Fellow old timer!! We’ll get there!! …eventually!
This made me look up mine, and yeah, passed the 6 year mark in October.
turns out I am really really good at over estimating my own capability. full time job + studying for a masters in an unrelated subject + learning a language is too hard
I reset a year ago after I graduated and have kept mostly to 14 - 18 day levels…slow, steady, and consistent this time. Joining the book clubs was the best thing I ever did for motivation.
Happy Cake Day! It sounds like you’ve got this now from all the sage advice you’ve written.
I had my 2nd anniversary a month ago, with lots of stops and starts and a reset and didn’t find a good pace for myself until a few months ago. I’m not due to get to 60 until May 2021, but now I know I will get there.
Thanks for posting - there are so many ‘I’m lightening fast’ posts out there it can be a little disheartening for us slow-goers so it’s lovely to read about a fellow stubborn tortoise turtle! 
Yesss we can do it!! Btw…what level are you on? I can only see your fancy star haha
がんばって! Amazing that you still feel motivated, great persistence 
I so much agree about doing the lessons slowly and carefully enough, so many people here seem to be addicted to leveling and thus try to speedrun all the levels, abusing reorder and not doing vocab lessons at all etc… I just don’t see the point. We’re here to actually learn the language and make it stick, not to just get dopamine spikes from the feeling of leveling up and then eventually burning out due to massive amounts of reviews piling up all the time since the pace is so fast.
Yes! …eventually…!
Haha sounds very similar to me… When I started WK I already knew some kanji and overestimated myself SO much… And then university happened, then moving and getting a job, etc etc…
Slow and steady wins the race!
What book are you reading atm? I’ve been thinking about joining one of the book clubs, too, but I still have a book lying around here that I ordered in 2014 and haven’t finished yet…
Thank you!! And don’t have too much faith in me. I’m always good at giving advice and very bad at following it myself lol. But I am more relaxed this time around, so I don’t mind “failing” items as much.
Happy belated Cake Day to you, too, then! And yes, you will get there! Learning is a marathon anyway, or at least that’s what I read on the forum haha. As long as we keep studying even a tiny bit every day, we will get there eventually
Aw I’m glad slow old me could motivate you. And I get you, people are finishing left and right but everyone learns at a different pace. We are doing fine! As long as we don’t give up 
Haha thank you!
And yes, completely agreed. I’ve been there in that exact spot, so I can safely say that speed-running without actually studying doesn’t work, at least for me. I do understand that people might be in a pinch money-wise and thus want to rush. But if you have the cash and no pressure to reach a certain level for a job or the like, I really think that taking your time is better. But to each their own.
Hello, fellow Sixer. 
Backstory: Although I did sign up almost 6 years ago, I honestly didn’t like the radical names on level 1 here at first and abandoned Wanikani altogether. I kept doing Remember the Kanji instead. I came back years later to try again. I know how it feels, you could’ve been done with Kanji years ago. In my case, I should’ve stick with Wanikani once I signed up back in 2013.
Hello Qiwi,
love your profile pic ^^
I’m a slow Wanikani member as well;
I noticed you only see the negative things about your Wanikani journey…
But from my point of view, you’re still here after 6 years, and despite resetting 4 times.
You say you are stupidly stubborn, but one could say instead, that you’re extremely motivated and dedicated, and won’t give up even if it’s tough.
I don’t think failure is the opposite of success, but rather I think it’s one of the most important parts of the process of succeding anything. I don’t know about you guys, but even if leeches are annoying, once I finally get them right, they become practically impossible to forget: I’ve reviewed them so many times !
I’m not always kind with myself, but it’s something I’m trying to learn everyday, and I’m making slow but steady progress, just like I am with wanikani ^^
I found that a very important part of learning how to be kind with myself, is to become aware of the way I’m speaking about myself, and to always use kind words and statements, as I would do for a dear friend. I can see you give good advice and are supportive of other people, so there’s no reason for you not to be able to do the same for yourself ^^
Words are very important, use them wisely !
For example, your second sentence could go like this:
“I haven’t been able to reach level 60, yet”
It’s a very small change, but a different feel, don’t know if it speaks to you ?
Anyways, thank you for your precious advice !
