I’m excited about the site and am very close to subscribing, but I’m curious about the future of the site/app.
Thanks
Hello! Thank you for your inquiry.
We have some exciting features planned for the future. We will be introducing a new way to study with the textbook of your choice, called “Paths”. Starting with Genki, you will be able to study what you learn in your textbook right alongside Bunpro, chapter by chapter, grammar point by grammar point.
In addition, we strongly believe that vocabulary is an important part of learning grammar. We are currently looking into incorporating vocabulary into Bunpro. The vocabulary that you learn would be utilized in the sentences that you get for your grammar reviews, further building upon and reenforcing what you are studying.
Now that N3 has 12 example sentences and 12 study questions per grammar point we will also be focusing on adding and reworking audio as well as adding new N2 and eventually N1 content.
While we cannot give you any specific dates on when these features will become available, we want you to know that we are constantly trying to find new ways to improve your learning experience and will push these updates to you when we believe that they are functional enough to be beneficial to you.
Cheers!
10 Likes
About the vocab part, are you trying to make Bunpro into an all-purpose JLPT tool instead of a grammar tool? I personally see no need to incorporate vocab into Bunpro. The sentences are all generally straightforward and in the rare case there’s a critical word I don’t know, I just look it up.
At the very least, I’d want this to be optional so it doesn’t block me from learning grammar. But honestly, I think your time is better spent fleshing out the N5-N2 content and building ways to study differences between similar grammar points.
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I tend to agree with seanblue here. I think a lot of people here probably already use WaniKani or something similar for vocab. Really fleshing out the nuances between grammar points feels like where your market niche lies. And getting 1-kyuu grammar in should be a priority.
Having said that, perhaps expressions and idioms or yojijukugo could be interesting additions.
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Actually as a beginner, I like that idea. I don’t think this should replace your WK Kanji studies, but should supplement it. There have been many questions on WK around adding non Kanji vocab but it just isn’t the right place. If you look at other guides like TaeKim or so they also teach you new Vocab with the Grammar, else, how is a new learner suppose to read the example sentences if he does not understand the vocab.
However I do also agree that this should not change the central focus but rather supplement the studying. None the less, I think this needs to be viewed from different angles, from beginners perspective and those who already have a study history / different study methods/programs.
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I personally like the idea of having vocabulary incorporated into Bunpro (which would also make the lifetime subscription more enticing!).
However, I have to agree with @seanblue that it may be better off as another section/optional for people who just want to focus on grammar.
I hope that does not mean another separate subscription!
For the time being I am trying to use some common expressions with the explanation/translation under.
I tend to agree with @seanblue and @MonkeyDelaney about vocab not being essential, especially the clever way furigana is hidden but clickable. Already while trying to figure out the correct answer to each review, the surrounding vocab is already being passively reviewed. Also, I suspect most users already use a separate system for learning vocab (anki decks, textbooks, wanikani, memrise, etc…).
However, I definitely wouldn’t complain if there was a vocab section that has a record of all the vocab words a user has encountered in reviews, similar to the lingq system.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I wonder if there is some mutually beneficial way for BunPro and WaniKani to have some crossover. Often when reviewing in WaniKani, I see an example sentence but don’t fully understand the grammar. It would be amazing if there was a BunPro tooltip there. Similarly when reviewing on BunPro, it would be useful if kanji or vocab would display the WaniKani kanji hints.
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If they create a word list, maybe they can make it available on vocab-centric systems, like Anki and Kitsun.
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After doing my daily session today, when I click on a vocab word to reveal the furigana, I do think I would also click a tooltip that said “add to vocab deck.” Then only vocab I haven’t learned through another system are the ones that I can review on Bunpro. Just a thought.
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