Where are you at currently? I got to about 1000 or so my first year but ymmv. I use wanikani and bunpro
I started WaniKani this February and according to [wkstats](https://www.wkstats.com) I’ve learned about 700 words so far. Granted, a big chunk of those were just English loanwords, but I suspect I’ll see less of those as I level up.
If you really apply yourself, I’d say a lot. It also depends in what capacity.
I spend most of my time with reading, so I picked up quite a few over the course of the year. I’d say I studied well over 1000, probably retained about 80%-90% of what I went over.
Depends on your goals and how soon you would like to reach them. Assuming Japanese is a hobby for you, just learn at your own speed and do whatever you enjoy.
Having said this, if your plan is to be able to consume Japanese media aimed at older teenagers or adults, then realistically you will need to know *a lot* of words. Reading did not feel even remotely comfortable for me until the 10K-15K word range, and you will still need to look up a ton of words then. So ask yourself where you would like to be and when, and then plan accordingly. Most people I know of do 10-15 new words/day, which takes them ~30 min of Anki each day.
And since you are also asking about how many words one “can” learn, there really is no limit other than how much time you have available. Some people spend hours each day with an SRS and learn 50++ new words every day for long periods of time. I would not recommend it due to high risk of SRS fatigue/burnout, but it is entirely possible to do.
It depends on the depth that you’re trying to learn each word. A single word can take quite a lot of study on its own.
My advice would first be to select only words you encounter often, as these are relevant and will stick in your head.
You should encounter these words at least 3 times in one chapter of a book or 1 episode of a show, but if it’s really obscure like 精神障害, feel free to skip it.
I’ve been doing about 10 new words a day, and due to the level that I memorize them, I think this is almost too much. Think about it, 10 new words every day is 3,650 a year.
Currently, I do 70-150 reviews a day in Anki. I only fail maybe 5 cards a day, sometimes none. I also delete words that just aren’t working.
10 new words a day is plenty, but I’d even say you can do 5 a day. It’s up to you what challenge you want/how much you can handle.
If you’re not learning more than a single definition per word, you can probably handle even 15-20 words a day. But that would personally kill me since I memorize like 4-5 things every word.
Some people are crazy and will spend 2 hours or more memorizing thousands of words, but I’d say your time would be better spent actually watching/reading Japanese content.
5 comments
Where are you at currently? I got to about 1000 or so my first year but ymmv. I use wanikani and bunpro
I started WaniKani this February and according to [wkstats](https://www.wkstats.com) I’ve learned about 700 words so far. Granted, a big chunk of those were just English loanwords, but I suspect I’ll see less of those as I level up.
If you really apply yourself, I’d say a lot. It also depends in what capacity.
I spend most of my time with reading, so I picked up quite a few over the course of the year. I’d say I studied well over 1000, probably retained about 80%-90% of what I went over.
Depends on your goals and how soon you would like to reach them. Assuming Japanese is a hobby for you, just learn at your own speed and do whatever you enjoy.
Having said this, if your plan is to be able to consume Japanese media aimed at older teenagers or adults, then realistically you will need to know *a lot* of words. Reading did not feel even remotely comfortable for me until the 10K-15K word range, and you will still need to look up a ton of words then. So ask yourself where you would like to be and when, and then plan accordingly. Most people I know of do 10-15 new words/day, which takes them ~30 min of Anki each day.
And since you are also asking about how many words one “can” learn, there really is no limit other than how much time you have available. Some people spend hours each day with an SRS and learn 50++ new words every day for long periods of time. I would not recommend it due to high risk of SRS fatigue/burnout, but it is entirely possible to do.
It depends on the depth that you’re trying to learn each word. A single word can take quite a lot of study on its own.
My advice would first be to select only words you encounter often, as these are relevant and will stick in your head.
You should encounter these words at least 3 times in one chapter of a book or 1 episode of a show, but if it’s really obscure like 精神障害, feel free to skip it.
I’ve been doing about 10 new words a day, and due to the level that I memorize them, I think this is almost too much. Think about it, 10 new words every day is 3,650 a year.
Currently, I do 70-150 reviews a day in Anki. I only fail maybe 5 cards a day, sometimes none. I also delete words that just aren’t working.
10 new words a day is plenty, but I’d even say you can do 5 a day. It’s up to you what challenge you want/how much you can handle.
If you’re not learning more than a single definition per word, you can probably handle even 15-20 words a day. But that would personally kill me since I memorize like 4-5 things every word.
Some people are crazy and will spend 2 hours or more memorizing thousands of words, but I’d say your time would be better spent actually watching/reading Japanese content.