Hope you have fun progressing with Wanikani ^^
I’m between books at the moment. I took a break after the beginner club finished 銭天堂 ふしぎ駄菓子屋, which I really enjoyed and am seriously considering the other volumes.
There was an offshoot of the intermediate club for コンビニ人間 and they are currently reading キッチン both of which are on my list, so I am considering picking them up.
I wouldn’t worry about unfinished books…I have so many I need to read… 魔法少女育成計画、 LVL999の村人、 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱、various free books and a ton of manga, a few video games, etc. I find the community aspect of the clubs is really nice, even though I end up perpetually behind, at least I’m not alone in that, several of us end up that way haha.
another slow traveller here - signed up june 2013 . reset at least 4 times - usually after a trip to japan - havent worked out the logic to this yet . i go well for around 12 months and get to low to mid 20s and then go off the boil - head off to japan to catch up with my nephew and then take time to get back into it - this time i have reset to level 10 rather than 0 - hopefully will get further in my journey this time . i use many other sources to learn my japanese and on this last trip enjoyed trying to speak more albeit in very short sentences - is a fun learning experience for an older brain
Thanks for your advice. I just started learning with wanikani but im looking forward to reach new heights in japanese language. I hope to keep the same endurance as you have. But for now have a nice session everyone:metal:
I’ll be at 6 years in February - I got up to level 28 extremely haphazardly before finally resetting in September. It is amazing how much easier things are when you actually hit the SRS intervals haha.
Thanks for making this post @qiwi and thanks everyone for chiming in - it’s comforting to know how many of us there are. Let’s all work hard!
Level 56!!! Last leg of the race…! 
Glad to know there are others that have taken so long to get there. Just hit 3 years a few days ago. I have never reset, one would think as slow as I am going I would throughly know the material. (At least the vocab since alot of it is in my anki deck). I really could use some testing and relearning on the Kanji that has been burned though as fairly often I come across a Kanji which I supposedly already know, and yet cant remember the reading of it. Just a question, why are yall resetting so much?
It’s been 4 years for me. I’ve only reset once but I’ve taken a lot of breaks, haha. Just came off a two month break last week in fact, but to be fair for half that time I was actually in Japan. Hoping to make some good progress in 2020! Let’s do it!!!
Very good advice sir.
Do your best.
Sorry for the late replies everyone! 
@riverpuppy
Ohh I hope you had a great time in Japan! And yes, let’s burn those turtles in 2020!
@Kino2
Same here, I often see words and know that I’ve learnt them on WK, but can’t recall them.
As for the resetting…well, in my case it was being impatient and overwhelmed with reviews (I had 3000+ an some point lol…). Can’t recommend it haha
@RachelG
So close!! You can do it! 
@B3lisarius
Glad to know my post could help a bit. As long we don’t give up, I think we are doing pretty good!
@IchiyaParfum
Good luck on your journey! Hopefully, it’ll go smoother than mine lol. We can do it!
@grahyde
The mid 20s - early 30s are usually my reset point, too haha. Kudos to you for using more Japanese on your latest trip, that’s amazing! I think that’s a lot more important than studying on WK. Sounds like you are doing pretty great!
@Voi
I’m not too good with communities and usually feel more pressured than anything else (even though I know very well that there’s no reason to be). But I’m glad that it’s working so well for you! I’ll have a look at the books you’ve mentioned, some inspiration is always good
@Fidjeridodu
Thank you for your long reply! And thanks for the perspective, I guess I can see where you are coming from. It’s hard not to get frustrated after such a long while, but it is what it is.
I’ll try to be more positive about the whole journey
@mztik
Haha might as well been have my story. According to the stats, I abandoned WK for 3,5 years lol. The first level, the SRS and the radicals were just too weird for me.
And yes, it’s really frustrating to think about how far you could have been by now. But as the saying goes “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now” haha
In other news, I have finally levelled up! Yaaay! Now I only need to keep those reviews at bay…
I might have been too cocky…
But! I signed up for a Japanese class and had my first lesson today. I absolutely froze up and couldn’t remember even the most basic Japanese but I got to speak - for the first time in years. So that’s an improvement.
I’ve caught up to my WK reviews (once again) and will take some time to really familiarise myself with the kanji and vocab and then move on to new lessons.
So, maybe I won’t reach level 60 by the end of the year after all. But I’ll still keep on pushing! I’m stupidly stubborn after all!