What type of personality do you all have? I’m just not that driven, I guess.
I am not tracking either. Sometimes I like to know when the level up is expected, just for finishing lessons purposes
High motivation to do it, because I love the language and the culture, and knowing that if I slow down I slack off. I’m also highly competitive, even with myself
Hi!
Joker type here. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It all depends if I can cope with the added pressure of leveling up in 7 / 10 / X target days.
At the end, I guess it all depends on the goal. For me it is about learning the language - > Kanji is a part of that but not the only one
I like to track my progress, sure. I think it’s good to be consistent, or identify if I’m doing something better or worse if levels start taking more time or less. If my schedule or studies are slipping.
When I started I knew I was thinking about taking a trip to Japan (this coming week actually!). After seeing what my typical pace was for the first few levels, it was insightful to see where I’d be by the time I went over if I could maintain that pace. Was a good tangible objective to have.
Edit - that doesn’t necessarily mean obsessing about doing it in the least time possible. It’s just tracking a consistent rate of progression.
I’m tracking my progress because I’m incredibly lazy, and it’s easy to think that taking a day off, or days off, or a week off… won’t matter much in the long run.
I’m motivated by knowing that if I keep a constant pace I’ll reach my goals. And to be fair, I also think it’s more fun this way too😅
Oh yeah and another thing, when you do need a day off, you can do it without having things piling up too much!
I have way too many different things going on in my life that I have and want to do everyday to prioritize Wanikani speed. I clear my reviews once or twice a day and I do lessons a few times a week. That’s about all I can manage while still accomplishing my other goals.
I tracked because, except for the first few levels, I didn’t actually enjoy doing WaniKani. I am unhealthily competitive, and making it a challenge gave me motivation to finish - though it didn’t make me enjoy it. I still took a few long breaks from levelling up, so in all it took me almost two years to finish, but most of my levels lasted 7-8 days.
I was tracking, but very recently stopped. I realized I was prioritizing speed over learning, and was despairing when the number ticked up every day and my lessons pile was still huge, and I began to dread opening wk three times a day.
I decided progress should take as long as it takes, and as long as I’m still doing this every day (I am on a 153-day streak!), then I am doing really really good!
I think I am more streak-driven than days-to-level-up-driven.
I’m not a competitive person at all, but I’m very progress-oriented, so it’s easy for me to get down on myself for not doing “enough.” so, so far, I think this is working for me. besides, I can still get a picture of how I’m doing by looking at my stats to help set realistic goals, and not set my goals by what seems “standard” on the forums. I’m feeling like 70-75 apprentice items is more comfy for me despite the general consensus here being 100. I had this idea that I needed to be doing 10 day levels, but somewhere around 15-20 is more realistic. it’s not a race, anyway!
I generally try to keep up 0/0 every day so I have a pretty good sense of when the next level is coming up, but I don’t specifically track it.
But I also reset from level 42 so it’s a little easier for me to blitz through lessons because I cover up the translation and if I remember the meaning and reading I just skip it and that happens about 75% of the time.
After my first run through and now this run I’ve settled into a nice mix of aiming for a daily 0/0 that pushes me to do more even when I’m not in the mood, but feeling okay with leaving it if I have a particularly busy day, if exciting social plans arise, or if I’m feeling a bit burnt out on wanikani.
I like to compete with myself, but I’m not obsessive about it. I usually only look up the days to level up when I’m getting close to it.
I like to keep track so I know generally when I will level up. I know I level up every 20-25 days. Slow, but because I’m not taking any classes or plan on taking something like the JLPT, I don’t mind taking it slow. Plus the slow pace allows me to not be as nervous about waking up to 200+ reviews every morning. Knowing that I level up every 20-25 days sort of gives me a goal to reach so I don’t slack off completely and eventually stop.
Same here.
I think it’s a good thing to set a goal, then keep an eye on your rate of progress.
If you’re aware of your pace, you can appropriately adjust your goal/expectations (or the pace itself) accordingly.
Reaching the end of WK alone won’t get you to a high level of Japanese, it just primes you to be able to achieve a high level of Japanese much more easily. Personally, I wanted to get to 60 as fast as I could to make the rest of the learning process easier for myself.
For me, routine is one of the biggest boons I have. I’m very much a creature of habit, and it’s extremely helpful to know that I do my lessons and reviews at the same time of the same day every week.
I can and do set repeating alarms for it to make sure I don’t get distracted and forget. After doing it for most of a year now, it’s actually going to feel very strange having nothing to do at those times when I hit 60.
Personally, I could care less about speed through the levels. Even the competitive part of me gets no satisfaction from that, because it’s extremely easy for others to cheat. I check in on WK at least once a day, blast through my kanji lessons, do my best on reviews, and don’t care at all about stats or velocity. I also plan to do the entire 1-60 again when I’m done.
Even though I spend lots of time in Japan, and have as much pressure as anyone to learn the language, I’m aiming for deep knowledge/retention, not good test results.
Gosh, it’s going to take me more than two years then. So far, I’ve known many of them and yet, haven’t been too speedy…
Streak -driven - that may describe me. I try to get on WK everyday. I hadn’t heard of the 100 apprentice item consensus. Maybe I’ll try it. Thanks for bringing it up.
@sirvine I like the idea of doing the entire 1-60 again. But I might not like it when I’m there!