Am I doing something wrong, how do you retain new lessons?

Bunpro
#9

I know that feeling of remembering the answer to the sentence rather than understanding the grammar point. Many many reviews of mine have been completed that way and it just kept frustrating me the further on I progressed as nuances became harder and harder to separate. The ghost reviews just kept piling up since i was just randomly guessing when I couldnt remember the answer.

My main solution to this problem was actually to remove the english translation entierly, maybe it will work for you too? It might be nice to keep the “hint” at most (the blue grammar text), but dont have the translation visible at once. For me, this slowed down my reviews considerably because now I actually had to read and understand the sentence, nuances etc. It will take more time and require a lot more mental effort, but it is worth it in the long run as you will start to see sentence patterns differently.

If your answer is incorrect, see it as an opportunity to ask yourself why you were wrong and find your weak spots. Was it a simple spelling error, tense error, conjugation error etc?

Hope it helps!

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#10

In addition to the great responses above, use the cram feature!

After I’ve looked at the definition, peeked at the example sentences, read the readings, I go cram it. I’ll find the grammar point and select for cram. Sometimes there are some very similar grammar points, I will also select them and drill it until I feel comfortable.

When I have that feeling of “I can’t remember anything!” I’ll do a few cram sessions.

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#11

Try slowing it down. Read the resource links, read the entry for that grammar point in Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, watch YouTube videos on that grammar point…. Then add it to your reviews. There are only about 300 grammar points for the whole of N5+N4, which is your foundation. It’s well worth taking your time to really understand the fundamentals. I was going pretty slowly but that still took less than a year.

Also, you could try working alongside a textbook as they introduce the grammar points used in the example dialogue at the start of the chapter so everything is put in context. Each chapter has drills and examples. I used Genki and would listen to the audio for a chapter every day when I went running, over and over. There are loads of conjugation drills in Genki in the audio files.

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#12

Since you want to know what other people are doing, here are my 2 cent:

I usually learn about a new grammar point in Genki, and read the explanation there. Then I go to Bunpro, read the short explanation and all the examples there and add it for review. And then it’s back to Genki, doing a few exercises with the new grammar. By the time I see it again in Bunpro I’m already a bit firmer with the grammar point from using it in Genki.

I also go super slow. It’s been a little over a year and I’ve added 152 grammar points in total.

In general, I think Bunpro is great for reinforcement, but it’s more a supplement. I think you have to also use the grammar with exercises, reading/listening materials and conversation in addition to SRSing it on Bunpro.

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#13

The general consensus here seems to be: Understand the grammar point using outside resources, then use Bunpro to get example sentences to practice on and reinforce what you’ve learned.

Just to add my two cents: What I did was actually the opposite - I learned the point on Bunpro and saw how it was used in the example sentences, then later would find the grammar point explained elsewhere, e.g. a youtube video, and then I always had that very satisfying “aha!” moment, where it all suddenly made sense.

Long story short: Use whichever approach works best for you. The others mentioned it here, but especially in N5 and N4, there’s a lot of conjugations and things that really have to be “understood”. From N3 onwards, the grammar points become a lot more “common phrases / patterns” that don’t rely that much on understanding and more on seeing them over and over. Hang in there!

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#14

You are probably just being too hard on yourself.

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#15

どもありがとうございます！

Thank you all for your responses. It’s really cool to hear how everyone seems to study slightly differently. Lots of great suggestions and I think I’ll have to try a few different things to see what really works for me.

I do actually have Genki I but I struggle to find time to sit down and study properly with it, I think I’d feel held back if I waited for the lessons to be covered by Genki before learning them on Bunpro. I also found the lessons on Bunpro felt out of order when I used the Genki ordering, so I opted to use the Bunpro default order.

At the end of the day, everything I learn here is knowledge that will help improve my Japanese in the long run. Even if it’s imperfect or comes with gaps. Thanks for inspiring me everyone!

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#16

I don’t do lessons, I just add the grammar point in the textbook I’m using. If you don’t like textbooks than at least use a grammar dictionary. Try to get a tutor to correct exercises in which you have to compose your OWN sentences using a grammar point. Good textbooks (Genki, Tobira, etc…) have lots of such exercises

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#17

For から in particular, it might help to realize that although it’s often conveniently translated into English as “because” or “so,” you can pretty much always think of it as “from” even in those instances. This is why nouns (and so-called “な-adjectives,” which are honestly just a type of noun) need だ or です in front of them:

  • 冬だから、さむいです。= “From (the fact that it) is winter, it is cold.” → more naturally, “It is winter, so it is cold.”
  • 冬から、さむいです。= “From winter, it is cold.” This particular example sentence is also grammatically correct, but its meaning is different from the one above that included だ

 

There’s even a grammar point in N3 where から is literally used in this way: …ことから gets translated as “from that fact that…”

Anyway, [A]から[B] can always be thought of as “From A, B.” The order might feel confusing at first, but that’s just because ALL of Japanese’s particles (は、が、に、へ、を、から、まで、しか…) are postpositional, unlike English’s prepositional words (a, an, the, to, for, from…), so their meaning applies to whatever word is in front of them. In the case of から vs. だから, you’ve just gotta know where you can and can’t put だ :slight_smile:
(Hint: い-adjectives are basically just special “verbs” that already include the “is” meaning, so saying something like 青いだ would sound like you’re saying “is is blue.”)

