I was wondering if using WaniKani and BunPro daily would be sufficient on grammar and vocabulary alone to learn the language. I read an Easy Japanese article here and there and listen to nihongoconteppei sometimes to use that Japanese.
Does anyone use both apps, but having to study grammar or vocab outside before completing them?
And is it recommended?
I would say both of the resources will be very time-effective on the path of learning japanese.
Though I think WaniKani can be replaced by a deck in Anki, while BunPro canāt
Former WaniKani user here,
In my study journey, I found the two quite effective together, especially with how BunPro lets you use your WK API to hide the furigana on the kanji youāve learned in WK. That being said, while WaniKani is super (super) useful for learning kanji, you arenāt learning vocab as fast with it. The program is structured towards the kanji, so you wonāt necessarily learn N5 vocab with the kanji you learn in level 5. IIRC you donāt even learn days of the week until level 18! Additionally, there are a lot of katakana and hiragana-only words that will be important to learn, and you donāt really get that from WK.
In my prime, I used torii vocab to fill in the WK cracks while using BunPro and WaniKani, but that was a crazy amount of work and I burned out only after a few months. I suppose it depends on your priorities as a learner. I think the WaniKani interface is very satisfying, and I donāt regret my kanji proficiency from sticking with it at all. I think learning the kanji helped me get into the vocab learning a lot better. But it does take a lot of time and effort to get to that point (I got to lv 60 after about 450 days, roughly 1 1/2 years, and I was doing 300+ reviews daily by the time I hit lv 45)
As those above me said, the two of them are great together, but the best way to really learn Japanese is on two fronts: ātop-downā and ābottom-up.ā
The bottom-up front is what WaniKani and Bunpro are for. Iād also recommend japanese.io and/or Anki for making flashcards out of the many, many words that WaniKani doesnāt have. I personally add flashcards for words that I encounter if Iāve hit Guru in the kanji. That way, it feels like Iām just expanding WaniKani.
The top-down front is where you learn Japanese by actually using it the way you want to someday: listening; speaking; reading; writing. I strongly recommend you start listening to content intended for native speakers, like NHK or Japanese YouTube videos or untranslated anime or video games. You wonāt understand a thing at first (and youāll probably feel frustrated for a while), but this is the part that actually gets you to fluency.
The real gains come in how these two tracks cross-pollinate. Youāll start to hear a word from WaniKani or a grammar point from Bunpro. Even if itās only once or twice, that will greatly boost your memory of those items.
But keep trying new things and working in more study techniques that work for you. Youāll surprise yourself with your gains!
Thanks. Im level 17 in Wanikani and have been very happy with it. Tried anki and didnāt enjoy it but then the other day I was recommended bunpro and realized how similar the two were and it was what I was looking for with a SRS system for Japanese grammar.
Im glad that you say BunPro is all you need for grammar cuz then Iām all set now 
Holy hell, you have been grinding. I have difficulties keeping up with wanikani when i have 150 a day. My goal is to finish in between 2 and 3 years, depending on how my next year of college goes. Arenāt there a limited amount of hiragana and katakana that i might be able to just pick up from BunPro and article with dictionary? I mean isnāt it only the most simple of words that dont have kanji?
Thanks for the tips. How do you even go about listening to content that you dont understand? Is it just trying to pick out single words or do i just listen and enjoy?
Edit: do you have any recommendations for native speakers content?
I am a WaniKani user since quite a long time but I recently switched my main Kanji learning method, and seem to be working better for me. Iām using textbooks/workbooks which might not be a great solution to many, but Iām learning the Kanji now in the Kanji Kentei order, which is the same as the Japanese school grade order. I find this is being more useful to me as one of my main objectives is being able to read, and I feel like this is being faster and more useful approach.
As for watching content, I usually try to select āeasyā animes. Some releases/stream sites allow you to disable the subtitles.
At first it might be a good idea to watch something you already did in the past, and see what you can pick up. Try not to select something you watched too recently to make it more of a challenge. That way you will still get the gist out of it and not feel as frustrated.
Iāve gone through WK. If I had to do it again, Iād probably use it for kanji only on a reorder script and do all my vocab with Kitsun 10k. I could probably use Kitsun as a single SRS resource as the superior UI but BP is content rich and thankfully they kept it autonomous instead of a rigid one path course.
We sound like a broken record recommending reading/listening to native content, but itās true. Iāve found words learned in-context stay in my memory much better. I think WK + Bunpro is a good combination if you can manage it, but to use a sports metaphor, WK and Bunpro are like lifting weights, while reading and listening to Japanese is like actually practicing soccer/basketball . You really need both to become fluent.
Good idea to watch something, that makes sense, but isnāt it dangerous to watch too much anime, cuz then you might just start speaking like an anime character?
