Does anyone else use Bunpro as a primary learning resource? I personally could not get through Genki 1, and I have Genki 2 but I only really like it for the reading practice in the back as it is at my skill level (N4).
I find drilling and writing sentences (although probably very effective) to be super boring in text / work book. Has anyone else used Bunpro specifically as a first resource for learning grammar? Can anyone share any flaws with this plan or where they could see holes in learning grammar/vocab with Bunpro as a primary resource over a text book in the N5/N4 levels?
I personally did Genki 1 half-heartedly and then some of Genki 2 and then switched to Bunpro. I added too much too quickly and reset after maybe 6 months. I now have all of N5-N3 and like half of N2 and some N1 added in about 6-7 months or something although I only add things I am 90% sure I wonāt mess up (my accuracy stats are 98.57%, 95.08%, 93.04%, 96.5%, 100.0% for N5-N1 respectively). My workflow was to read or listen to Japanese and then look stuff up as and when I felt like it (this is still my workflow actually). For grammar, I usually check if there is a Bunpro entry so that I can āmineā it at some point and then almost always the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar and just Google. I sometimes will use the online links on the Bunpro resources tab. So with that in mindā¦
I think using Bunpro as a primary resource for N5/N4 is totally doable but donāt be afraid to double-check against other resources if something isnāt clear. The DOJG very often has deeper differentiations than Bunpro and Bunpro also does not have every grammar pattern under the sun (but this is not so noticable until around the mid-point of N3). Also, the best resource is just exposure to real native materials. My strong suggestion for you, for someone around N4, is to just dive in and look stuff up as you go whilst slowly doing Bunpro in the lesson order whilst mining things you think are especially useful. The main thing is to stick with it and just keep going.
Iāve done both. Started with Genki 1, dropped it very quickly, did BP only for a year. Picked up Genki 1, 2 and now Quartet alongside BP. For me personally, Iāve found the combination of both good.
Youāll find your own learning style that suits you. Donāt be afraid to change things up if itās not working.
I passed N3 using mostly Bunpro. I found part of my problem was just remembering the grammar point itself. By studying the grammar points and using the ę°å®å Øćć¹ćæć¼ to refine their details, Iāve found success. I also read a bunch. Or, rather, I was reading a bunch until I got super busy. Bunpro is a good way to keep some level of studying going on while Iām getting swamped with other things.
I tried Genki but didnāt like it very much. Still went through most of the first book, skipping 90% of the exercises. Then I used Tae Kim + Cure Dolly + Bunpro basically all the way through N5, now I use Bunpro primarily (although I do look up external resources for more tricky grammar point, the āreferenceā section is great for that).
I think when youāre just starting it makes sense to have a more guided approach to understand the basics of sentence structure and the core Japanese syntax logic. But once you have the N5 grammar under your belt, that you know how to conjugate your basic verbs and adjectives and build sentences containing subordinate clauses youāre mostly collecting loose items and the order matters a lot less, at this point I think Bunpro really shines.
Beyond this I think that for grammar itās usually a good idea to get a bunch of different resources in parallel. Every method has its own approach, its pros and cons and often youāll find that Genki lets you understand something that you thought was confusing in Tae Kim or vice-versa. Some Bunpro lessons contain explanations or āfun factsā that I didnāt see in the other books and sometimes help understand the point better.
Iāve done Genki 1 - 3 times, Genki 2 - 1.5 times and another 2 random guides. And still Bunpro helped me the most. Good resource if you pair it with some immersion like reading, listening whatever. I think itās really good. So yeah I think you can use it as a primary resource, but I would recommend to do some output or input so it sticks.
Can you offer your recommendations for reading N4 / N3 level appropriate materials? Or what you were reading before testing? I would really like to improve my reading ability with larger texts, but have a hard time gauging the scale of where to start.
Iām roughly N4 at the moment and Iām mostly practicing reading by playing Japanese RPG videogames. Itās certainly not an easy read at my level but itās a lot of day-to-day conversational Japanese and thereās tons of optional dialogue thatās good for practice because even if you donāt understand 100% of it it doesnāt really matter.
I spend hours in those fantasy cities just talking to everybody and painstakingly decoding what they say. I spent literally 7 hours in the starting location in Final Fantasy VIII just talking to every single character in the Balamb University before I even reached the tutorial section.
The main inconvenient is that the writing style is often quite manga-like, meaning a lot of role speak/å½¹å²čŖ that you have to get used to. It varies a lot from game to game however.
