Let’s say I finished n5-n1 grammar. Does that mean I don’t need to revise grammar again( of course, grammar reviews)? Will that mean I am N1 in grammar because I think I will finish Bunpro within a year and a half is there a catch do i have to study grammar again because i hate it?
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dont get ahead of yourself 笑
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To address your main concern, yes - you will have to study in the form of reviewing even after “mastering” all the grammar through bunpro. Of course, assuming you truly command a mastery of N1 grammar (and the appropriate vocabulary for the level), you can review in myriad ways. Most likely that will be through consuming native content and consulting reference material when something unknown appears.
Although you did not ask for this advice specifically, I think you should keep in mind that language learning is akin to a marathon. You must pace yourself and not set too lofty of a goal. For if you fail and fall far beneath your own expectations, it will certainly detract from your motivation to progress when you hit a plateau. Additionally, memorization does not equal mastery. That comes with time and experience.
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As far as I understand this is a voluntary entry service. You don’t have to do anything.
Whether you are N1 in grammar has nothing to do with bunpro or any of the reviews, if you know the language then you simply know the language.
So no, you don’t have to study grammar again that you know. And you can even manually tell the website not to review you on that grammar by not adding it or telling the website you are a master of it.
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i have to plan ahead thats who i am
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i am doing 2 to 3 grammer points a day which is a nice pace imo
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Yes, your pace is fine. If you can maintain it, while also attaining a sufficient level of comprehension as you do so, I believe you can do well.
I urge you to be steadfast in your (apparent) motivation so you do not become dejected if the pace you are now enjoying becomes untenable in the future. There is no weakness in slowing memorization of words if it means achieving a greater understanding of concepts - what you are doing and why.
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I think it’s great you are motivated and have a schedule with your studies. Keep it up!
However, realistically even if you rush through grammar and finish it in a year and a half you will not be at an N1 grammar level unless you are exceptionally talented at language learning. Without the necessary vocabulary, your grammar level isn’t going to be of much use. Also in the start remembering grammar is relatively easy. The more you pile on the more difficult it becomes to remember each piece and the nuances they offer. I often find myself needing to look back on past grammar points to refresh them.
That being said, try not to overwhelm yourself with grammar as it will start to build up frustration and could lead to burnout and a lack of motivation to learn. It takes years to learn a language. Some of the smartest people I know still took over 3 years to achieve an N1 level and that was with complete immersion into the language and an unreal amount of daily study, like over 8 hours a day.
Don’t let that discourage you though! Remember every word and piece of grammar you remember is a win. It’s not about how fast you can learn but rather how well you can retain and use your knowledge effectively to communicate.
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This isnt really planning, your just asking ‘if’ you finish all the grammar in a year will you be at N1 level. well… no you wont. you have a very large mountain ahead of you, dont focus on the summit take one step at a time. even if you blast through and review every grammar on bunpro you still need to implement that into conversation which is a completely different skill. its a very common mistake for new learners to focus on ‘how quickly can i get to N1’ and it rarely works out well.
enjoy your studies or they wont last. posts like this i always find pointless like you will get to N1 with time and dedication but focus on the studies not posting questions about ‘if i do all this in a year’. you’re at level 1, congrats on starting this journey but you still have all the grammar, kanji, listening and speaking to master none of which can be rushed it takes years.
one step at a time
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Continuous review of grammar, vocab, kanij are very important to make sure you build a solid base of knowledge to build up from. Reviews might sound like a lot of work, especially if you’re sorting out a schedule or plan for yourself to embark down the learning journey, but much like the rules of the road, once you get used to to using what you learn routinely, it will gradually feel more natural to recall what you learn.
After all, that’s why we review, right? So we can recall the information when it would be useful. So basically just make sure when you learn new things and review them that it’s not just the flat information itself you’re going over. Including example sentences is one great example of that. Thankfully, Bunpro’s got you covered when it comes to making sure you actually use what you learn in real sentences both casual and formal.
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I think you need to clarify what you mean by finish. Do you just mean that you will have done the lesson for each grammar point up to and including N1, but not necessarily leveled up each of those items to Master in terms of the SRS? Or does finishing mean levelling up each of the items to master? If it is the former, then it is very unlikely that you will be able to recall all of the grammar points since you havent really practiced them. If it is the latter then be prepared for it to take much more than a year and a half.
To elaborate, the SRS system on Bunpro has 12 levels. once you hit level 12 for an item, it is considered mastered and you no longer need to review it. in order to level an item to level 12, you need to successfully review it 11 times. That means you need to get it correct 11 times in a row if you want to master it in the shortest amount of time. the intervals between reviews become increasingly longer to ensure that you are able to remember the item months after first being exposed to it. the intervals are as follows.
level 2. * 4 hours
level 3. * 8 hours
level 4. * 24 hours
level 5. * 2 days
level 6. * 4 days
level 7. * 8 days
level 8. * 2 weeks
level 9. * 4 weeks
level 10. * 8 weeks
level 11. * 4 months
level 12. * 6 months
from this you can see that in order to truly master an item you need to be able to correctly recall it even after potentially not having seen it for 6 months. In order to reach this point you will have had to wait 14 months after first learning the item. You might feel that getting to that level is completely unnecessary. If that is the case, I would say that you want to at the very least reach level 10. If you are able to recall an item after not having seen it for 2 months, I would argue that you could claim to hold a degree of mastery with that item. Reaching this level will take 4 months. That is assuming you always get it correct during your reviews. It could take a lot longer if you make mistakes during your reviews.