Im not a fan of text books so I will stick to wanikani for now.
Though would it be good or bad to have Japanese subtitles with your shows?
Is there a way to sort out non-wanikani words from kitsun 10k?
And do you think kitsun is necessary if i listen to and read articles and shows?
Well, it depends. If you stick to the same genre of Anime sure it might become a problem.
Thereās a big variety even within the anime watching options.
The same could happen with other mediums that itās not anime though, at some point I watched a lot of programs that used Kansai dialect and got some words stuck (although I donāt see it as a problem for myself as I love that dialect).
At first, youāll want to just listen to the sounds and tones and get used to them. Youāll start to notice a word here or there. Then youāll notice more and more.
The thing I use most often is NHKās radio station. I also like to watch anime on Netflix with Japanese audio and subtitles. Sometimes Iāll try to watch Japanese things I own with either Japanese subtitles or none, but sometimes the subs are hard-coded, so that sucks.
Youāll get better at finding material as you go too. I wish you luck!
You can filter tag by WK level. They have tracked studied āknownā words system as well ll. The WK API is coming soon but itās not necessary if you want to filter what you already studied. Itās not just a vocab deck, it teaches reading & listen comprehension with sentences plus in all in one system for Eng ā JP which has always bothered me with WK. And the content is pretty polished given the community feedback loop.
Everyone is different and Iām still a student of the language. If you have awesome retention to pick up vocab or have a passion for reading and willing to do ALOT of dictionary look ups, go for it. Others will feel a mountain of unknown vocab that is scrambled to retain both reading and listening comprehension so SRS helps a lot and there are creative ways to utilize it other than just vocabā¦then you can close the gap a bit better for on native material.
I think everyone navigates the intermediate plateau differently with personal goals in mind. For listening to shows/YT/drama/anime, you need reasonable reading skills to read the JP subtitles quick enough (and accurately) for adult contentā¦I find this helps to know what you are missing by ear to help close the gap. Iāve done alot of passive listening through the years beyond my level and it can largely be a waste without an active study component. Full time immersion is great if you have no other responsibilities and can do 8+ hours a day of media. But I need time effectiveness and SRS helps along with a fixed scheduleā¦but it gets boring too so I mix media and conversation as such towards my own language goals.
They are really good together. Iāve used Genki textbooks alongside WK and BP. Between all three you get a decent amount of vocab and grammar practice.
In my case I use WaniKani & Bunpro as support material for my Genki textbooks: I realized that it is easier to focus on the content, and lessons end up being way more structured than just opening a book (or two or three, if one wants to study kanji AND conjugate verbs AND learn vocabularyā¦ you know the drill).
@1174 @Bibi-chan
Hey and welcome to the community forums! 
I agree with others, I think that Wanikani/Anki + Bunpro might significantly speed up the learning process, though you should definitely supply those with reading and listening to the native material for maximum effect.
It is good to start reading some simple manga like Yotsubato, Tsuredure Children. Also reading NHK news easy is very beneficial. Try to read 15 minutes EVERY DAY (all daily articles on NHK news easy are perfect for this) and you will see shocking improvement in no time since reading in context greatly improves comprehension.
As for listening, I would suggest listening to Japanese audio when you cook and take shower, this way you can kill two birds with one stone. I think it is good to listen to the same audio on repeat, for example, an anime episode, since you will have an easier time understanding it, no matter what your level is. Also, if you listen to the same audio, you can actually use it for shadowing (repeating whatever is said) pretty well.
You can also read about instantaneous composition method
my advice is to do as many different things as you can in order to diversify, and then if you feel like something isnāt working then you should stop doing it. Doing both Wanikani and Bunpro will not be enough to get you to learn the language, unfortunately, but you can do something like the Kitsun.io 10k deck and then just sleep all of the Wanikani words.
To be honest, I slack way too hard on listening practice and reading practice, but you should probably be doing those too.
For me Bunpro+Wanikani(+Anki) was pretty much perfect. SRS (=reviews) works great for me and i donāt need context to remember things. (Of course you need to practice with native material at some point, but in the beginning, i got way more out of SRS)
The biggest blind spot of WK is lacking hiragana and katakana vocab, but you can easily supplement that, using Torii, Anki, etc. (or kitsun 10k)
Iām level 60 on WK but only at 20% of N3 in Bunpro, yet native material like manga and video games (currently Final Fantasy 7) is already starting to be easy a lot of the time. Of course i often have to look things up, mostly vocab, sometimes grammar (recently i learned -ćć as a literary form of the -ćŖć negation from Final Fantasy 7), which i usually add to my Anki deck, unless it seems very uncommon.
WK+Bunpro+Anki cards collected from media i āconsumeā is pretty much all I do.