Are BunPro and WaniKani the perfect match?

Japanese
#15

You can filter tag by WK level. They have tracked studied ‘known’ words system as well ll. The WK API is coming soon but it’s not necessary if you want to filter what you already studied. It’s not just a vocab deck, it teaches reading & listen comprehension with sentences plus in all in one system for Eng → JP which has always bothered me with WK. And the content is pretty polished given the community feedback loop.

Everyone is different and I’m 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 vocab…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 content…I find this helps to know what you are missing by ear to help close the gap. I’ve 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 schedule…but it gets boring too so I mix media and conversation as such towards my own language goals.

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#16

They are really good together. I’ve used Genki textbooks alongside WK and BP. Between all three you get a decent amount of vocab and grammar practice.

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#17

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 vocabulary… you know the drill).

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#18

@1174 @Bibi-chan
Hey and welcome to the community forums! :partying_face:

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

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#19

my advice is to do as many different things as you can in order to diversify, and then if you feel like something isn’t 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.

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#20

For me Bunpro+Wanikani(+Anki) was pretty much perfect. SRS (=reviews) works great for me and i don’t 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)

I’m 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 -ざる as a literary form of the -ない 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 “consume” is pretty much all I do.

#21

I don’t know that there’s a “perfect match” for everyone. I’m using WK (level 28 now) and Bunpro (started a fortnight ago), and I’m pretty happy. I’m following the MNN2 path, but I’m not sure if I’m even ABLE to kind of combine that with the Bunpro order.
That being said, I also take lessons twice a week over the internet, with a school in Japan called Wasabi, and I’m pretty happy on the whole.
That being said, I find that Bunpro is a bit help with repeating / drilling the grammar, I’m really glad to have found it.
I work a lot, so don’t have as much time as I would like to devote to Japanese, but I find that the combination of WK + Bunpro + MNN + Internet-based lessons is working for me.

#22

Hello! I would say they’re the best for integrating Japanese learning into your life, but I wouldn’t say they’re the best for learning grammar and vocabulary for the first time you encounter them because they’re just flashcards that provide quick explanations. In my opinion, you need to learn these topics with detailed explanations plus a rich collection of homework that will really challenge you to come up with the correct answer.

This may sound traditional of me, but I prefer classic textbook learning with a sensei. I finished Nihongo Sou Matome (vocab, kanji, reading comprehension, grammar, listening comprehension) up to N2, and now I continue to reinforce it with WK and Bunpro.

#23

The instandaneous composition method sounds really fun and i will definitely try it out. Thanks for the recommendation. I was recommended kitsune 10k for any vocabulary that is not within wanikani or bunpro but i was wondering if reading 15 minutes a day and doing that composition method will help this enough? I think i would be overloaded with 3 different SRS systems, and would rather do reading and other more immersive techniques for the rest.

#24

I finally found the Kitsun.io website but how do i get the 10k deck?

#25

Assuming you paid for access to the service, you’d just look it up on community decks.

#26

Can you explain what mnn2 is? i couldnt find it on google

#27

I’m currently doing the 10k deck along with Wanikani and Bunpro right now, so I can speak for doing three SRS at once; frankly, I think I’m only able to do it because I have a lot of free time, and I’ve purposefully bottlenecked the amount of lessons each day I get from both Kitsun and Bunpro (six hiragana words from Kitsun, and two grammar points from Bunpro). It’s not for everyone, but I enjoy it.

edit: also, the 10k deck gets SIGNIFICANTLY easier the more kanji from wanikani you learn, and it’s not like you need to learn the whole deck, either. At some point you’d probably want to start mining (i.e, looking up words as you go and making flashcards from them) instead.

#28

MNN2 is Minna no Nihongo 2, a commonly used textbook.

#29

It’s a 3 week trial. There are many options so feel free to use their message board for questions.

10k deck

#30

There are still a lot of very common words that don’t use kanji and a few grammatical stuctures that aren’t taught on Bunpro. You could probably get pretty far using only Wanikani and Bunpro, but there would be huge gaps in your vocabulary.

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#31

So far it’s worked well for me but I have 2 years of Japanese classes so far at college too, so some of this is review. I think both are an excellent additional tool to have in your belt if your goal is N3+ or fluency. Good luck!

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#32

Wanikani with Bunpro is just barely enough content pass N2, so in that sense completing both would offer a good step to understanding basic Japanese, but neither are the be all and end all of learning Japanese.

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#33

I agree with those above and would add that I’ve also felt that Busuu.com (1 month free link) has helped me more with listening, speaking, and writing than anything else. I don’t find it effective for kanji, but it has made all the difference for my understanding of verb conjugations. It’s very good at only including words in the example sentences and audio files that you’ve already learned.

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#35

Extra vocab decks are a neat idea, but nowadays i prefer to make my own deck in Anki. Whenever i encounter a new word in some material, i check the frequency, and if it’s common or interesting enough i add it.

I used Torii for a while, which is great in principle. It has the 10k most common words, and
you can let it automatically filter out words you already know from WK.

But i feel like i should check each word in the dictionary anyways in case there are errors in pre-made decks or i can add a nuance that i find important, and i prefer to have my cards in an open open platform like Anki rather than some web app that may become inaccessible.
(Bunpro is different because of the review format, small number of items, lack of alternative, etc.)

and i still don’t regret doing Wanikani until level 60, though i did skip vocabulary lessons later on. WK is for learning kanji, after all.