Today is the day (level 60 obligatory post) 🍰

[Jpec57]

After longing for this moment for so long, the day has finally come. To be honest, I’ve really gotten into this and I am kind of sad of ending this journey. With some hindsight, I guess I could have went a little slower and enjoy reading each example sentences to get the most of it, but you know, when you’ve got levels one tends always to climb as fast as possible as it was some sort of a challenge. That’s why I prefer not to give my pace so as to let everyone choose one that fits their needs and learning capacities (Moreover, I’ve always intended to get through WaniKani twice to learn how to write kanji through levels in a second time).

However, for this post to be useful, I’ll transmit my japanese learning experience in details

JLPT 4 and WaniKani

When I was about the level 15/20, I’ve decided to take my first exam to give it a shot and to have a goal to aim for. Unfortunately, I didn’t succeed, but… I was kind of happy to see that WaniKani was really efficient on kanjis and I didn’t have any problems to fill that part of the exam (well just one hesitation but clearly, I wasn’t lacking any knowledge in kanji for the N4). Since I didn’t have any background in Japanese before starting to use WaniKani, I was really happy with my scores that were almost good to pass… But it was far from being right in the oral section

Japanese resources used

I’ve sticked to WaniKani and BunPro the whole time (respectively about 2 hours/day and 1 hour a day). For me, it’s the best resources in japanese out there and I am really happy to have heard about them. I’ve been really surprised to see that some fancy kanjis could actually be useful to read common sentences

I’ve also tried to read many mangas, but due to a lack of time and of course motivation (it’s easier to watch One Piece in anime than forcing yourself to start reading), I’ve ended up buying them without reading most of them. However, I really loved reading ポケモン / Pokemon (the first 3 tomes), 七つの大罪 (Seven Deadly Sins, 4 tomes). They were the easiest to read and I was surprised to see that I could get most of the meaning out of it. The best way to learn through reading mangas, IMO is to read one chapter and to check with the English version right after.

WaniKani and BunPro limitations

Oral comprehension and expression have always been my weaknesses in every languages. Reading and writing only words (like you do on WaniKani or Bunpro) didn’t help me … Speaking (no f****** way ). About writing I tend to say that, it’s useful but surely not enough. I can write some sentences but due to my lack of training in translating from French to Japanese, it takes a looooot of time. Of course, there is KameSame that could have helped me overcome this, but I wanted to know as quick as possible many kanjis to read books and didn’t have enough time left to double my review pile .

Future goals

Of course, one of my main goal is now to read, read and read… No surprise because, it’s the reason I’ve started to use WaniKani. I am even currently developing a Flutter app using Jisho to create SRS cards quickly which helps me to read. It’s still a WIP but really soon, it should be open for some curious and I hope to get many feedbacks to improve this app (I’ve already got a ton, but I will develop this in another post).

Like you may have read in the previous section, I didn’t use anything that could help me with oral comprehension or expression. Despite the fact that I have no real interest in learning to actually speak Japanese (since no one is here to talk with me in japanese), I want to be able to watch animes without subs and exchange at least some sentences.

Since I’ve failed N4, I also want to take my revanche by passing it, but having many different things to do this year, I’ll probably try it again (or N3 if I am confident enough about my oral comprehension capacities) next year.

Oh and to conclude, I was really happy to learn to say 検疫 at the right time

Good evening to you all and good luck with your reviews

[Jpec57]

Oh wow I’m still 59 here

[sornvru]

Congratulations. It’s always great to hear about everyone’s level 60 achievements.

@Jpec57

Oh wow I’m still 59 here

Log out and log back in. That should make it update for you.

[Jpec57]

Thank you

[Paptreek]

Congrats!

I’m surprised to learn that reading is still difficult for you at level 60.

Do you think if you had practiced reading more often during your time with WaniKani, that it would be much easier for you?

I’ve been under the impression that 60 levels of WK would give you enough vocab to be able to read a lot of stuff (if you’ve studied enough grammar, of course).

Anyway, thank you for sharing your story, and congrats again!

[Jpec57]

Thank you ! Well, I think I wasn’t clear enough I do not have any difficulty to read almost any type of content, but I write really slowly and I suck at oral comprehension and expression. The one thing that I ve clearly mastered is in fact reading !

[Paptreek]

Oh, got it! Thank you for clarifying

[afunian]

Congrats to op for level 60, and at such a pace!

@Paptreek Wanikani has over 6k vocabulary which obviously helps, but if that is your only source of vocab, even at level 60 you will find that you still dont know most words. Going by flo-flo vocab lists, a novel I am reading right now has around 7k unique words, 2k of which are learned in wanikani. That means I know only around 1/3 of those words from wanikani, and there still some kanji I encounter that arent taught in wanikani either.

[Paptreek]

Oh, wow! Thanks for the info. I figured WK would only get you so far vocabulary-wise, however I hope that the Kanji will help to decipher the meanings of a lot of words not yet learned.

[afunian]

Well I hoped so too, and you sure can infer some meanings of new words based on context, if they are made using kanji you know. But you will still need to make sure by looking it up anyways, and now I find myself repeatedly double checking words I already know.

[Jpec57]

@afunian

you sure can infer some meanings of new words based on context

Exactly ! That’s why I tend to read in English after to check my understanding

Thank you

[Powerpuncher]

Congratulations!!

[Nasty_Pirate]

Good job for level 60!

I’m on N2 level in Japanese and started using Wanikani to freshen up on vocabulary/kanji. The SRS system helps, BUT! I feel that with Wanikani alone you cannot learn Japanese. I take it slow and have set a threshold before I move on to the next level thus I’m only 39 after 2-3 years. You need to move slow otherwise you don’t commit new words/kanji to memory. The examples also should be read (aloud if possible) to get used to their usage.

[Jpec57]

Totally agree with you… at some extent. I’m really happy to get over all the kanji first by going quickly. This way, I am able to read comfortably, but I agree that writing is still complicated when going to quick over WK. But by going through WK a second time more slowly and doing exactly as you told (and writing all the kanjis we learn), will definitively learn you japanese !

[Nasty_Pirate]

Do you know of the Kaniwani site? It’s related to WK but it’s the opposite (way harder). It gives you the english word and you have to write the japanese one, just vocabulary.

You can connect your account and unlock levels too.

[Jpec57]

Yep ! KameSame is the same kind of website with some cool other features (you can paste a sentence and extract some lessons for instance and study both ways (English to Japanese and Japanese to English).