The unofficial SLOTH club

I’ve been at it for five years and I’m on level 15. And I feel like I’m always doing reviews throughout the day. I wish I could level up faster but I’m enjoying myself and love learning Japanese so I can’t complain.

10 Likes

A slow one is I. I’m coming up on my second year anniversary at level seventeen.

I’m just happy with what I’ve learned so far.

6 Likes

Started mid-February, well into level 8 now, compared with most people who post on this board that probably counts as rather slow. My pace is determined by my doing exactly 10 new lessons a day, every day, so I can keep up with the reviews. I had this lightbulb moment a month or so ago when, after literally years of doing a lot of studying with SRS (Anki, mainly) I finally realized that a SRS makes no sense at all when you don’t get through your reviews when they come up. So I’ll rather go slow and systematic rather than rush and then be overwhelmed. I am also studying vocab and grammar with an Anki deck of my own, plus I care for doing my KameSame reviews as they come up, so that really limits me. And with three kids and wife who also works there really isn’t a lot of time in the day for learning Japanese. So I try to make this hour or so per day count. :wink:

4 Likes

And I am a big fan of sloths. Always been. :innocent:

4 Likes

Sorry, I deleted the post in question. Can you please delete the post I am replying to?

1 Like

Resetting seems to mess with your stats!

4 Likes

Same lately. I always tried to stay at about 125-150 reviews per day. All of sudden it jumped to like 450 listed per day because all the old items coming back all at once and… well I’m still doing 125-150 a day so my review count looks ridiculous and I cannot move on to the next level without doing 400 a day for a few days or something.

Oh well. I’m sticking with what I can do. Not a race.

3 Likes

I started out fairly quick because I’ve made various attempts at learning Japanese in the past, so a lot of the early kanji and vocab were familiar to me. But when the unknown stuff started coming at me I panicked/froze!

And I gave myself a real hard time at first, but I realised, as @bellcat said above, that this is a marathon rather than a sprint, and that I can choose exactly the pace I want to go at. So I’ve slowed wayyy down and am enjoying the journey again :slight_smile:

It’ll probably take me another couple of years to get to 60, but I’m already really pleased with the progress I’ve made - 490 kanji, more than I’ve ever learned via any other format!

Just stick with it, at whatever speed works for you, and give yourself heaps of credit for the efforts you are making, and the progress, too! 頑張りましょう! :hugs::hugs:

7 Likes

I am suuuuuuuper slow, since I only do lessons when I have a day or more until my next review. So that means… I don’t do a lot of lessons. But honestly, this is a pace I’ve been able to maintain amid the chaos of trying to get a graduate degree in computer science and y’know, life.

5 Likes

i am pretty sure, that i am slowest wanikani user or at least up there.

But don’t feel ashamed neither i care about it.

I like learn japanese in slow pace. Although, i think, i need up my game. But with not wanikani this time, but throughout practicing talking and listening skills or grammar.

Thinking to take bunpro. With talking-listening think - it is harder. I guess delvin site not too bad for something like this, but would like to heard possible better options as well.

Especially listening.

Anyway, yes, i am not embarassed, since i had other thingg, that i need to take care of and learning about. Pretty much entirely different field.

So i just reluctant to spent too much time a day for japanese and trying to keep review number at low.

4 Likes

For listening and speaking practice, I think SuperNative - Level up your Japanese is amazing—especially being able to score your ability to say aloud the thing you just heard.

8 Likes

As am i
My pace is 48d for a level
Im level 7 right now and i dont think im gonna finish in a year :frowning:

2 Likes

Resetting does mess up stats. That’s what wkstats.com:10001 (and wkstats if you can’t view the first one) is for.

1 Like

Hello, fellow sloths :sloth:

I just returned to WK after burning myself out a bit. I put way too much pressure on myself and compared myself to others, to the point where studying became a chore. And, unfortunately, my university Japanese classes are rather demotivating and nearly put me off the language completely. But I’ve started to realise that I still like 日本語 - I just don’t like how it’s taught at uni.

So I decided to make studying on WK the fun, casual, stress-free experience it used to be. And I’m going to set some rules for myself:

  • Do something every day, even if it’s just 5 reviews. Get a cup of coffee and make it a fun routine!
  • Don’t read any “how to go fast” and “look at my review scores” threads. Those are motivational for many people, but for me, they have the opposite effect.
  • Don’t pressure myself. If WK starts feeling like a chore again or I freak out because I didn’t hit some arbitrary goal, slow down and re-evaluate my situation.
  • Don’t overwhelm myself with a dozen resources. My uni workload is high enough (including two other languages with different writing systems), so adding 2 hours of Japanese practice every day will really not help me perform better academically.
  • Be proud of little achievements. Recognise a kanji in the wild? Finally guru that one pesky leech? Actually manage to write a kanji from memory? Yay, you go, you!
12 Likes

I don’t remember where I got this info but, most lvl 60s get there going fast.

Capture

I don’t care about going fast. As long as I enjoy it, have fun with it and get to learn something, I love it.
I know some people get there in one year or maybe less and I think they are amazing. But I don’t mind going slow. I enjoy going slow while doing lessons, while doing reviews. For me, learning is an art and I like to take it slooooow. :grin:. Plus, I am young. I have so much time left in my life to learn Japanese!

5 Likes

I’ve been using WK daily for 4 years and only just this month made it to level 30.

I have a personal policy of not going through any lessons unless I have less than 100 items in apprentice, as I’ve found that doing lessons all the time ends up giving me an impossible load of reviews.

6 Likes

Hiya! waves

Nice to see you again and welcome back!

Yikes :grimacing: Very understandable it all became a bit much.

Take care :purple_heart:

4 Likes

As long as you get to learn something and you enjoy it, do it as you like. Some do it fast, some normal, some slow. This is a paid service and we can do it as we like. I mean, why would i hurry and feel bad when I pay for it? I don’t want to pay for something that makes me feel bad.

8 Likes

You certainly are not dumb, just the opposite. Trust me, I am an expert on being dumb: I have been going real fast, aiming at the “level 60 in one year” rate, doing every review, every lesson as soon as it became available. A few weeks back I started to feel dizzy, just a bit at first, but 10 days later it was so bad I didn’t dare going on my bike. “early burn out symptoms” was the verdict. It didn’t take long to figure out, what had changed. What a joke, juggling job and family for close to 20 years.
I didn’t give up WaniKani, but now I have an upper limit of 20 lessons a day. It keeps the number of reviews down to a manageable level. No cheating anymore, no oh it was just a typo, I knew that one, I just mistook it for xyz. And I am fine

5 Likes