Usually it’s people who say it’s “too slow”. Either they want to learn all the kanji at once (or as much as they can cram into their brains), or they come into WK with some previous kanji/Japanese language knowledge, so that the first levels are too easy and they don’t want to wade through all the low levels first. At least, those are the people who have complained and made threads about it here on WK. (If you search “WK is too slow” or look at the Campfire Table of Contents thread you’ll find posts or links to posts about this.)
But while you have the 3 free levels, don’t you think it’s better to make your own opinion?
Yes, but since I’m being here as a ‘the new guy’ without much knowledge about learning in general (I’m a very bad learner and a pretty lazy person), I thought it’d be great to have a feedback from people that used the website for a while.
I like the website as it is now, but it could’ve been an worthless investment, so I wanted to know beforehand
Do you think there’d be so many people lurking in this forum if people didn’t think it’s woth it? If it’s worthy for you, should be easiely determined in the free levels. But there are many people here and I think that’s a big statement.
As everybody said, Wanikani has 3 free levels, so there’s no need to pay for now.
I love Wanikani, so I highly recommend it. Choose monthly subscription and think about how you feel about Wanikani. As for me, I’m at level 12 and I’m ready to go for an annual subscription. Today I was reading NHK easy and understood about 90%. I really think Wanikani is a good investment.
Wanikani is too slow? Well, I think learning about 35 kanji and 110 words a week is a good pace.
Genki is more or less the, but at least a, standard resource (in English). Well rounded and contains pretty much everything a beginner needs.
There are resources with a similar coverage in different styles, e.g. more humerus, more tailored to manga fans, etc. Another often named standard resource is みんなの日本語, though, in my opinion its harder to use than Genki, without an instructor.
In the end the best advice is to just pick one and stick with it. Genki is definitely a resource that works if you work through it, like pretty much every other complete resource, too.
As others have said, definitely wait a little while in the trial to see if it’s really for you. Fall in love. Then give all your money to WaniKani. I did, and so far, it’s been worth it.
What I mean is… if they didn’t like WK, they left - they didn’t stick with it or get into deeper content… (I’m at least mostly right, but this is still a generalization and there may be people hiding who really hate WK but are determined to keep going for some reason or another…)
I’ve been on this site for years, sat at the free levels like you right now, and said “Wanikani isn’t worth my money for the Lifetime yet” because I had other means of studying Japanese I enjoyed more.
But what I realized is, I really enjoyed the use of the SRS with Wanikani, and I was tired of not being able to unlock more. (I use Anki and a bunch of other programs, but they are a lot of work for me, Wanikani does a lot of the work for me and also is more random than other programs I use)
I know I don’t log in every day because I do other things with my life ( I have way too many hobbies ) But all of your comments just seem so rude to anyone who has purchased lifetime.
I am only level ?? now because I like to take my time, but I have access to everything until I decide to quit and deactivate or whatever.
I also don’t like automatic drafts out of my account, so if I went monthly or yearly and just stopped coming, I would be annoyed to see that kind of thing coming out of my account ( or say something bad happens to me and no one knows ? Worst case scenario )
So while you are still in the free levels, maybe deciding about your own decision to continue with payment or not, don’t judge people who spend it upfront. Maybe that was their way of motivating themselves to become better at Japanese.
You don’t know anything about anyone else’s lives and this community has always been really friendly and supportive to people who actually care about others and respect them.
sorry if I took this way too personally…just wanted to add my two cents
Anyways, I hope to see OP continue past level 3 in the future! Let’s work together to get better at Japanese!
I am currently sticking to Monthly payments even though it works out to more. I’m only doing it to see how dedicated I am. If I see that I’m disciplined enough to use the service then I’ll eventually switch to a lifetime subscription. Hopefully it will go on sale.
Yes it is worth it. As you long as you study a fair amount and actually do it, you will be able to read a crazy amount of things in a short amount of time in comparison to other means of study. Wanikani is also quite fun and often feels like a game. I couldn`t reccomend it more. But yeah, do the first three levels first and see. I bought a year subscription, I suggest trying this one first maybe?
Definitely worth it! But as others have said, you are asking a bunch of dedicated WK subscribers.
I think a better question might be ‘why should I get a WK subscription’… That way ppl can tell you about their experiences, instead of just saying YES!
I find WK to be the best mode of studying the difficult subject of kanji and to keep me on track. Personally, I started a few years back, let myself drop off (life reasons) reset and then began again early this year. So, I’ve had 3 years of yearly subscription. Lifetime would have been a much better investment, but I didn’t forsee it back then. Now I’m 100% onboard with WK and do my reviews EVERY day! I have decided to upgrade to the lifetime membership when the sales roll around at Christmas time. (there is usually an annual sale with a significant discount at that time of year).
WK is a way of life. Lol. Once you are really in, you are in it until cake… And beyond even! I have seen several people in the forums reset from 60 to 1 to reinforce learning.
Anyway, it’s all up to what you wanna do. Welcome to the forums and enjoy the free levels. Good luck with your Japanese journey!
For me it takes the rush out of the WK while still motivates me into studies every day as I’m invested in this.
If I were under monthly or yearly subscription, I would be looking at my next billing day and worrying about completely useless things like “will I be level X before my sub renews”
Also lifetime sub gives upfront support to creators allowing them to keep developing the product with much better cashflow.
I highly recommend WK to anyone who will listen. I have no idea how I would’ve learned as many kanji as I have so well. It’s made my life in Japan better. Seriously, you’d think they pay me to talk it up.
Make sure you use it consistently. I slacked during 夏休み and boy am I suffering now.
Wanikani won’t teach you everything. It targets a specific part of Japanese: reading kanji. That’s it. You get vocab too, to help cement readings, but it’s not primarily a vocab acquisition tool either. So you’ll need to assess where it fits in among other tools based on your current needs as a learner, learning style, and budget.
That said, I think it’s probably the single best tool as far as what it targets that I’ve encountered in the entirety of my learning. It has helped me substantially while living in Japan, made kanji-acquisition an effortless and hands-off part of my study routine, and better enabled me to remember and understand new kanji on my own. It played a significant role in my passing the N1 only a year after the N3. My answer is “yes, it’s worth it,” but of course that won’t fit everyone. Especially if you’re literally just starting with the language, I don’t think it’s immediately urgent, and it may be something to look at after getting basic grammar under your belt.
(But also, like, yes, if you ask on the forums for the site itself, of course you’re mostly going to find people who decided it was worth it.)
I see! You make a great point, many people look at their studies differently so I should make myself an idea before I take any decision.
Plus the lifetime seems to be pretty fair, especially if I can manage to get it on sales ^^
Thank you, I’m pretty motivated to get the best out of it !