In my opinion, a year and a half is not enough to say that you have attained N1 level grammar proficiency especially if you’re starting from N5. Simply having done a lesson on a grammar point is not enough to say that you have actually learned that grammar point. You’ll need to review it frequently and encounter it in the wild on top of using it in your own speech/writing. You will most likely recognize or vaguely recall each grammar point when you see them or need to use them, but not fully be able to understand or reproduce them. The ability to fully understand them on sight and recall them in the blink of an eye is one that will most likely only be gained through repeated review and exposure. Doing the lessons are easy. Fully committing them to your memory is another thing entirely. That is the part that actually takes time.
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Studying grammar, especially the higher level stuff which is highly sensitive to context and nuance, is not the same as fully understanding it or knowing it. There are countless questions on this forum and elsewhere online from people who have studied a grammar point but have never seen it used so they have pretty wild misconceptions about the meaning. This is of course natural if you are studying ahead of your comprehension level but I dare say that unless you also have a reading/listening(speaking/writing) study programme to match your SRS pace then you will be largely wasting your time after a certain point.
Obviously it depends what your goals are though. If your goal is to speedrun Bunpro then it sounds great. If your goal is to read Japanese (and you are really wanting to be that hardcore) then you’d be better off just going and reading a load of books. Etc etc. You say you like planning so my suggestion is to plan the next few months only. All the top speedrunners have one thing in common which is they enjoyed the process of what they were doing. Keep that in mind as well. You’re gonna need 3-5 hours of consistent high quality immersion/studying daily for 1-2 years to get what you want so make your goals according to the time you actually have available or you will end up frustrated.
As with all of these threads whenever they occur anywhere online, I genuinely wish you luck and I hope to see your “Full marks on the N1 in a year” post by next Christmas.
Edit: Also to answer the question itself, the only thing that means you are N1 is passing the N1. Self-assessments are meaningless (look at the number of people who fail the JLPT at each level - most of them would have self-assessed at that level…).
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If your goal is to pass a test, then yes you won’t pass N1 without studying grammer. If your goal is to “understand Japanese”- then don’t.
The number 1 rule of self study isn’t “Use and SRS”, “Study everyday” or “Watch Anime”, It’s “Don’t do what you hate”. If you hate bunpro, don’t use it. The best way to study is the one you do.
You can check out Tofugu’s (The creator of wanikani’s) Japanese resources page: Japanese Learning Resources — Tofugu or look up resources on the r/learnJapanese subredit.
Find something you don’t hate, that includes compleate sentences. Guess what the sentence means in English. If you are wrong, use bunpro to look up the part you got wrong, and THEN add it to your reviews. Maybe put the original sentence you didn’t understand in the note feild.
This is called “sentence mining”. Instead of learning in the “best order”, you learn when you look it up.
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A few years ago I decided to go hard on kanji at the cost of studying anything else. After about two years of using wanikani for hours a day, my kanji was close to N1 level. But I was too hyper-focused, my grammar was at N4 level, I could read texts aloud but I didn’t understand them at all, my listening sucked and well I still struggle with speaking. Looking back I wish that I had studied everything gradually because my Japanese would be much better now.
It seems like you are going to make the same mistake I did. Bunpro is a great resource but if it is your sole focus you aren’t going to get the results you are hoping for.
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i mean 1 year and aalf and of course i wont be done i still have reviews
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i have more time on my hands but i am doing wanikani and a vocab anki deck aswell
They’re all great but I’d suggest to read as much as you can as well as watch plenty of Japanese content without English subtitles. Especially after you reach like N4 level.
There are two great sites called natively and jpdb. On natively you can find books that match your level. And Jpdb sorts anime, movies and tv shows by level.
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I’m just gonna say it, no it’s near impossible, unless you’re very proficient in sister languages.
I too have high ambitions, but living in japan, having a japanese girlfriend, working in a mostly japanese language environment for a year and a half, while studying 4 hours a day except weekends, I’d say I’d only be confident in passing N4, if I am lucky.
While that is my experience, I doubt even the best English native learners could learn it from 0 in a year in a half to N1 level.
However, if you are serious about getting to N1 level, here is advice:
Set N1 as your main goal, and break the goal down. it may seem obvious, but really set yourself to smaller goals. not just “finish n5” but maybe “be able to fully comprehend a children’s book, without looking up grammar.”
Small, specific goals are what make up the whole. If you only stare at the whole painting, you will miss the fine details.
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If you are actually doing this much and still aren’t sure if you could pass the N4 then you need to reassess what you are doing as you should be seeing much better progress. I say that from a place of support and not derision. Maybe you made a typo and meant N2, maybe you are doing less than you think, maybe you are much better than you think?
Good advice here, OP.
This is actually quite a large goal. Something more like 1k vocab SRS items, N5 Bunpro, watch 100 hours of simple Japanese TV, read 5 graded reader stories is probably better.
edit: I also just noticed the typo in the title of this thread lol
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I think you’ve misinterpreted the last point.
I said “without looking up grammar.”
In other words, vocab is okay.
I also said “confidently” currently I’m reading この素晴らしい which is N2, but i wouldn’t say i can pass N2.