on grammar. Also, gonna put more energy into speaking practice.
Hopefully, I’ll get to visit Japan again this year (would be my 6th trip!), and it just feels good to understand more with each visit and to be able to respond in broken Japanese occasionally
Great job to all of you who are still progressing through the levels! Keep up the great work, and best of luck on your journey ahead!
