I just recently got my 4 year badge from Bunpro and thought it would be a good time to reflect on what I’ve learned, how it”s helped me and how I’m moving forward with my Japanese learning along with Bunpro. Rather than focus on the stats, milestones, streaks, JLPT prep, schedules, and all those other charts and numbers, I’d rather talk about my personal experience with Bunpro and how it has been a part of my life over the past few years.
I first got Bunpro when we were waist deep into the pandemic. Despite the hardships and uncertainty it caused many, I have a lot of nostalgic memories from that time. Apart from spending a lot of time a home, cozying up with a warm coffee and grinding away on Bunpro was a good memory for me during that time. It was an incredible discovery of a resource, as I had mostly been spending a lot of the previous years studying mainly vocabulary. I felt so strongly about Bunpro, I also convinced my wife to get a lifetime account.
The Bunpro community also played a big role during that time and in the following years. I definitely participated more back then, even chronicling my immersion journey for an entire year. This allowed me to not only engage in something that I was no longer engaging in, (which was a Japanese learning community) but also allowed me to see different perspectives. Admittedly, perspectives that I didn’t always agree with, but I often question my own way of seeing things as well. At the very least Socrates thinks you should. I truly believe that participating in the Bunpro community allowed me to revitalize my local community once we hit the tail end of the pandemic.
Last year I was able to go to Japan after not going for almost a decade and while it was certainly less than a perfect run when it came to communicating, I was able to communicate and understand more due in part to my time spent with Bunpro. Conversations in trains and other places were more clear and just stuck more. This trip, study wise ended up being a double edged sword as I would hardly study at all from early November to the end of 2023. Yes, I was in Japan speaking Japanese and around Japanese things all the time, but it’s not the same as actively studying the language. Even though I was learning a few things here and there, I was more than anything, using and re-enforcing what I already knew. Returning to the states, I was at the tail end of going through N2 grammar and ready to start N1, but realized that I didn’t know N3 and N2 grammar as well as I would have liked, so I reset those 2 and just finished adding that last grammar point from the N3 deck recently. This time I feel like I have a better grasp on it.
I’m sure that there are people here who believe that after four years I should have Bunpro completed and should have moved on to something else. Perhaps those people might be under the impression that I don’t consume content, talk to natives, or read in the language. I do all those things, but I also do Bunpro. Truthfully, I wish I was the type of person who could look at a grammar point one time and be like “I got this bro, I never have to study this again. I grasp this grammar completely”. But for me that’s not really the case. I don’t learn easily, not just Japanese, but anything in general. But I do like to learn things deeply, using multiple sources, examples, and testing it out on my own. Sometimes it doesn’t really stick until I have that ‘aha’ moment while reading or having a conversation.
I really, truthfully, honestly feel that had Bunpro not existed, my grammar would not be where it is now. Learning Japanese has been a long, difficult road filled with several books, classes, apps, programs and stays in Japan. Among the Japanese learning tools that I use, I always put Bunpro at that top when talking with students and learners about what resources I recommend. So far, everyone that has used it has found it to be a wonderful resource. During study group meets, if I’m having a hard time explaining a grammar point, I reference Bunpro. At two separate Japanese language panels I hosted this past year, I have recommended Bunpro as part of my presentation and spoke so highly of it, I put out a disclaimer that I was not sponsored by them, lol. It has helped me to not just understand grammar, but to better explain it, and in our local group native speakers have also noticed how well I can use and explain grammar. But I’m also very well aware that Bunpro might not be for everybody.
Over that years I have had people tell me how I should be studying Japanese, that I’m not doing enough of this or enough of that, to drop this, and to drop that. Of course, this is mostly online, in real life people who see my ability rarely, if ever give me advice on learning, and typically end up asking me for advice. One piece of advice I always give to new learners is to try everything I suggest, and if nothing is working for them to try something else. If I could give them a one size fits all solution to learn Japanese, I would give it to them in a heartbeat, but such a thing is impossible. I personally have gone through several textbooks, workbooks, grammar dictionaries, audio lessons, and Anki flashcard decks to learn grammar, and nothing is more comprehensive and has worked as well as Bunpro has. But for some people, all the stuff I tried before did work for them. I mean, before all this technology all people had were books, notebooks, and a willingness to learn. In many ways it hasn’t changed. It’s more accessible then ever, it’s easier than ever, but the willingness, time and effort is still needed.
For me personally, I will continue to use Bunpro for as long as I need it, whether it be 1 more year or 10. It has been an invaluable resource and continues to expand and get better. Four years ago, I was still functional in Japanese, I could carry a conversation and get my point across. But now I can do so with more variety and expression, and understand grander concepts in conversations wheres before Bunpro so much Japanese I listened to sounded fragmented and fuzzy. A random word here, a nuance there, and could only understand a full sentence if it was basic enough. I’m still not there as far as fluency goes, and there are many factors contributing to that. But I will say that Bunpro has helped me in getting a few steps closer.
I want to thank the team at Bunpro for not only creating an incredible product, but for continuing to improve, expand, and for continuing to be passionate about not just the product itself, but learners of the language as well.