To all high-level users, did you get demotivated at some point and when?

The title says it all. Especially for high-level users, did you get temporarily demotivated at some point and when, regarding WaniKani?

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My biggest point of demotivation was after level 60 untilā€¦ well, itā€™s still going on. I guess my brain went like ā€œWeā€™re now done with this :tada:ā€ but after 4 months or so, there are still lots of daily reviews. However, now I only do WK once a day on most days. Reading is just much more enjoyable.

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I canā€™t even remember because itā€™s been so long. I think I strarted struggling with my ulcerative colitis sometime during my journey through WaniKani, which slowed me down a bit, but I think I still finished in less than two years. I just really love learning Japanese, so that kept me motivated!

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Welcome to Wanikani! Personally it depends on what you mean by ā€˜demotivatedā€™. If you mean wanting to quit because it feels too difficult, then no, because I never doubted being able to get to Level 60 (although I most definitely considered permanently ceasing lessons since completing the higher levels becomes increasingly less useful). But in terms of reviews and lessons, definitely. All the time. Some days Iā€™ll wake up and smash through all my reviews, and on other days itā€™ll take me half an hour and even more time getting sidetracked and procrastinating to do 50.

Basically the key to Wanikani is: the more consistent you are, the easier it will be. And donā€™t speedrun.

Form daily habits, never forget why youā€™re here, and youā€™ll get to where you want to be eventually.

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Iā€™m not really a high level user but Iā€™ve been studying for 12+hrs a day for 9 months roughly. Doubt that Iā€™ll grow tired of it at this point since itā€™s such a habit. I donā€™t know what Iā€™ll do without it, itā€™s more or less an identity at this point. Just make a habit out of it and youā€™ll be fine. It takes 3 months to create a habit people say. Add layers on top of WK so you can take it ā€œeasyā€ and still do WK, some anki deck and some immersion and see it as an easy going day in your life.

In short: torture yourself alot and the days where a little torture happens youā€™ll be happy with it.

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Yup, all the time. Iā€™ve gone over a year without touching Wanikani. Been technically here since the beta but never used it for like 4 years after signing up.

I live and work in Japan and am now seeing the positive effect of Wanikani on my daily life which keeps me really motivated. Reading Slack channels at work is now a cinch compared to a few years ago.

Now, I am just happy going super slow. I donā€™t use scripts or anything, just plod along and complete all my reviews each morning. Do 10 or 20 lessons as day. Iā€™ll get to level 60 in the end!

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Canā€™t say I ever got demotivated using WaniKani as I could see the results of using it in my improvements in listening and reading comprehension. I guess it also helped that I thought doing reviews was fun, though it got taxing during the final rush toward lv 60 for sure.

But, having gone fast at the end also meant a quick decline in reviews happened right after and then it was more than okay to just keep up until my subscription ran out.

I think the big issue is right now perhaps, in that Iā€™m not really motivated to get onboard a different train. Iā€™ve tried Anki, but it didnā€™t stick. Restarted using Kamesame, but again, didnā€™t stick to it.

There is just less gain in doing repetition/SRS-studying at this point I feel. :woman_shrugging: So, Iā€™ve just been watching, listening and reading now.

I guess, doing lazi studying is also nice for a change! :sunglasses: :beach_umbrella:

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Not just Wanikani but also with Japanese in general. I got to level 59 on wanikani, passed JLPT N2 then felt so burned out that I took a short break from studying Japanese, which turned into 3 yearsā€¦ Reset it back to level 1 last year and Iā€™ll definitely get to 60 this time

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Iā€™m not a high level user but yes I got demotivated, twice so far. Once when I reached level 5, and another time after reaching level 21. Both times I didnā€™t do any WK for months (5 the first, 7 the second). I just got back to it a couple days ago (after my 7 months hiatus) and decided to reset to level 5. The reason for me is usually that I get overwhelmed by life and as a side effect Wanikani (and all studying) ends up being completely neglected.

Iā€™m sort of midlevel now and iā€™m with kanjinsanity. This is such a pleasurable daily habit for me that I donā€™t think iā€™m going to get demotivated but time will tell. I use it as a destressor. I think it has the same effect as meditation for me. The moment of focus on something other than stress or work really grounds me. I come out of a session feeling better than when i went in. Iā€™m more worried that Iā€™ll be lost once i burn everything. I guess iā€™ll just have to up my daily reading habit. But there is just something about the SRS system that clicks with me. Hopefully WK will add all those N1 kanji and there will be more levels. Or iā€™ll get to 60, burn everything and reset to 1. We will see what happens.

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i get temporarily motivated to put it that way.

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This! I totally feel the same. For me, doing the reviews felt a lot like doing sudoku, crossword puzzles or something like that, relaxing and focusing, something that allowed me to not think about more serious stuff for a while. :relaxed:

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This, exactly. Though, itā€™s been almost a month now after having reached level 60, and review pressure is slowly easing off - weā€™re talking ~900-1000 as opposed to ~1200-1300 reviews per week.

But the bright side is: There are no more new lessons, and every successful burn takes items out of the loop forever (or until I unburn them), so the number of items can only get lower over time.

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Youā€™re still having 900 reviews per week? :hushed:

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Yes, at roughly level 40. I promised myself thatā€™s it, but then SomePeopleā„¢ leveled up as well so I dragged my feet to level 42 :sweat_smile:.

Thatā€™s a good number so itā€™s okay now.

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Not really? Itā€™s a habit at this point - as long as I have to ride the local train 10 times a week, I wonā€™t drop WK.

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Close to it, yes (was over 900 this morning):
grafik
Well, I did speedrun a bit, so the reviews continue to come at about the pace at which I did the lessons, so this is entirely on me, but I guess the number of reviews will decrease just as quickly as well.

Wow, you must have (speedrun, I mean), because:

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Well, speedrun and not done vocab lessons but saving them for last? After all I speed ran also at the end, but had the opposite situation. Letā€™s see if I can dig up my workload graphā€¦there we go

Basically, that drop is 1-2-ish weeks after reaching lv 60 when I immediately did all available lessons. After that, there were no additions and it quickly quieted off and a couple of months later, it was basically burn reviews I was doing (until WK started adding new items as we all know).

But, yeah, if you have lots of vocab left from previous levels, then workload will stay high Iā€™m guessing.

:man_facepalming: oy vey gewalt :smiley:

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