I wondered if anyone else would like to share their stories of what WaniKani (and learning Japanese) means to them.
I have been working essentially the same job at the same place for the past ten years. I’ve gone as far as I can go, basically. I like what I do (electronics production technician), but I am rarely challenged to really exercise the brain cells, it’s all “burned” information, to put it in WK terms.
Taking on Japanese is what keeps me relatively sane. Kanji even more so, as it exercises several parts of the brain… I can’t think of anything else that would give me such a thorough mental workout as learning to speak and read a language that is so foreign to my native English that there is no root language, no shared symbols, etc.
I’ve just started, so not sure if my answer will be that relevant, but:
making huge progress in my learning within short period of time gives me satisfaction. As you have said, it’s like a mental workout - sometimes it gets harder, but when you pass the threshold, you get so much joy. And I don’t only mean WaniKani, but also Hiragana / Katakana guides from Koichi and TextFugu.
Previously I’ve spent my free hours on doing nothing (checking SocialMedia / Youtube etc.) Right now I am being productive, not wasting my time anymore. It’s so cool!
My reason for learning Japanese is about the same as yours.
I have been retired for over 30 years, and I find that remembering things has gotten pathetic.
The WaniKani system works really well for me when it comes to exercising my brain.
Best of luck in your studies.
deru2
I wanted a hobby to help myself relax a bit outside of my somewhat stressful main job. And I decided social media was hurting me more than helping me. So I got rid of FB and got a WK account, and I love it.
Sometimes I spend a bit too much time on the forums, though…
I’m absolutely abysmal when it comes to self discipline so anything productive helps a lot. Wani Kani & learning Japanese are probably the only things I can do on a daily basis, besides drawing.
I really like kanji and do well enough with learning it. But when I go for a while without practicing, I tend to forget how to write some or I forget some of the readings. I finally decided to use WK as a way to help me retain the kanji and readings. It seems to help me a lot and I get to learn new words along the way which is great, because I desperately need to build my vocabulary.
I hope to learn more kanji and words so I feel more comfortable with reading books without having to constantly look things up >.<
Wow I could almost have written this. I got rid of my FB account, which had over 140 “friends”, and started a new one, mainly because I have relatives overseas that I like to keep up with. I have maybe 13 friends on the new one.