Lastly, since you specifically mentioned “nuance,” (だ・です)から feels… direct/blunt. This usually isn’t a bad thing if you’re just stating simple facts, but if you find yourself apologizing for something and having to explain yourself, something “softer” (more “indirect”) like (な)ので is preferable.

Sorry for going so far off on a tangent, but everyone else already addressed your main question. Hopefully I could at least help demystify some of the language for you :stuck_out_tongue:

Feel free to ask me if you have any questions, though!

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#18

You are meant to forget stuff. That’s basically how the brain works and why Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS) works so well. There’s a handful of theories about it, and I’m not going to go into them because they weren’t what I studied in grad school, but a prevailing idea amongst all of them is that forgetting is necessary. By forgetting, and then remembering, the forgotten information is “stored” better and you will remember it for a longer period of time.

Granted, this won’t help a ton with production, but it will help you remember the basics of the grammar point. If you then go out and interact with Japanese and these grammar points (in a book, website, general studying, conversations, games, etc.) you start to strengthen the connection with your memory of the grammar point and its use in the language as a whole.

It feels kind of frustrating at times, but just trust yourself that as long as you keep studying you’re going to do great!

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#19

That actually comes as a surprise to me as I had assumed it changed depending on the particle. Like the way I had mentally separated the roles of が and は was that が is talking about the thing that comes after it and は is talking about what came before.

Really helpful all round though, I definitely feel like I better understand the role of から now.

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#20

I think it’s usually explained in the opposite direction (が emphasizes what comes before it, while は emphasizes what comes after it), but I guess it maybe depends on how we’re understanding “emphasis.”

Generally speaking, the “topic” marked by は is something that is mutually known by both the speaker and listener. So, in AはB, the new information (or in questions, the information we’re seeking) is going to be in B, since the purpose of A was only to set up and provide context for the rest of the sentence. One clever way to conceptualize “○は…” in English is, “As for ○, …” This is because even in English, it’ll sound pretty weird to put something your listener doesn’t know about for ○.

Conversely, が marks the “subject” of a sentence. Unlike は, this part of the sentence is quite literally necessary for the sentence to be understandable, despite Japanese often leaving it implied. In English, the “subject” is usually the first word in any sentence we make: “I am Tom,” “She is busy,” “It’s going to be on Saturday,” etc. Anyway, Japanese mainly uses が instead of は when the sentence’s new information is in front of the particle.

You may notice that questions are always framed with が. This is because the new (or sought-after) information belongs in front of it:

  • いつがいいですか？
  • どれが好きですか？
  • A：だれが来るの？ B：トムが。

 

は also brings a feeling of contrast with it (it’s often called “contrastive は”), so most compliments will be said with が instead, to avoid implying anything negative. Saying something like 今日のごはんはおいしいです！ to your host family for example would sound like a backhanded compliment, as if other days’ meals weren’t おいしい. For this reason, I think you’ll find nearly all of your example sentences for 好き are framed with が, unless it’s an intentionally contrastive sentence like Xは好きだけど、Yは好きじゃないです。 This sounds something like, “I do like X, but I don’t like Y.”

All that being said, in AはB vs. AがB, both particles are actually “marking” A. It just so happens that sometimes, we’re more interested in hearing what the speaker has to say about B :slight_smile:

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#21

Usually; however sometimes it’s used as a … sneaky? rhetorical? way to introduce ○ to the conversation.

It’s similar to the sentence introduction “As I’m sure you all know, …” :relaxed:

#22

Hi! I use nemonics a lot; y make up my own crazy stories so they make sense to me and write them in the notes section Bunpro provides. Sometimes they’re useless and I change them constantly to help me remember.

Also, I take notes on the most difficult grammar when I confuse them with other points, so I have a notebook comparing similar grammar and review that to study aside from going though bunpro

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#23

I guess 80% of the time my first sentences on reviews I get it wrong, then my mind clicks and I start remembering the rules to write certain points.

but after repeating them I read the sentence then I remmeber the order and rule to use certain item.

getting tips from other users here about listening the example sentece,

I think I will start doing that. usually I prefer natural recorded voices, not robotic, but I will listen to them anyway.

#24

𝙰𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚌 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 :robot:

#25

𝕨𝕒𝕚𝕥, 𝕀 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕨𝕖 𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕠𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕤! :robot:

#26

𝙽𝚘, 𝙸’𝚊𝚖 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙 𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎, 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗’𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝
image

#27

ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠 𝕗𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨 𝕙𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕟!

𝔸𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟘.𝟘𝟘𝟘 𝕤𝕚𝕞𝕦𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤, 𝕀 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝟠.𝟞% 𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕖𝕗𝕥 𝕤𝕒𝕪𝕤 “𝕀𝕟𝕧𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕕 𝕚𝕟𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕣𝕪”, 𝕣𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕤𝕒𝕪𝕤 “𝔼𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝟜𝟠𝟞 : ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕠𝕠𝕥 𝕤𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕣𝕦𝕟 𝕕𝕚𝕒𝕘𝕟𝕠𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕔 𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕧𝕚𝕔𝕖𝕤”

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#28

Imagine being a human and using Bunpro, couldn’t be me :cowboy_hat_face:

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