Introduction
So… As I was getting closer and closer to Level 60 I got really excited to write a post saying that I finally reached the end, but now that I’ve made it - on February 6th to be exact - I have actually no idea what to write.
(Edit: As you can see I was able to come up with something, hah)
I don’t have an amazing story to share like a lot of other people on here and I’m not sure if I have the nerve to list all of the scripts and tools and books I’ve been using along the way.
For the sake of keeping this “relatively short” I will write some text and post a few graphs and statistics regarding my process down below.
About my process
I started WaniKani in June 2016 (back in ye olde days when the forum wasn’t hosted on Discourse yet!) and I guess I can say I’ve been on team „taking it slow“ from the get-go. It took me about two years and seven months to complete WK. There’s been four more or less big gaps where I didn’t level up for a while - one of those times was during my stay in Australia and New Zealand when I put WaniKani on vacation mode, and the other one was because of a surgery I had in October 2018. So I probably could have finished a little earlier if real life didn’t happen, but oh well. After discovering the Reorder Script about halfway through I found a pretty good and consistent pace for me and just stuck with that, knowing it would eventually get me to the finish line as well.
It wasn’t always easy, it certainly wasn’t always fun and there were times when the huge wall of Kanji and Vocab I had yet to tackle intimidated and exhausted me, making me feel like I could never finish what I started. But I stuck to it, I kept being persistent because I wanted to prove to myself that it was doable and that kept me going. If I noticed things were too overwhelming I stopped doing lessons or only did a couple of them and that helped tremendously. Sometimes it was just a „clear reviews“ day and that was enough. Knowing your limits and listening to your body when it’s stressed out = nice.
Cool stats and graphics
Click me
(I didn’t find out about those charts above until like late 2017 so it’s not my entire progress)
And a cool gif to finish it off (again I didn’t know about the wallpaper generator until Level 28):
Sources
What now?
I’ve got a couple of still unread light novels and manga lying around which I intend to read, a huge collection of doujinshi because I’m a nerd and I definitely need to step up my grammar game. Setting myself a new goal with the JLPT might be a great motivator, too. Other than that I can finally yell „I’m freeeeee!“
Last but not least I want to thank the Tofugu staff and the WaniKani community (despite me being more of a lurker than an active participant). I’ve had a great time here and will certainly stick around, not only for the upcoming Shirokuma Cafe book club or Terrace House gossip.
Still sad that we didn’t roll that 6,6,6,6,6,6 for real … RIP WaniMekani.
With that being said though…