I reached level 60 a few months ago and decided after I took the JLPT in July I was going to restart WaniKani from level 1 and learn everything again to reinforce the everything I learned and cover at weak spots of Kanji I may have forgotten after learning and never seeing again. I’m also going to set a goal of reaching level 60 again within one year, it should be achievable having already reached it. Today I’m going to reset my account and start over.
Has anyone else does something similar?
Edit:
Today I reached level 60. I missed my goal of one year by one week due to some adventures I had over the past year (like losing my phone in Japan and not having internet for 2 weeks), but I’m still happy with how I stuck to my goal and finished in about a year.
It turns out I learned a lot more the first time through WaniKani then I thought I did and I was able to breeze through it the second time. I also was able to really understand a lot of the vocab words I learned the first time but did not understand the nuance, real usage or small differences.
I’ll still be using WaniKani every day for the next few months to finish burning everything and learning any new material they add.
What I love about resetting to level 1 is that they now have more example sentences than when I first started (at least for the lower levels, but they’re working on adding more sentences to higher levels as well).
If I were you I would just start to read everyday whatever you like.The more you read the better retention of kanji-vocab you get. Starting all over feels like a big punishment to me.
While I understand that after reaching level 60 there will be stuff that probably won’t be that fixed into your memory as other items, have you considered other methods for reviewing? if it didn’t stick the first time why would now?
I mean, I’m only getting to complete halfway the WK system up to now, but I’ve already burned some items with sensation that could have gone either way depending on what kind of day I was having…
I was considering after I’m done with WK reviewing kanji with other system (RTK) + writting app, as to pratice writing and grasp each kanji with a fresh aproach.
As for vocab, wouldn’t immersion (reading) provide a better experience now that you have this great foundation?? I mean, reviewing new and old vocab while enjoying something of your liking seems a great way to keep a sustainable learning curve.
I can only speak for me. I don’t know how much have you actually enjoyed the whole experience. For me it’s an entry fee I feel I need to pay. …
Or maybe reviewing it’s lighting fast in the second run and doesn’t feel as bad as I think it does
Anyway I would like to hear what kind of situation lead you to start over.
It is not that some kanji did not stick, some just have few vocab words and if you burn them fast they disappear. I think going through and learning them again would help to remember them.
After reaching level 50 I started using anki everyday with kanji to better remember them and practice everyday. I also started reading manga of animes I like a few months ago (Hunter X Hunter and Hajime no Ippo) in Japanese.
I know the second run will be very quick and I really enjoyed using WaniKani every day and think it is a great tool for learning kanji. I want to keep using it and I think it is very beneficial to learn all the kanji again.
I agree, I think once I’m finished, I’d much rather spend the amount of time I’m currently putting into WK into reading/listening to Japanese. Because as great as WK is, I feel like it’s a bit theoretical. In other words, It’s great to know what a word means basically, but until I start seeing it in context regularly, I don’t really know it.
Of course one could argue that I should be reading/listening right now while I’m doing WK. That is true, and I’m doing my best at it, but I also have a full time job and a partner at home, so time isn’t unlimited and WK takes a lot of it.
Having written all that, I now kind of feel bad if it looks like I’m judging anyone else for deciding to reset their level. I’m not. Absolutely it’s a personal decision, and I may well revise my opinion after reaching level 60.
I’m fully planning on resetting once I hit level 60, but I’m not sure to what level. Level 1 would probably drive mad with radicals, but at the same time it might be worth it to have the very basic kanji good and firm?
Then again, those might be firm enough. I have 11 levels to figure it out, but would the people around here who’ve resetted have any suggestions on how far to reset for the second round?
It’s the opposite for me. I’m going slower the second time around, because there is no pressure of reaching 60 any more. And to create a workload of no more than 200 reviews a day.
Although I am far from being finished the first time, I think it would be great if you could modify the sequence for a second round. For example by frequency, JLPT, School grade, theme (body parts, society, colors, etc)or whatever goal it is you want to work towards. Also an adjustable amount of kanji per level, or the option to do vocab only or kanji only. I believe all of this would make it more interesting to keep using the system.
I’ve toyed with the idea of resetting or at least resurrecting items that I haven’t gotten much exposure to since burning them, but I haven’t gone about undertaking just yet or at least until I’ve burned all the items I have now. Though I have found that items that didn’t seem to stick during WaniKani have come up in other contexts, the places I’ve come across these items aren’t plentiful enough to help cement those items into my long-term memory by themselves. At least for me, since I know that this would be an inevitability for me, using the structure that WK provides for me allows me to effortlessly review material systematically, which other methods may not have established.
I haven’t reset, but… you could use Self-Study Quiz to run through each level, starting a 1, until you reach a level that you feel you want to reset to.
This makes sense, since the whole point of “burning” is to say that something is fixed in your long-term memory forever (haha). Yet people likely wouldn’t feel like resetting if they didn’t feel as though those burns were at least a little shaky. A second six-month period before a second burn could be useful for that, though I still feel like in the the long run, it’s a case of use it or lose it. (or maybe not “use it” but at least “encounter it in the wild” or lose it.)
On the other hand, I don’t really know how words are cemented. I learned “diaphanous” as a child because an adult used it in conversation (probably to show off his vocabulary), and I asked what it meant. In the subsequent 40 years or so, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard or read that particular word, yet here it is in my brain, taking up space that could be used for Japanese!
I think depending on exposure and what kind of material you’re consuming some words may be more or less used, but then, why would you need the systematic aproach again, isn’t it exposure telling you wich words and kanjis are needed for your particular needs anyway?
I’m doing WK, thinking that in the end some kanjis won’t apear much and it’s ok if they are forgotten at some point (I could always look them up if they show)… then I’m sure I will encounter a few that aren’t in WK as well and I will find ways for them to stick too.
Anyway, I’m starting to read, so I guess it makes sense to me to progress in my readings and eventually make those my “systematic aproach”… but then I understand that others may have different routines
