Hi all! I have a question for the ultra-marathon wanikaniers. Those who have completed the program and maniacally, restarted it all over again.
So after a long slog, I finally got to level 60 about 2 months ago. I now realize it’s probably gonna take (at least) a whole year to burn all my remaining items and I’ve been contemplating resetting.
My main issue is the language I’m focusing on now is generally beyond my ability to use. Although it’s super useful knowing these kanji I encounter in the wild, I won’t fully understand the context they’re used in for a while yet. I’m around N3 and looping N1 and 2 kanji. Thus, I’m questioning the usefulness of circulating this language whilst potentially forgetting easier more relevant language. I have been intermittently resetting single random vocabs throughout my journey and also realize there is a script for practicing burnt items. But I simply don’t have the time to be reviewing the entire wanikani database and burning my remaining items too!
What I really want to know is, how was the wanikani experience 2nd time around? Did it consume and equal amount of time to progress through the levels? How much of the vocab did you actually remember? If you forgot the language, did it come back to you quicker than the first time round or was it equally mentally exhausting to relearn?
I’ve been toying with the idea of resetting and focusing on writing (I recently did a one-week language course and realized I can’t write much beyond things like 天気 or 森, and that’s a real gap in my knowledge). However, this app isn’t meant to teach writing, so I’m not resetting any time soon.
The only person I know right now doing a second round is @polv. Hopefully they will have some insight.
That being said, my own personal plan is to just do my own personal second round made up of looking at Weblio context sentences and seeing all of the different uses, which seems like it would by the better use of my time. But I am not at that place obviously, so take that with a grain of salt
I’m currently on a second tour. I had a couple of years where I couldn’t really commit to learning Japanese in any serious capacity and I thought I could do with a refresher course, since I was struggling a bit as I continued my studies after the somewhat lengthy hiatus. I have two main thoughts on resetting…
First of all, I would take care not to reset too low – go over every item at somewhere like www.wkstats.com and write down all the items you didn’t recognise or messed up in some way. Start at a point where there are more significant gaps, as it’s something of a waste of time to repeat lists of words and kanji where you know 95% of the items.
Secondly, I’d first spend some time trying to read and listen to Japanese media and learn some additional vocabulary that way. Not only should you be doing that anyway, but it will make it much easier to create reference points to things you already know as you try to memorize things. For example, if you have heard the phrase よけいなこと in enough stories, it becomes much easier to remember the word 余計 in a study context and tie the kanji to it.
As for my own resetting experience, it’s very smooth so far. Too smooth, in fact. Right now there are quite a lot of items I know instantly and I make mistakes more out of carelessness than anything else, so reviews are done pretty quickly. Relearning the few items I had forgotten has been very easy as well. There haven’t been very many of them so far, so lessons take practically no time at all right now. As for progress, I’ve been going at pretty much the maximum speed so far (or at least as reasonably close you can get to it without setting alarms). Overall, it’s been a nice experience, but somewhat lacking of challenge.
Do you have to reset to 1? Why not 10 or 20? Do some self study reviews to see what level you start having less confidence. I’m only level N5 and I can’t imagine redoing level 1-5 would really be a good use of time. I had to restart because I had forgotten everything.
In my personal opinion, I feel that resetting and redoing wanikani would be a colossal waste of your time. At some point you just have to immerse yourself in native content to progress - Wanikani is not going to get you fluent.
I’ve found that there is a ton of vocab that I have forgotten. However if I encounter them in the wild, it just takes looking up the word in the dictionary once to remember it. If you feel like you need more than that, then simply add that particular item to an Anki deck. Not all of the kanji is going to be important for the content you will be consuming, so I’m sure that you will encounter the ones you need time and time again which will make it stick.
If you’re wanting to go for the N2 or N1 JLPT at some point, then I’d just focus on the desired level’s kanji when that time comes.
I don’t know all the words in my native language, so I wouldn’t put so much pressure on remembering ones that you won’t use regularly. As long as you’re able to use a dictionary then you’re going to be just fine
Practice actually writing out kanji to better learn it. Not sure about the best way to start though… I want to try scritter at some point but don’t have a smart phone.