Note however that while my general Japanese level is probably early-to-mid N4, I went kanji-heavy with my studies meaning that kanji-wise Iām around high-N3. That helps massively for reading, obviously.
Learn Natively has a lot of books listed by JLPT level; you could find some for your level in a genre you like.
Personally, when I began studying for the N3 I was reading manga like ć·ććÆćć«ćć§ and ćµććććććć£ć”. Both are daily-life kind of stories, so most, but not all, of the vocabulary is stuff youāll use in daily life or find on a test. I later moved on to a small hardcover light novel I found called 鬼éć³. It was my first actual book and being able to read it felt really cool. About the time I was able to start reading this level with no problems was when I was able to pass the N3. I was also doing a lot of Anki around this point as well.
Given that you like playing video games, this will be a GREAT resource to complement BunPro with:
Whenever you first learn or encounter a grammar point that you want to see how itās actually used, go to this channel. I think youāll really like it .
Iāve only used Bunpro, wanikani and another srs app since starting. However my aim especially in the beginning was only to be able to read, and so as a result of only testing recognition, my ability to write is far below my ability to read. You get good at what you practice, so likely if you want to be able to produce the language some amount of practicing sentence construction is unavoidable.
Bunpro for primary, Tobira, Bunpro resource links and ChatGTP as supplemental grammar examples. I rarely use Tobira or any textbook as additional reference these days, but they donāt hurt to have around.
What youāre doing is basically my plan too. For some reason I really canāt be bothered with textbook grammer. Iām hoping by n3 this will change as Iāll likely need to get stuck into tobira.
I think why I like it is it gives a preliminary idea of the grammer but when a new grammer question comes up and I get it wrong it gets me interested to know why and I enjoy the searching of āwhat does it meanā then the other way around of learning it but ānot knowing why its important until I see itā.
I do find the resources section fundamentally important though, as a lot of learning especially for the bigger issues (like verb conjugation Iām doing now) that there is where Iām learning from on top of just Bunpro. But bunpro does become my āguideā on which grammer points I end up learning first.
I was going through Genki with a professional teacher. I donāt think the explanations are better than Bunpro. The only benefit is the practice questions, reading practice, writing practice. The questions helped me drill in the basic conjugations when I did it with a teacher and I did the homework where I answered the questions which helped me remember and iron out any misunderstandings.
Now I have a non professional teacher and just go through bunpro with her. She adds extra info about the grammar sometimes, and about the word usage. She tells me the example sentences in english and I try to make them in Japanese. That way I get used to making grammatically correct sentences.
I think the only thing youāre really missing going over bunpro as a primary resource is practice. I also use something called Migaku to translate japanese words from subtitles or text and make flashcards with it for my words. I watch japanese shows on netflix using this to get used to listening to the words I learn from flashcards.
I think do bunpro for grammar and get something to mine vocabulary for flashcards from immersion, whether that be reading or watching japanese content. Migaku and Yomichan are examples of those.
Honestly in my experience with other languages itās the other way around, at least for me. Early on having some structure helps because otherwise you have this mountain of rules and construct you have to memorize and you donāt know where to start, but once you got the basics you can learn more organically by just consuming native content and using context to help you, using grammar references only if you want to focus more heavily on a particular sticky point.
I got textbooks for Portuguese and Russian that helped me a lot but Iāve never finished because early on the advanced lessons felt too difficult to tackle so I postponed them, and by the time I was ready to do them I didnāt really feel the need anymore.
I think bunpro is great for that, since itās so flexible you can just pick and chose individual points you can practice in any order based on your practical needs.
Iām the same. Especially with Japanese, I think having a good grammar foundation is very important given how many grammar points are similar in meaning but with minor differences, or vice versa (grammar that looks similar but mean completely different things). This wonāt be apparent until one gets to N3+ levels. I canāt imagine how much harder it would be to tackle these grammar points without having at least a decent grammar foundation. Itās already hard as it is!
I like Bunpro as a primary because it shovels the grammar at you in small digestible chunks and you donāt have to think about what to do next. I had issues self studying using things like the āA Dictionary of ___ Japanese Grammarā series. I still frequently reference them and few other texts I like when I donāt understand things, but in the end the best way to really acquire stuff is through exposure/immersion imo. Thatās another reason why I donāt really like doing/donāt do the genki/genkiesque textbooks.
The channel is great. Bunpro works fine for me, but it is helpful to hear another person explain the grammar points again and it is really amazing to see the grammar used in action in the video games. Some of the examples helped me more than just the example sentences in Bunpro.
I think Bunpro should add the channel to the additional sources tab. Especially since he is doing a Genki chapter series.
.