WaniKani is currently having a sale, which is a common thing for them around Christmas each year. This year the only offer is US $100-off the Lifetime Membership. This takes the price from $299 to $199 (roughly AU $290). The sale began on December 18 and will end on January 8.
You don't think it needs a villain? I was thinking of adding one. Just someone to raise the stakes a bit more. Or would that be too much with everything that's already going on?
From out of the dark swamps, there came the anti-learner, a monster harbouring seventeen generations of confused angst relating to the ancient mysteries of kanji….
@TheRealCher: The Crabigator himself seems scary enough, but hitting level 6 or so got me the cutest little sticker that I put on my laptop
If you're committed to learning Japanese then it's worthwhile. It's a great way to learn Kanji and something you can use for a very long time.
FWIW I've been using Wanikani for almost 5 years now, and every year I think it won't be worth getting lifetime as I think I'll be done before I get my moneys worth. If only I had bought it the first few years!!
How much is it the first few years?
I pay $7 odd per month.
I bought this today :) Ignore your doubts! Let me share why I suggest this
I've sat at level 10 for the last 5 months because I got stressed out trying to burn a level a week to get away with paying as little as possible. I burned out pretty fast and just cancelled the sub. Buying the lifetime sub works out cheaper in the long run as I won't have to worry anymore. Realisitically it will likely take me 2-3 years to hit level 60. It would have cost me a lot more to have the monthly or annual subyear or year
Hope this helps. See you in the forums!
Yeah, it helps. Thanks! And thanks to everyone else who commented too. I actually posted this deal because I was hoping for comments to help with the decision, so all that discussion is much appreciated.
I haven't bought the subscription yet but I'm inching closer to getting it and to actually feeling good about it now. I want to make some commitments with myself and plans and whatnot first though, but I suspect that by this time tomorrow I'll have signed up and finally be moving through Level 4.
These online language courses will only take you so far then you'll realize that speaking and listening is completely different to just reading and comprehension. My advice is to use that ~$300 and sign up for a local Japanese course and learn from an actual teacher; this way you get to practice speaking, learn grammar/comprehension whilst you can ask questions. There are weekly weekday/weekend classes (here in Sydney) which aren't too expensive and vary in levels.
It depends on your use case. WK covers reading, not speaking and listening. Having a tutor with you for this type of study isn't the best use of that time and will certainly cost more than $300. By the time you hit level 60, you will have spent several hundred hours on the site. A tutor would be great for learning the nuances of certain words in addition to grammar. Keep in mind that no one tool will help you learn a whole other language. Most other people here have been chatting about books and other sites they use in combination with WK
I do agree with you, I would assume most people who study another language would ultimately want to converse to a native or speak the language whilst travelling, so I am genuinely curious on why people would only study Kanji and reading when writing is getting phased out by technology and Chrome extensions like rikaikun and Google Translate can solve a lot of the problems for you.
Not saying these apps are bad, but at the $300 mark you're almost at the point where if you fork out a little more you can actually sign up for actual lessons and study the language properly; just doesn't seem like your getting your moneys worth at this point, or it might just be my inner OzBargain censors going off. Japanese is a weird language to learn and there will be times you hit a brick wall, you can Google the answer or ask someone directly and getting the answer explained in detail.
For those who are curious, there are these courses which are available. I've signed up to one of them before and how fast you learn really depends on how much extra effort you can take out to do extra studying.
@Kyou mo Kawaii: Google Translate unfortunately cannot remotely help you with more advanced passages. Another issue in Japan itself is there's massive disdain towards cameras, so you get yelled at frequently when trying to use it in stores.
With English there are 52 letters. With Japanese - literally thousands. It's genuinely harder to learn to read such a language. Fun fact, to a foreigner, capital letters are considerable as different letters. Same with Greek.
Conversation is great, but it isn't everything. My use case for example is to play older games in Japanese. Have to read those haha
@Kyou mo Kawaii: $300 is for lifetime access. That the big expensive option for people who think they're going to use it for many years, it's not the entry-level cost. The other prices they have are $9 each month or an annual membership that gives you 14 months for $90.
I still need to think about everything, but my hazy plan for learning Japanese was Wanikani along with other books/programs, and then I figured at some point I would put an ad on Gumtree to see if there's some native speaker in the area. And if not that, then go the webcam tutor option. At the very least, I think that's a plan that works for me and would get me somewhere that I'm happy with.
They do offer Japanese courses at my local university but I just don't think it would work for me, or at least not right now.
This is not a general language course. It just provides a great way of learning kanji/vocabulary.
Ive been using this since 2015, and currently level 39. I do 100-150 reviews a day. Im learning vocabulary that people around me say that japanese never use. If anything, it has kept my study consistent, and Im using Japanese everyday.
