That’s funny because I’m reading this right now and you’ve made it! Good job. 
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I don’t know how but you made your struggle so relatable and cheerful. Maybe it was your profile pic, maybe it was your optimism, maybe a bit of both and other things. I can’t help but root for you! I’ll be checking this thread frequently to see how you are doing, 頑張ってください！
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I’m glad you’re sharing your journey with us too!
It’s so much better to do this surrounded by friendly people that have similar goals to yours 
Thank you for the kind words! 
Aaaaah this is such a nice message! ありがとう 
I’m feeling really optimistic and happy here with the community. Even though I’m a little shy and still hesitate to participate in things due to my low level, I can’t wait to progress more.
Hehe I’m almost on my last leg of level 4, thanks to the reorder script! I was able to get the radicals in first, still working on getting those kanji to guru and now I’m starting the vocab… Really happy with my progress 
Also, I just got so irrationally happy by learning how the Kanji for teacher works (the whole previous life thing makes so much sense!)
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You didn’t take too long. Level 1 and 2 are considered “fast levels” because they can be done in 3 days and 10h (maximum speed). Level 3 on the other hand, is considered a “normal level”. The fastest speed for those is 6 days and 20h. Things will take longer from now on, but it’s not on you 
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Ah, glad to know it wasn’t completely up to my failure to get things right 
I just see a lot of people doing most levels at an average pace of 7/8 days per level and I really wanna try and get to that pace… Unfortunately I’m still trying to figure out how the SRS system works underneath the hood to make it fit better my schedule (I’ve read your WK guide and I’m tryiiing to follow it but maybe I’m too dumb)
Also… got a message from the Crabigator itself letting me know I’m one of the users of the month! I’m so happy
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YOU. ARE. SO. LUCKY. 
Parabéns 
Maybe you were a little confused because Wanikani SRS intervals work differently on level 1 and 2 (they’re shorter).
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From level 3 on, you can just focus on getting that 4h/8h schedule working. So either lessons in the morning or lessons 4h before last review session (or both). If you focus on getting the time for the first 2 review sessions right, it will be okay. Remember that other items will follow cycles of 24h, so they’ll also fall into these times you’re visiting WK to do Apprentice 1 and 2 items.
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Also, remember that you can split lessons throughout the days. No need to do 50 lessons in just one day and then have none to do the following day. This creates inconsistency and it will hurt you long-term.
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You don’t need to get everything right at once. It took me until level 8 to really start noticing the patterns of WK and make it work for me.
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Habits make you invincible. WK is not about being (or feeling) less smart than others. It’s purely habit formation.
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Don’t forget about scripts. They take a few minutes to install, but they’ll save you tons of effort and time in the short and long term.
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Don’t worry too much about doing 7 day levels. This speed comes from a solid habit formation, not because people wanted to join the “gotta go fast” team. In other words, the speed comes as a natural consequence of your discipline and habits, not because you wanted to achieve that speed in the first place. A lot of people show up on WK saying they’ll do it in 1 year and highly focus on their intellectual abilities. What happens next is that you’ll never see them above level 10. They focused too much on numbers and that broke their system.
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Also, not everyone does 7 day levels, trust me. It’s by far the minority. The thing is that usually, these people are the loudest ahem I’m very guilty of this ahem. Someone doing 12 day levels won’t be around the forums saying that, you know what I mean?
You’ll get to where you wanna be, but foundation first.
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damn I feel really guilty now, I was just excited about having a challenge finally that I was actually motivated to do. It’s the only thing i have managed to really be disciplined about these past months.
I didn’t want to make other people feel like their pace was by any means not correct for them 
hopefully you will still see me around way past level 10, I’m supposed to go to 11 on monday…
Now I feel bad for having posted about it in the race thread 
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No, please don’t! I did WK this fast as a challenge as well. And people from the community motivated me to do so! If it wasn’t for them, I’d probably have slowed down around level 40 or so
Usually this people come from a position of ego. They rely on their intellectual abilities to do the trick, which as I said, it’s not enough. You seem pretty dedicated into doing the right thing and focus on discipline and doing the world, so I’d say you’re doing the right thing!
