It’s been more than a year since I started studying Japanese and WK. What started out as a random combinations of symbols began to become more and more comprehensible thanks to WK. I couldn’t imagine myself being able to read Kanji without the help of WK, and for that I am really really grateful. However, there comes a day that I have to leave its structured regimen and start something that’s more suitable for me.
During the early levels, from 1 - 30’s, was the time when I got the most from WK because I often get an “aha” moment when I encounter the Kanji or vocab that I just learned in my immersion. It gives an illusion that the universe itself is conspiring to intentionally reveal recently learned Kanji/words in my reading.
However, at about 40’s is when the honeymoon phase ended. Just like how you’ll feel when you wake up to a random girl that you picked up from a night of drinking: disillusionment. This was roughly the time when I started to seriously mine words and expressions. With each volume of manga I finish I get a backlog of 500 to 1,000 words that I’m itching to review in Anki. Plus, with my busy schedule, WK is starting to be a hindrance as I have to adhere to its schedule lest I get more and more behind and I have to review words and Kanji that are no longer relevant to my immersion of choice: Japanese history.
When I caught myself basically not caring whether or not a word sticks with me and have two instances where I just pressed Space and 1 (thanks anki mode for saving my fingers and wrists) just to “finish” reviewing a 200+ item session due to being physically and mentally exhausted is the time that I have to really put an end to this relationship.
In my eyes WK has changed, she seems to have let go of herself and become bloated with words/kanji that I don’t care about. She starts to nag me everyday to do my reviews even though I just want to immerse more and learn more Kanji and words that I care about.
So this is my thank you and goodbye for now. I also want to thank those who have been really helpful during my journey here in WK namely: Leebo, DIO-Berry, yamitenshi, Vanilla, rodan, and FirstMate-san (F for Llama-kun). You guys/gals have restored my faith in the internet: you proved to me that it is actually possible to have a friendly and welcoming community centered around a single hobby.
Props to you that you know what you need the most and re-evaluate your learning strategy to suit your needs. Not many people have the ability to do that. I wish you the best in your Japanese learning journey and may be we meet each other again at the end of the road.
Lmao I didn’t think leebo and I would both be thanked at the same time for being friendly. I mean, me I can understand, but LEEBO!!?? Heck that guy and his posting speed.
But yeah I think Ive said somewhere on here that if I were to redo wk I would stop around level 45, so I can understand the thought process. Enjoy those native contentos
Hey, it’s that guy from the sentence thread. Best of luck for your future Japanese studies, Japanese history seems like an awesome thing to delve into! By the way, I was feeling bad one time for only getting the annual subscription, but reading your comment in a certain post about continuing the rest of your SRS workload in Anki cheered me up. I’m continuing my annual until September next year and after that it’s Anki all the way
I’m a little sad that you’re leaving already, but I can totally understand. I know you mentioned something along those lines in the Japanese Sentence a Day thread and when discussing priorities past WaniKani.
Just wanted to say it was super fun exchanging sentences with you and that I find your dedication very very impressive .
Good luck in your endeavors as a 日本史オタク!
さよならのかわりにまたねという
In my case, I am studying Japanese as a hobby so the grind is tolerable as long as it allows me to do more fun stuff. Otherwise, it’ll feel like I’m working for free.
I think we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of engagement and enjoyment so that you won’t need to have discipline nor motivation to spend time in the language (especially since self control is a limited resource).
Thank you very much, I wish that we’ll both have fun studying Japanese.
Thanks. Initially, I had fun writing sentences while reinforcing the grammar that I’ve learned but currently I just want to keep on reading. It’ll sound embarrassing but there were times that it took me hours to properly convey my thoughts in Japanese. I think I’ll need to recognize more patterns and learn phrases/expressions.