I use this and bunpro. I highly recommend the tangoristo app, and reading aloud from it everyday. I dont take my own advice.
Wanikanistats website will give you good predictions to your progress.
It would have been better if i paid for a lifetime membership. I can do a level a month at best.
You sound like me.
What other advice do you give people that you dont do yourself
Practice reading so you can enforce everything learnt on wanikani.
Spend more time regularly revising grammar.
Try and practice speaking more.
I find it hard to find a balance. Initially I was going through WK a lot faster than I am now, and I found myself knowing a lot of obscure terms and vocabulary, but not so good on the grammar. If you pull back on WK then I find reading difficult as I don't know the vocab. Anyway when you have a full time job and family, I suspect this is the way it is, for a long time to come.
One thing which has helped is doing lessons with a japanese tutor on italki.
@takezo: What do you recommend for learning grammar? I think some people said that it was time to start learning around level 10. I hit that 5 months ago but then quit. I'd try and pretend that I could read the example sentences, but I had no idea really as I didn't know any grammer haha
@sephiris: I've been going through Mina No Nihongo books 1 and 2 with my tutor. Not sure if they are the best but they are what she recommended, and I had the text from when I attended a language school for a few terms.
There's heaps of great stuff online, but I find I always drop off eventually.
@takezo: The prices on italki seem pretty reasonable. Any particular tutors you'd recommend? Also, do you have any idea how many hours I'd need to get through these books?
@sephiris: Unfortunately my teacher of about 3 years is pregnant and about to take a break starting the new year!! So I'm actually on the lookout for a new teacher myself!!
I think in class we spent 2 hours per chapter, and there's 25 from memory in the first book. Obviously depends on how in depth you go and if you write out all the answers for the exercises etc.
Just reading a chapter through would be like 30 mins or something.
I found that I was getting more than 150 reviews to do a day at level 10 haha. How did you even keep up? I hit level 10 and got 176 lessons and just bowed out cos I couldn't take the stress anymore haha. If I can actually do 150 reviews a day, I think that will be much more manageable. Hopefully it will easier to not have to repeat reviews ad nauseum because I'm in a hurry to get through several hundred reviews.
What time slot do you find best when studying? e.g. while commuting, before bed, dedicated sit down and study time? I've tried all three and I couldn't really decide what was better. Waiting for dedicated sit down and study time saw me waiting up to two weeks to get to, and then I often had 700 reviews
I kinda feel like I need to reset to level 1 and spend a decent amount of time writing and recalling the kanji. That's supposedly a good tool for remembering better. I'd often just forget level 2 kanji at level 10, and that really cost me motivation haha. I tried to just game the system in the end - Learn the first 30ish kanji and not worry about the vocab. Then learn the other 30 kanji along with the vocab to guru everything by a week, but it just wasn't maintainable, hence why I switched to sit down and study time, but that also failed. Maybe I just need better discipline haha
Yeah one aspect it doesn't do so well is prepare you for the workload to come. You definitely need to pace yourself as the true workload doesn't become apparent until it's too late. If you're only at level 10 I'd suggest resetting as you'll be back there in no time.
I've reset twice, once when I was level 30 and a second time around 18.
I now go ultra slow and use the following for my workload
It's pretty slow going, but I find this is sustainable. Also allows me to do kaniwani in parallel.
Only do lesson's if I get 75% or greater on my reviews in the morning (which forms the bulk of my days reviews)
That's a great idea, actually. Never thought of that! I'll keep this in mind :)
Studying and progressing means constant walls. You have go through the walls. I get through my reviews in the first hour of my day. I do a lesson (9 at a time, no reason why) about 9am so i can review them after lunch. I write everything in a notebook so i can review. I still have level 3-10 kanji and tango in my reviews.
Bunpro took a lot longer to get used to. I am better at reading grammar, but i still cant use it in speech.
The walls to progress dont stop or slow. Ganbatte
Can totally relate to the reading vs speech. My comprehension is way way further ahead of what I'm able to actually speak.
You definitely need to find a regular daily slot for reviews.
I do mine morning and then a smaller session in the evening, with a few short sessions throughout the day. You definitely want to be doing your vocab in order, as ultimately thats the stuff you want to be learning.
Send me a pm. Im overseas and cant send to start a conversation
I'm hesitating over signing up for this. I'm currently at Level 4, having finishing the free section a few months ago. And now I feel like I'm going to keep learning Japanese, I feel like I'm fairly committed to learning, but there's this hesitation like maybe a year from now I'll have completely abandoned everything… At the moment I'm thinking that in a few days I'll probably ignore all my doubts and just sign up.