Read books, news articles, etc… (Although I have tried this and my vocab and grammar simply isn’t there yet for the stuff I want to read)
Insert word into Anki. I currently use Brainscape, an equivalent to Anki (perhaps for dummies) It kind of does the same thing as Anki but with a friendlier user interface.
I think after all of that, I will eventually reset after a few more months. The only thing that I was worried about was that the lessons and reviews would continue to take a significant amount of time.This does not seem to be the case though. Happy days
Came to say this. As I was nearing level 60, I thought about resetting, but decided against it. All that time I used to dedicate to WaniKani, I use to read now instead. Not only am I learning more new words, but I’m also getting exposed to some new grammar and sentence structures that I am not quite used to seeing. It’s tough at first and my reading speed is still extremely slow (like 4-pages-per-hour-on-a-light-novel slow), but it’s been tremendously useful for my reading comprehension.
Well, even though I am a “first time user” now at Lv52, I can relate to this since I got N2 prior to starting Wanikani to “force myself” to go beyond the ~1,000 Kanjis I knew.
Must say the first 20/25 levels were painful but from 30 on started to consolidate Kanjis and vocab a lot (especially the tricky long おう/しゅう, making less mistakes now between short/long ans confusing Japanese ppl a lot less when speaking ).
From 40 on, I started to learn actual new Kanjis in mass and that felt really nice.
My take hence would be:
reset to somewhere in the 30s/40s depending on the state of your memorization (as stated above, quickly check the lists on wkstats)
read/listen to Japanes daily (NHK news are excellent for that purpose)
check weblio or other similar sources to deepen your understanding of how vocab is used
I’m still wondering how to make the jump to books. I feel like I am learning so slowly but maybe the pace has to be slow at the beginning… Well back to slave away over Genki…
If you’re still working on Genki and your wanikani level is accurate to your knowledge of Kanji, then I wouldn’t feel to bad about not being able to read much yet.
Once you complete Genki 2 and reach level 15-20 then it should become much easier. Consider using a graded reader like Satori Reader to help ease the transition. Either way, in the beginning it’s gonna suck
Sorry if you are already doing regular reading. I feel that you need to read and listen to content that is at a level appropriate for you now even if it is not what your interested in. Otherwise, you may never be able to read the content that does interest you. There is so much to learn from even very simple books that you just will not get from WaniKani.
No matter how much WaniKani you do you will have to dive into native content at a level that is comfortable, yet challenging for you or you won’t make much progress. At least that’s my opinion. There are many people here who know much more Japanese than me.
Like lluminari said Graded Readers are where I’ll be starting once I hit level 10. Good post below on getting started with graded readers and other forms of text…
I have recently been reading よつばと！ and I strongly recommend it. It is quite simple to read and there is a whole discussion thread from the beginners book club where people have asked and answered all sorts of questions about it. It is also very funny and interesting and the pictures themselves express a lot. I think having such interesting content to read is very motivating.
Graded readers might be a better option for some people but I would personally pick よつばと！because of how interesting it is.
Edit: FYI よつばと！ is known as one of the easiest manga to read.
I consider resetting would be a waste, really… Well, WK does take a lot of time. I can’t imagine myself going for another round. Besides, this is supposed to familiarize you with Kanji. After this, you are to start diving into native material right away. If you don’t remember a kanji (which will happen) you look it up and rinse and repeat until you memorize it.
On top of that, WK again sounds extreeeemely dull. No sir, I love it and I still keep at it just because it’s constantly teaching me novel kanji. But once I’m through I know what to do. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I love reading. So I’m sure I will fare fine.
It was in a similar situation.
I recommend the 日本語の森 youtube channel for grammar. They talk in a way that is very easy to follow, and they have lessons for each JLPT level. Learning Japanese grammar in Japanese just makes so much more sense to me. I think it’s a good idea to stop relying on translations when you can.
That’s how I studied grammar. After a few months I started playing some Japanese games online for practice/fun and eventually got to know some people that way. We have talked almost every day since then… the end
…except I realized it’s too easy to get stuck in the “good enough” area and stop progressing. I knew I was forgetting a lot of vocab for lack of use (since what you need for daily conversations is so basic).
That’s why I came back after 4 or 5 years and reset my level.
I think resetting is fine but I recommend you try going on a “journey” first. Try learning from other places, finding some native content you like. There’s so much you can do when you don’t have to worry about reviews every day!