My message was mainly to help people understand that not doing 7day levels is okay and pretty much the standard. Please do not feel discouraged. We’re all here to pull each other 
, not 
. The race thread is an open space to talk about speed, there’s no pointing fingers at others there, so please don’t worry
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Thank you! And the fact that you did it inspires me a lot and gives me confidence!
I hope some day I can contribute as much to these forum as you do!
It’s good that we need to have excess self-esteem to do the wrong thing, because I have none
Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it.
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the majority certainly does not do 7 day levels. most people quit. you just don’t normally see that, because few people are so invested in system and community. they come and just go and leave no footprints.
there’s also a big part of the community that goes slowly, and why not. you do the best you can, and if that’s a level per month, then so be it. you can only do your best. there’s other things in life that demand attention, such as a move, a new job, a toddler, a sick family member, or your own health.
personally, i feel comfortable with max speed, so there’s no reason for me to change anything about it. i have my study philosophies, and “getting kanji out of the way” has it’s place in it, but my goal isn’t 60, it’s 40. when i’m in my high 30s, i’ll think about what comes next. i’m planning to get to 60 and burn everything. heck, i might even reset and do it all again, like @plantron, just because i enjoy it, and wk keeps me “in the loop” and studying.
maybe next time around, i do it with handwriting.
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A good idea in general, and if you do KameSame or KaniWani with handwriting (using handwriting IME), you would practice writing not just kana but also kanji.
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wasn’t kaniwani riddled with tons of frustrating synonyms? or is that fixed now?
I think that was the impetus for KameSame (the many synonyms).
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Hey! I’m using げんき as well! Love the book.
I still get a lot of incorrect answers for confusing synonyms but I’m picking up on slight differences that help. The only ones I can’t differentiate at all are 三角 and 三角形 because it is only written triangle and noun for both of them. that’s for now at least, more may appear.
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Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to reply back, there was a lot to digest and Sundays are usually a busy day for me
Yeah, it makes sense that there’s always a skewed perception of most WK users if we look at it only from the lens of this community: the majority of WK users is probably not very active in here and they certainly aren’t finishing WK in a year.
Once again @jprspereira, thank you for your help and your patience in guiding us newbies! I’m slowly getting WK to work with my schedule
I tried doing that on my phone with Google’s Handwriting IME and didn’t have any luck. I even have a Galaxy Note with an S-pen so I figured it’d be easier to write down stuff. What IME do you recommend for this, @plantron?
I started by using Kamesame actually and found it way more frustrating (and feature-less) than Kaniwani, but yeah the synonyms is a common issue. I just don’t take it as harshly if I fail to get something right the first time there as I do here.
I guess knowing what class of words they are would help out but that adds a layer of complexity to Japanese learning I’m not sure I want to bog myself down with so early on. I want/should know but I’m not gonna get hung up if I don’t immediately know it at the moment.
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Galaxy Note is exactly the perfect tool for this. I don’t use Google IME, I just use the one already pre-installed on the Note (Samsung Keyboard). Of course after adding Japanese as input language.
To add keyboard language, go to Settings → General Management → Language Input → On-Screen Keyboard → Samsung Keyboard → Languages and types.
To change the input method to handwriting, find the row above the numbers row. There are symbols there for smiley input, voice input, etc. At the right there is a downward-pointing arrow. If you click on it, you will see a T symbol with a pen. Once you click on it, you will see a blank slate where the keyboard keys used to be. Now you can start writing.
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Will give this a try!
I’m also a leftie, so I wonder if there’s any influence on how well my stroke order is recognized? Because I have to be extra careful to remember not just the proper stroke order but also the proper direction, since my brain naturally has the tendency to try and “flow” the stroke the opposite direction (does that make sense?)
i guess i won’t bother with kaniwani then. no need to add stress to my life
there’s a great Android app named kanji tree that lets me write by hand and grades my handwriting. that’s kinda nice, i’ll just use that for new kanji.
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Don’t get me wrong, Kaniwani is a wonderful idea, and it might be worth the try to at least get some extra reviews on Mastered/Enlightened items. I probably wouldn’t recommend wasting time that you could be using on WK or learning grammar to do Kaniwani reviews of Apprentice/Guru items.
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