Hello everybody. I have never posted here before nor have I ever used the community feature, but I decided that I’d post something if I ever made it to level 60. Well, here I am. I never thought I’d get this far when I first started almost 3 years ago. I’ll say a few things concerning a few different topics.
First off, I have to vocalize my appreciation for WaniKani and how much it has helped me with vocab and kanji knowledge. I recently studied abroad in Japan and the knowledge I gained from WaniKani was invaluable. There were many times I was complimented on my kanji knowledge both from native Japanese speakers and foreigners who could speak Japanese better than I could. In short, WaniKani is highly practical.
Concerning practice speed, prioritize consistency over speed. There were 2 instances where I was taking on too big a study load and suffered from burnout. I couldn’t bring myself to touch WaniKani for 2 weeks both times, which made returning to reviewing very difficult. Also, I found that when I was learning and reviewing consistently, my retention and accuracy were noticeably higher than when I was reviewing sporadically. I remember accidentally clicking on the community tab once and seeing a post about how it’s okay to have under 100 items in Apprentice at a given time. I stuck to this and found the workload much more bearable. Learning is not a race to the finish; you will undercut yourself in your pursuit of speed. Be slow and consistent and your efforts will bear fruit.
Lastly, I’ll touch on the title of my post. I’m not sure how to feel about reaching 60. I don’t feel too accomplished, to be honest. In fact, I feel pretty normal. It also feels weird knowing that my reviews will decrease once I learn the level 60 kanji and vocab. In the past almost 3 years, WaniKani has been an almost daily part of life, and it will feel weird to see that slowly change. The timing of reaching level 60 could not be better, however. I leave next month to go to a Japanese language school to improve to fluency, as I would describe myself as conversationally proficient in Japanese. I feel really good knowing that I’ll already know almost every kanji I’m taught, allowing me to focus more on speaking and grammar.
I’m too sure if I’ll even look at the replies on this post, should I get any. I simply felt like I needed to honor the promise I made at the beginning of this journey. To everyone who read this, thanks for your time, and best of luck in your kanji studies!
