Bunpro Methods

[11441]

Hey there. I like Bunpro very much! However, I’m not sure if I am using it correctly. Typically I login, hit the reviews section and attempt to get through it as accurately as possible. I’ll even bookmark certain grammar I wasn’t aware of etc. and examine it later. I linked up the GENKI book with it, but it continues to create grammar I have not been introduced to yet.

Just curious if there are any How-To Guides, etc. that may shine some more light on how best to use the product? I feel like I might be leaving a lot on the table…

Thank you

[IcyIceBear]

I’m not entirely sure what you mean by encountering reviews you haven’t seen yet… You should be introduced to them in “learn”
but I’ll try to help

Go to settings and opt into the beta if you haven’t already. Then go to

Study Grammar and Vocab on Bunpro with Decks

and pick whichever deck you want to learn from. Go to “deck settings” and choose main deck. Now when you click “learn” it’ll show you the next items from the book in order

Alternatively you can go into the deck and choose which to study manually. After the initial quiz they’ll come back as reviews

[Superpnut]

Seems like a pretty good way to do it to me.

[wct]

@11441

Just curious if there are any How-To Guides, etc. that may shine some more light on how best to use the product?

If there isn’t an official one yet (I’m not aware of any myself…) then I nominate this as an ‘official’ feature request: An on-boarding How To Use Bunpro guide.

If such a thing already exists, I’d love to see it!

[EdBunpro]

@wct

An on-boarding How To Use Bunpro guide.

New onboarding should hopefully solve this and take into account 90% (spitballing) of use cases for beginner users. On top of that, a new dedicated FAQ section of the website is also being constructed as we speak which will have brief guides on how to use certain things, answer FAQ about other sections, etc.

@11441

I linked up the GENKI book with it, but it continues to create grammar I have not been introduced to yet.

Are you currently using Paths or Decks when you’re doing your studying? That’d help both me and myself best give you directions on how to streamline your experience a bit more! Outside of that, you’re more than welcome to send me a direct message any time if you have any questions/comments/concerns about the site, always available~

[_HA472]

@11441

I linked up the GENKI book with it, but it continues to create grammar I have not been introduced to yet.

Here is an issue that you might be encountering: I think that Bunpro’s grammar decks/paths are mostly in i+1 order (the example sentences only use the grammar point being introduced and previously learned grammar points). However, since Genki introduces grammar points in a different order than Bunpro, the example sentences in the Genki decks/paths aren’t quite i+1. See this post (The biggest flaw of Bunpro (for beginner learners)):

@doublesbrian

First of all I want to say I really enjoy what bunpro does. But there is a huge flaw that made learning extremely hard for me using this website. The worst part is, I don’t know how it can be fixed.

I started learning Japanese using the Genki I textbook. I found bunpro shortly after and was happy to see they had a path for Genki.

The problem is, the website is built using the bunpro’s order for learning. When you go through a genki path, it gives you the grammar points in the order of genki, but the example sentences expect you to know the grammar in the bunpro order. For learning to be truly effective you need to use n+1 or whatever they call it where you only introduce 1 new element at a time the rest of the sentence is reviewing everything else you know, and from what I see the bunpro order does that amazingly. So it feels like you kind of undercut the whole system by doing it out of the intended order and choosing a textbook path.

However, Bunpro is currently working on this issue. See this post (All Grammar Explanations Finished! 12/08/23):

@Asher

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.

So, until the Genki grammar deck revamp is complete, consider going through the Bunpro N5 and N4 decks/paths instead of the Genki I and II decks/paths.

[_HA472]

@11441

Just curious if there are any How-To Guides, etc. that may shine some more light on how best to use the product?

@EdBunpro

On top of that, a new dedicated FAQ section of the website is also being constructed as we speak which will have brief guides on how to use certain things, answer FAQ about other sections, etc.

If you haven’t seen it, here is an old version of the FAQ: Bunpro FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

I’m excited to see the new FAQ and onboarding!

[ddavo]

Tbh, I don’t mind seeing some grammar here and there that i don’t fully understand. Graded readers have exactly the same problem, it’s impossible to read something where you understand 100% and you don’t learn anything new.

[11441]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. It is helpful. I guess I was focusing too much on the review because it’s so apparent on the dashboard. Sounds like I really need to dig into the decks in order to ensure I’m prepared for vocab and grammar reviews. Also, I tend to focus on completing pending reviews almost exclusively. Tonight I had over 100 reviews to tackle. I feel like that might be too much? Anyway, I love the platform any way you slice it! I have noticed quite an acceleration in my progress since joining. Looking forward to being around for a while.

[IcyIceBear]

For vocab it’s an okay number

For grammar that can be tiring. I like it best when my grammar reviews stick around 30 and below

I knock out any and all reviews before learning more. If there was too many reviews, learn less. If I have a review queue sit for too long it just messes up the SRS timing because I’m more likely to forget them the longer they sit

But if I’m really not feeling the reviews on a given day, there’s nothing wrong with doing them the next day instead. Learning shouldn’t feel like a forced chore, so if it starts dragging you down lighten the load and enjoy

[jrmr50]

It can take a while for beginners to shake that “but I must comprehend everything all the time” feeling and just accept that sometimes there’s going to be stuff you don’t know, haven’t seen before. Well I’m probably just generalising from my own experience…