My journey of 2315 days (dedicated to all slow-goers out there)

WaniKani
#69

Such a great result, thanks for sharing. Shows if you keep sticking at it, you’ll make it. @quadban, you’ve given me the courage to try again (and buy a lifetime membership too!).

@Clambordan, your timing is similar to mine. Joined July 2012, did some lessons, but let it go. I remember joining after being in Japan years before, wanting to continue study and committing to learning Japanese. It didn’t happen. Getting married, family, moving, jobs - life - for all of us, it’s something that gets in the way that challenges our goals.

The community certainly has grown and reading these threads are inspiring. I’ve reset, just did my first lessons and waiting for reviews. Know now it’s ok to progress slow, stop, or fast - I’ll keep on moving. One day I’ll be 60 too.

But hey, better to keep trying…

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#70

Me too, and I started WK as a non-beginner! Maybe for the first 10 levels, but as the burns come in and more and more new kanji readings, to keep that pace must be impossible unless you have unlimited free time or you’re a student or better still, an ALT. Oh all the hours I wasted as an ALT with zero workload! I digress

1 Like
#71

I know this is a little old of a thread, but it’s so inspiring! I’m disheartened as hell when I feel like I’m making good progress and my levels are all twice the duration of the ‘typical’ poster.

I feel like I’m going to burn out when I am doing more than 10, maybe 15 lessons a day (with the occasional skipped day), and proof that slow-and-steady worked for you is awesome.

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#72

Still active, just moving slow like the level-ups! :sloth:

I only have the right to say that since I spent almost 2 months on Level 19.5! I am getting back on track now, since I did my radicals yesterday!

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#73

I’m at 2400+ days and still on level 16. I look forward to the day I beat your record.

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#74

In that case, you’ll have to start a thread. Also, there will always be this joke thread one step ahead of the record: My Journey of ∞ Days

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#75

There are slow threads?? I have found my people.

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#76

Yep. Incidentally, the threads also move pretty slowly. There’s another one here:

https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-unofficial-sloth-club/36798

#77

You are like me. Going at it slow. I have a super busy life. But I go at my own pace. I am so glad I got the Lifetime membership! I still do WaniKani every day, but like you said, I may just have to do reviews to keep up until I get down to a comfortable level. I still come every day, but am going at my own pace. It is sad sometimes, when you see people going super fast and leaving you in the dust! But they probably have a way different life than you do do! I am still super committed to Japanese and going slow in no way impairs my desire!

I started WaniKani in October 2018 and I’m only Level 12. (So that tells you right there that I’m a slowbro.)

Thank you for the encouragement and fellowship to the fellow slow goers out there!

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#78

I started in 16 so you are definitely faster than me, however I am sure someone is slower than me. I just like these slow threads because people sound a little less bent on perfectionism, which is a trait I have that I have been working on.

Right now I have just been doing only reviews to get my apprentice numbers under 100…it used to be around 400 iirc and recently it is down to 297.

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#79

Just hit 60. 1719 days. 129 day was the longest “break”. Now to burn everything.

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#80

Frustrated. Feels too slow to have any benefit from learning still

#81

Update! Reviews are at 134. Getting close :3

Edit: got to sub 100! Hovering around 95 so I started doing one set of 3 lessons. Starting slow but don’t plan on having my apprentice reviews go over 100 again

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#82

Go you! –

#83

I was getting discouraged because I’ve been on level 9 for at least 1000 years. This makes me feel better. Fight fight!

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#84

I was walking behind someone on my walk home once with that tattooed down his leg.

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#85

I just started my WK journey after finishing learning hiragana and katakana and I was nervous seeing people reaching level 60 in like less than a year, I thought it was the way to go but then I saw your story and it made me realize that it’s fine to take it slow, I’ll eventually get there. Congratulations!!

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#86

Can’t remember when I started, but still on level one. The mnemonics don’t work for me, nor does much else. Me and kanji just don’t mix.

#87

More important than speed is probably using the material you know or it will very quickly get forgotten. This is easier said than done since much level appropriate material won’t include kanji of lesser frequency.

One issue I had was with similar characters… I’d burn a character, but a very similar character would be introduced at a higher level… the two similar characters were never at play in the system together, so it was easy to get confused. I ended up resurrecting all my burned kanji and it created a lot of issues with confusing similar characters. This might have been rectified somewhat by using the material in context more.

I think I wouldn’t really want any extra material on WK… it’s already a tremendous amount of out-of-context material and I doubt I’ll ever see all items burned as I claw and scratch my way up to 8000 burned.

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#88

A bit of an old thread, but uh, thank you so much! I had to stop WK last year for a myriad of personal problems (including but not limited to carpal tunnel). It think I put in, at most, 3 levels over the course of a year. I already had a busy schedule before, and by then, seeing people say “all you have to do is do reviews five times a day and you’ll be done in a year” stung even harder.

It’s nice for people to share their stories of concilliating Wanikani with their busy lives. Warms my heart.

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