Hi All!
Today I have the great pleasure of being able to announce that, with the remaining N1 grammar descriptions now being finished, all grammar points on the website have their own full-fledged explanation.
Where to From Here?
Just because we have reached one milestone does not mean that we plan on slowing down any time soon. As always, we still have a lot on the grill ready to serve up soon! In addition to N0, which we are still working out logistically, the site is just about to enter another polish phase.
Taking the experience that we have gained through the process of writing all 900 or so grammar explanations on the site so far, we plan to go back through N5 and N4 and give those descriptions a bit of extra love. This will include things like:
- Including extra information where it will be helpful.
- Removing anything verbose or unnecessary.
- Adding any points of context to sentences that will help facilitate understanding.
- Generally just making every effort possible to get them equal to and beyond the level of what you would expect from a standard textbook.
Over the period through which we were writing many of the descriptions for the higher-level structures, it brought about many moments of ‘ahhh, you know what… we should probably have included this piece of information in XYZ grammar point as well’. We would like to take this opportunity to use all of those moments reflectively, and improve upon the product we already have.
In addition to this, we are continuing to go full steam ahead with improving our vocabulary product as well. This will include:
- Hints for N4 and N3 vocab (English and Japanese)
- Cloze being enabled for N3 vocab.
- English translations for N2 vocab (slightly further into the future, but before year end)
- Example sentences for N1 vocab (already finished and now in the editing stage)
Many other features will be coming for vocab in the near future as well, including some that have been long awaited by users.
Genki grammar deck revamp
Behind the scenes we have also been working on revamping the Genki grammar deck, as well as the example sentences that are presented alongside it.
We have almost finished Genki 1, which means that for the users who follow the learning order of the Genki 1 deck, they will have 12 brand new example sentences that are strictly i+1 for each and every grammar point. This means that you will never be exposed to grammar that you have not seen in the past, just like in the default Bunpro path.
Beyond this, we are even going the extra mile and making sure that the sentences only include words from the N5/Genki 1 mixed vocab deck. This will eliminate the need to look up anything you haven’t seen before, provided you are using both the grammar and vocab decks simultaneously.
We plan to do the same for Genki 2 in the near future, and (possibly) other text books at a later date.
Thank you all for supporting us through the process of implementing grammar descriptions for everything. Writing in a way that is accessible and easy to digest for all readers is no easy task, and so much of the feedback that you have all provided over the recent years has helped us to slowly but surely find what works best for us, our users, and still lends enough flexibility to create something that isn’t a carbon copy of every other textbook or website available.
We will continue to leverage the awesome community that we have here in order to make each and every future release as great as possible, and hope that you’re all still here with us to enjoy what is to come over the next few years!