Regrets Regarding Speed

I see that a lot of people seem to be obsessed with leveling up as fast as possible which… I believe to have it’s own merits. However what I’m really interested in is whether or not you regret leveling up as fast as possible? If so, what is it exactly that you regret doing/not doing?

My question is honestly aimed towards the upper levels (45+) but anyone is free to contribute. I and perhaps many others would love to learn what we can do to avoid as many pitfalls as possible.

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Hum, I don’t necessarily regret it because I was able to handle the speed. I do regret the things I didn’t do. For example, focusing more on reading/speaking.

So the point is… if your WK speed is making you have too little time to do other stuff, regrets might happen. It’s not that going fast on WK is a bad thing (if you’re able to handle it). It’s neglecting other stuff.

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Since there are many icnredibly useful and common kanji/vocab in the upper level, I don’t regret doing my best to level up as quick as I can. If I forget some less useful ones on the way, well, I won’t lose much sleep over it :sweat_smile:

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I know I’m not your preferred demographic, but;

So far I don’t regret the speed. I do sometimes curse past me for how short-sightedly I handled the speed. For a while I did pretty big chunks of lessons, rather than spread things out more wisely, and that of course comes back to bite you when burns start layering over your regular review load.

Like @temeraire said - somewhere in the 20s, there seemed to be this huge influx of very useful kanji that made a stupendous difference on my ability to read. It’s the biggest boost of motivation I’ve had in my Japanese studies so far, so I definitely don’t regret getting here as fast as possible.

I might have suffered blows to my resolve if I spend months on daily Japanese, and still feel like any amount of text is made up out of nothing but weird symbols that I don’t know.

While I’m certainly not as consistently fast as others, doing more than half my levels in 7 days has worked for me so far. If it stays that way: great. If it becomes too much of a burden, I’ll slow down. ^-^

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No, please, feel free to contribute. If anything, I feel like it’s great to be receiving insight from those somewhat similar in levels. I am currently lvl 23 btw, the chat just hasn’t updated it yet! If anything I feel like I’ve gained some new information from you and @temeraire.

Currently I have been taking everything pretty fast at approx, 7.5 days per level, give or take. I can take the high amount of reviews and lessons but I’ve hit a funk since yesterday and I was kind of contemplating whether I should keep going at my current pace. @jprspereira 's advice hit me hard too–I’ve been focusing a bit too much on WK and neglecting other things. I need to find a balance…

Hahaha my bad, started to think a bit out loud!

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Hi, for the most part I’ve been speeding through WK. Until level 25 that was… Then a mix of too much reviews accumulating and more ability to do other stuff (reading for example) made me slow down … That until level 37 or so (I was doing levels in 11-12 days on average). That allowed me to improve my reading routine and increase my vocab. Now I’ve returned to the speed lane, and it’s easier to learn new kanji, many of those I’ve seen before in words I’ve learned along the way, so relate them to something really has helped.
Anyway I would say that those first levels really helped to get proficiency with the language and enable the easy learning of vocab after a point … Now the revenues for this last levels feels less so, so I’m aiming at getting over with it :sweat_smile:

I guess there’s a rhythm to match the rest of things you’re doing in japanese (and your available time). So, no, in my case I don’t regret it :+1:

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Nothing wrong with that!

I know what you mean about it being hard to find a balance at times. Part of me kind of wants to speed through WK so that I can give singular focus to more reading and grammar studies.

In the past, I have found it very taxing to be doing WK, putting very meaningful amounts of time and effort into grammar studies, and then trying to work in reading and listening of native materials as well.

If you sign out of the forum and sign back in, you’ll be all good. :purple_heart:

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I’m exactly at the same level as yours, and while I could handle the speed in the first 10 to 15 levels, I had to slow down when the burn review began to arrive, not only because it is another influx of reviews, but there also was quite a bit of those reviews that went down to guru. And I couldn’t afford the additional time necessary to keep the same pace while doing grammar and reading at the same time (and my job too…)

Right now, I’m not focused on the time I take to finish a level, but rather on the lessons (little chunks, but really focused on the mnemonics). I don’t hesitate to let lessons pile up as long as I don’t have an acceptable number of apprentice items (<100).

And I don’t really feel bad, because I have hit a level where I can really begin to read some articles for beginners, so my motivation is as strong as ever :muscle:

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It’s good to reach level 40 as quickly as you can (without overwhelming yourself) so you could read a lot of text. After that you can either go to level 60 or reset to a comfortable level and go slow from there.

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I don’t regret going the speed I went. I went quickly because it was a matter of necessity. Like @jprspereira I do wish I had started doing extensive reading earlier than when I started. I had the time to do it, I just simply wasn’t motivated about applying what I was learning in this way.

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I went at (nearly) maximum speed all the way, and have no regrets, but keep in mind that:

  • same as @jprspereira, it impacted other parts of my life (family, work). Since reaching level 60, I’ve been able to set those right, though, so no regrets.
  • I also had a solid knowledge of kanji and Japanese in general coming in (JPLT N1, work in Japanese, Japanese family connections etc), so I had an easier time than average.
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I am currently living in fear as my irresponsibly big-chunked early lessons are going to come for burns any day now, but I don’t know exactly when.
shiver

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