I reset from about 34 to 1. By the time I was at that level I had thousands of leeches and lots of burned items I didn’t feel comfortable with having burned. After a long WK hiatus I’ve returned and reset to level 1. It feels pretty good actually.
I’m also using another app to learn how to draw kanji. I feel like I need to learn each kanji more intimately than just recognizing it to really learn it, so with this other app I practice drawing and even stroke order. The app is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mindtwisted.kanjistudy
If anyone’s interested. Highly recommended!
One problem I find with WK is that I can recall the meaning of Kanji when I see them but if I try to draw them - I draw a blank! Perhaps less important these days as most interactions are via keyboards. Still it feels odd that I “know” the Kanji but obviously don’t know them fully.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. If I were to start over again, knowing what I know now, I would practice drawing the radicals at a minimum, and maybe the kanji, too.
After finishing WK, I spent some time drawing the radicals, and it made a huge difference in my ability to write, but also makes it easier to distinguish visually similar kanji.
I’ve thought about this a lot. It is true that nowadays it’s more important to be able to recognize kanji than know how to draw them. But still… That’s why I use the Kanji Study app together with WK. It has a feature where you can practice drawing them on your phone screen. WK and Kanji Study are my two main resources for learning Japanese right now and I think they’re a very good combo.
This is a good point. I don’t use user synonyms myself but there should be a possibility to retain them after reset. Or at least a userscript to export/import them easily.
I’m doing something similar, I was lv50, but then I took a long break, and I feel like I’ve forgotten too much. So I decided to reset down to lv10 and start over from there.
The more i spend time studying the less crazy the decision taken by people like you and Leebo seems to me.
Sadly I don’t think I could afford a lifetime account so I’m not sure if I’ll do that at the end… We’ll see
But yeah the point is that I can fully understand you guys, there is so much information comprised in each kanji and word that you get this feeling that you need to go all over again… maybe more than once to fill gaps.
Crudely put, learning (in the sense of acquiring) is similar to habit forming. Some habits are formed quickly without much repetition. Other habits require more care and cultivation to maintain. Similarly, due to certain conditions, acquiring certain words (or kanji) doesn’t take as much effort to make impression, while other times they may require even more repetition than what is even available for the WK SRS. Just because I am not personally exposed to some vocabulary (or kanji) doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t need to know it. There are things that are necessary that don’t necessarily align with anything I come across regularly.
After attaining a certain level of mastery, there’s nothing worse than coming across something like it was brand new only to find that I had studied it before. In my case one example of this would be 水道. I would have no problem understanding this when reading. This word, however, came up in conversation with regard to paying utilities (namely the water/sewer bill). For a second, I immediately processed it as a new word until I understood by context what was being talk about. Later I looked it up to find that it was vocabulary I was exposed to in level 8 (almost three years ago). I clearly remember answering that one the same way every time (aqueduct), which consequently led to a very one dimensional understanding of the word. Since I hadn’t had exposure to the word in reading or needed to use it personally, it fell right out of consciousness.
The point I’m trying to make here is that having the extra exposure to such words (or kanji) only minimizes times such as the one I just mentioned. Besides, I’ve already paid for a lifetime membership. So I might as well make use of this resource since I have access to it. I probably won’t be using WK the same way I’ve used it in the past (if I intend on resurrecting select items or use rfindley’s study script). Additionally, WK won’t be the only place I’ll review stuff in the future. It will, however, provide me with additional exposure/practice for items I feel need more effort.
I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you as you continue your journey for learning to read and learning Japanese.
I have actually just started a second account. I noticed that when I tested myself on items I had burned, there were a fair number I had no idea about.
I just reached level 3 (apparently they send you stickers now), and am considering whether to start paying US$9 per month to keep that account going, after already paying for lifetime. I am currently thinking I will.
This will allow me to concurrently go through the slow process of trying to burn everything on this account, while slowly revising everything from the ground up on the other.
I am also determined not to allow myself to fall into the bad habits that I think prejudiced my performance the first time around - for example, I installed a reorder script to get through a backlog when I faltered for a couple of days around level 25, and then allowed myself to keep using it to avoid interleaving.
I love the process of learning, but doing an additional 100,000 reviews on material you’ve already learned sounds extremely punitive to me. But, to each his own.
I did something similar. From about level 10-40 I used the reorder script to make lessons kanji first, reviews do each item one at a time and slightly abused the ignore answer script. I stopped doing this around and felt I learned everything much better.
The very concept of WK is doing reviews on material you’ve already learned, hence the SRS. Also, punishment is penalty for doing something wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong but rather chose myself to reset from 60 to level 1.
No, the concept of WK is to do reviews on material that you haven’t learned; once you have learned (burned) it, you stop doing reviews.
My point isn’t to discourage you from spending your time that way if that’s what you want to do; I just disagree with your earlier suggestion that only people who “don’t enjoy the process of learning” would find what you’re doing unpleasant. I think most people who enjoy learning would rather spend that 100+ hours learning something new.
I always forget they give out stickers now… I’m tempted to make another account just to get one, lol.
Userscripts are both a blessing and a curse. Most of the time I’m pretty good about using them responsibly, but there have definitely been times where I use the ignore script when I shouldn’t have and burned an item.
I agree. If you really really enjoy the daily process of Wanikani then keeping it in your life is more entertainment (perhaps) than fair play. I’m planning to use Scribbler to re-in force Wanikani when I’m done. I did the free week and learned how to write a few basic kanji - and I found it really stuck home as I’d already learned most of the kanji I came across. They have a Wanikani course too
Thanks, but I don’t want to imply that my “first run” through Wanikani has been anything like a failure (although I have to admit it was not quite as effective as it would have been had I not abused the reorder and ignore answer scripts).
A “second run” is not really what I am doing; rather a confirmatory run to shore up some weak points that is more convenient (but also more expensive) than resetting. Also, now that I think about it, another motivation is that I miss the process of going through the elements of each level and levelling up - the gamification factor, I suppose.
I can read Japanese fairly well now, and my primary learning activity by this stage is reading Japanese in the original. Grammar and idiom are the limiting factors in this, not reading ability. (I am currently slogging my way through 騎士団長殺し, and my reading ability is generally quite adequate for this.)
I’m on level 24 & already it’s taking a toll on me . On the other hand you have already reached 60 & restarted again. I can’t think of anything more painful than that. Having to see through those reviews piling up & having to type everything makes one fatigued & it takes a lot of time & energy.
If i were you, i would spend my time more valuably, since i have already completed level 60 . I would spend more time on obtaining reading materials. or ordering some books or even improving my grammer. It would help a lot in your kanji too. You can’t remember kanji’s because you don’t see it used in sentences . So that’s why reading books or novels or stuff like that will enforce your kanji & you will know how a kanji is used in a context. In that way, you can retain more kanjis in your memory rather than the monotonous time consuming reviews . It will be real boring & you will get tired soon.
