Bunpro Vocab and Anki Conflict/Overlap

Japanese
#1

Hi guys, this is my first post and I don’t frequent here often but I had a question or would like your opinions.

I once only anki-drone’d (biggest nightmare ever, I know…) and reached around ~3k of the core2k/6k deck, now I use BunPro to learn grammar (and I love it) and I am progressing the N2 deck at the moment. I see that BunPro has vocab decks, and I started the N5 one today and I know the first 200 words, and probably(?) know the rest? I was wondering, do you think I should bother with the BunPro decks? I have 200 reviews extra of vocab, which are “easy” to me, but I’m not sure if I should bother!

It’s hard to say for me… should I just do the N3 and forward decks assuming N4 vocab is at a similar place? Would love to hear your ideas.

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#2

I was in exactly the same situation, and I went straight to the N3 deck, marking the N5 and N4 decks as mastered. I still use Anki on the side, but personally I find learning vocabulary with Bunpro to be much more effective than with Anki. That’s because the translation goes in the other direction (harder) and is always placed in a different context. It then becomes much easier to recall and use those same words in real life compared to Anki.

If you’ve already mastered 3k words from the Core 2k/6k deck, then you’ve basically already mastered Bunpro’s N4 deck (with a few exceptions that aren’t necessarily worth learning). Go ahead and skim through the N4 deck, and if you have any doubts, work on it—but I think it’s more likely to be a waste of time.

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#3

Ahhh, that sounds like a good idea, and I’m glad you can relate.

I skimmed the N5 deck and I think I didn’t know only one word…
So I’ll have a look at the N4 deck.

One thing I’ve loved about BunPro is actually needing to type answers, it makes me retain information better I think… so just seeing a kanji on anki and knowing it phonetically and it’s meaning made it harder to recall when making sentences later.

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#4

That’s what I did, though I did go through each deck individually because there were a handful of words in N5 I didn’t know, and probably around 100 in the N4 deck I didn’t know. I marked anything I already knew as mastered. I’m working through the N3 deck now (I knew about 2/3 of them, so there were a lot left). That way I don’t miss things I don’t know but don’t have to do the ones I already know again.

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#5

Hey, I use WaniKani and Bunpro (along with vocab decks). I manually add words that I can’t easily memorize to Anki. Do you think this is a good way to use it, or should I also use premade decks?

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#6

I knew everything in N5 and N4, I think there’s a handful I don’t know in N3 so I’m just going through and individually mastering each one I do know. It’s a bit of a pain but it’s worth the additional practice I think!

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#7

Hmm, I’m not familiar with WaniKani personally so I’m not sure.

I just used Anki as a vocab base initially, honestly I really like BunPro for grammar, so I think it’s also gonna be equally as strong for vocab, maybe even better! My retention has been great with Anki but I wish I typed it just as BunPro makes you do, since it’ll make you familiar with typing it when conversing online. I think it depends on how far you are into your Anki deck, I would just stick with BunPro vocab, and mine cards from shows.