I absolutely love wanikani- it works really well for me and actually keeps me motivated to do it since I have a set number of tasks (reviews/lessons/etc) to do each day and I dont get stuck in this abstract loop of ~ooohhh how much can i learn in one day~??? So, I have been doing wanikani every day (well, maybe every other day for the first few months) for a little over a year now…and frankly, I am really really
REALLY
slow.
So slow that i end up forgetting a bunch of stuff I did this time last year that i should know and i definitely could have burned by now if I weren’t taking my sweet molasses-flavoured time.
Even through all of that time, I’m only 1/5 of the way through a program that people are able to do in a year or two total.
But! It really makes me appreciate the things that I do burn, because I did them so long ago I know that I really know them. And the ones that I can’t remember after a couple months, well it’s probably a good thing that I’m getting them wrong now since I guess I didn’t really learn them anyway.
And despite going really slowly, I haven’t lost interest or commitment, I still do my 70 or so reviews a day and try to get through 50ish lessons a week which is as much of a pace as I can handle (cause I guess I’m dumb or something…oops) which is way more committed than I’ve been to any other extra-curricular for like my whole life.
But honestly, even though I have a lot of “silver linings” to going so slow, when I realized how fast most people go I was super embarrassed, and I’ve been trying to speed up recently. So basically, everyone else who’s been trudging along with me I’d love to hear your reasons and maybe just a little positive reinforcement lol.
Op update because drama:
Ok! Not going to lie i hit 60 in august and reset to 40 in december because the review # was overwhelming. Like 3k reviews. I still go slow…i can still read manga and have full blown convos in japanese too.
Its been 4 years now of trudging which is fine for me!
As for pressure to go fast, the wanikani community has shifted over the years and its less popular now to be pressed for time.
I just hit level 60 about a week ago. It has taken me years. I quit WK a couple of times but I kept coming back.
Just keep at it. Don’t worry about the people who finish in a year. Go at your own speed and you’ll get there. Do what works for you.
It’s the weekend, so I won’t do the math to see which of us is slower! I started in December ‘16, reached level …umm…14 I think? Reset, am at level 7 now. I reset because I wasn’t remembering things, so no regrets.
Stick with it! I started learning Japanese at 51 (not that I’ve finished learning!)
Just curious as to how you survive in Japan without knowing Japanese? Is there a big expat community? How do you manage if you can’t read anything or speak to anyone (who doesn’t have a decent standard of English, which I thought was not as common in Japan)?
Having said that when we lived in Switzerland there were plenty of expats (usually Brits and Americans) who lived there for years without learning any German (we were in Zurich).
I started off at a reasonable pace and at one point was forecast to get to level 60 in Oct/Nov this year but since hitting level 30 my pace has slowed dramatically. I still do WK every day but without new lessons I am still on over 100 reviews per day and I’m finding it difficult to do lessons too. Still, my next trip to Japan has been deferred to 2021 at the earliest so part of me feels there is no rush.
I am also slow, but really enjoying it. Discovering that there was 112 vocabs to learn at level four was a real shock, but I too am doing my best to learn 50 things a week and staying the course. Doing wanikani reviews twice a day was such an easy habit to form and it’s so rewarding when I have a good day and get 95+% accuracy on a set.
Well, if you feel comfortable living in Japan without knowing the language, congrats, you don’t need it
I’m in a similar situation in Scandinavia. Have no motivativation to learn the local language whatsoever. 99% of the people here speak English fluently. Note, I’ve learnt enough vocabulary to do my shopping and I’ve even got a B2/B1 for listening/reading but when it comes to speaking I’m at a kindergartener’s level
But my passion is Japanese language, so I find a few hours every day to do some kanji reviews, grammar studies, listenting practice etc. There’s too little time to do everything that could’ve been good.
This thread is perfect for me Xd i‘m so slow, it almost hurt i started fast with the first levels and got slower and slower.
My slowest level was around 200 days I think and right now I‘m at 79 days for my actual level but I finally lerned and unlocked all kanji for this level, so I might level up in a few days. But then I have 100new vocab lessons again and it will take me ages to finish level 8
I started WK in March of 2014! (I reached level 2 just 894 days afterward.)
Once I got started, I keep my average level-up pace at around 24 days. I find that’s the right amount for good retention for me. I’m in my 40s and have a busy life, so I have a good sense of what it takes to make something stick. I’m also planning to run through the entire program again as soon as I’m done. Since I spend a lot of time in Japan, my goal is simply to be able to read fluently. I don’t live in the “expat bubble”—I rarely spend time with foreigners outside language school—so it makes me very uncomfortable to be unable to read. Anyway, lifelong learning keeps my brain healthy, too.
I also always remember insights from many senpai here. Including @plantron senpai on how to zero “gigantic” reviews in x (replace x with n weeks or months). I can’t point directly to the exact link but that tip’s in my heart anyway. Shouganai ne.
It’s also a relief to always remember @MissMisc senpai about not to worry when we get red. Missky always makes me feel better.
It’s 大丈夫 to feel embarassed as long as you don’t quit. Where I live, being shy is better than loud and proud and snobbish.
がんばろう！
PS. For any other regular, I moved this to Campfire, because I saw some good posts but deleted because it’s public. I hope we won’t delete good posts again. Feel free to move it back to WaniKani sub again later if you want.
Hello everyone, I think I belong to this club. I started in September 2018 but my pace dropped with time. Currently, I’m trying to do an average of 50 lessons per week. I’m also doing like 5 Bunpro lessons per week too.Sometimes, I like to watch some anime. I’m currently watching Shirokuma café with japanese and english subtitles. It’s nice when I can understand the meaning of something being said or something written.
Good luck everyone!
I’m kinda in the same boat tbh. I started WK nearly 2 years ago, and it’s a bit sad to come across other peoples’ posts of them speeding through levels in 7 days or so, because I keep thinking I could be like that yet I’m still on level 13. I even managed to get to a point where I was going through levels that quick, but thanks to a host of RL issues, I’ve had to pause my learning and at one point after slacking off for like 2 months, and trying for almost 4 to recover from the review pile, I had to drop down several levels and relearn the things while making my way back up. Thankfully that did the trick and while I’m taking 2 weeks (on average) to beat a level, I’m actually levelling up and continuing to learn, instead of sitting there without motivation.
The thing I’m realizing though is that it’s more akin to a marathon than a sprint, and so long as I’m showing up, then I’m making progress. I’m almost back at level 14 (where I was before the reset) but am taking it easy and being strict with capping my apprentice items at around 100 so that I definitely can do my reviews every day, regardless of what happens IRL, and if I miss a day that’s not something I can’t recover from. It’s definitely going to take me a long time to get to the point where i can read native material fine, but that’s okay. One of my favorite quotes is by Earl Nightingale: “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”. I really believe that. And the great thing is that with WK I feel like I’m actually learning and the things I learn are sticking. When I started I didn’t think I’d be able to learn Japanese, and was so overwhelmed at there not even being anything close to resembling Latin letters. I thought Kanji was this impenetrable wall. Now however, I can actually read (and/or listen to) some things, which is always surprising when it happens outside of WK, and my vocab is slowly, but steadily growing. Ironically, I just learned the word steadily today - 着々:D. So you’re not alone, but so long as you show up daily and keep putting in the effort, you’ll definitely get there :D.
i started fast with the first levels and got slower and slower.
and right now I‘m at 79 days for my actual level 
