Functionality lacking for studying between initial introduction of topic and reviewing it

Bunpro
#1

I’m new to Bunpro and while I find it packed with great content, I’m having trouble seeing how it effectively bridges the gap between introducing a topic and reviewing it. Specifically, there seems to be a lack of a “study” functionality.

I’ve been particularly struggling with verb conjugations—U/Ru in the past and negative forms, spanning four different topics, each with unique rules. When I read the grammar pages, the rules seem straightforward—change “gu” to “gi” and add this stem, or drop the “i” and add “-ku nai.” However, in practice, there’s nothing in place to solidify this knowledge.

When it comes time for reviews, it feels like taking a test without having studied. While there is a “cram” section, it doesn’t quite address this issue. It lets you practice one example of a verb conjugation and then congratulates you, but what I need is a tool that allows extensive practice of each verb conjugation.

This functionality is crucial for certain aspects of learning, such as verbs, though not necessarily for simpler topics like basic particles. Without the ability to thoroughly practice, reviews can become frustrating rather than helpful. Bunpro’s framework doesn’t seem to provide the necessary repetition to internalize these rules.

How do you all manage this? Are there better online tools for practicing verb conjugations? Also, is it possible to create plugins for Bunpro, similar to those for WaniKani? If so, I might consider developing one.

3 Likes
#2

Don’s Japanese Congugation Drill could be worth looking at.

6 Likes
#3

bunpro seems to be more focused on a review style system rather than a full all in one grammar system in that regard. they give you many different resources for reading more about a certain grammar point, but it is on you to do the initial learning. luckily with grammar seeing it in use will solidify it even if you only briefly learned it on bunpro.
that’s how I do it anyway.

1 Like
#4

The rules are the rules. If you get to the cram section and you feel like you’re “taking a test without having studied,” then you haven’t actually learned that grammar point. I personally like struggling through the review repetition, but if you want the reviews to truly function as reviews I would make sure I am completely confident with the structure before adding it.

Side note: There are actually tons of websites for verb conjugation drills. It takes one google search.

1 Like
#8

You asked how other people handle this, and we responded with how we handle it. I agree there is a problem with the gap of information between study and response particularly early on in reviews. I’ve seen quite a few people ask for a better initial learning process, including myself.
some people find the grammar point on youtube and watch a really creepy vtuber explain it, while others find it in books or anime.
I hope they do release a better onboarding to new grammar, but there’s a lot of other tasks that have priority.

While lunchbox definitely could have put things better, there’s no need to lash out like this.

2 Likes
#10

Yeaaaah, well.
Gotta admit the wording could have been better, but I’m sure nobody had bad intentions here.
The internet, you know. It’s just text, and people can sometimes get a bit carried away if they haven’t had their morning coffee yet.
Don’t feel judged or hurt by a poorly written line. :upside_down_face:

These are good too btw :
-Japanese Conjugation Practice
-Japanese Projects

We should definitely have a “Ressources” topic somewhere in the forum too.

As mentioned above, the onboarding phase should be improved, and the early beginner level lessons can be intimidating if you have no prior knowledge. You’ll have to do your part and go through the additional reading section, youtube, etc.

3 Likes
#11

Didn’t need to bring bro’s mother into it though :skull: :skull:

Also this could help. Use the search function to find what you’re looking for, ‘conjugation’ gets a lot of results!

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#12

I recomend using a bunpro deck inconjuntion with a textbook.
on the learn page it says the page number in several textbooks. I’ve found the physical genki textbooks invaluble in studying before reviewing it.

2 Likes
#13

Putting verb conjugation aside, I suppose for most grammar points studying involves reading a lot of fully fledged native sentences, with explanations in which situation this point works, and in which situations you need to use different points.

So I would read the bunpro article, then jump into reviews, and after failing any try to figure out what I’m missing. Reading and re-reading linked resources and all example sentences there, searching for additional examples on jisho/tatoeba, looking through the grammar point-specific forum topic, are all a part of studying.

I’m not sure how you’d tool it any more than that, for the hundreds of points that await beyond conjugations.

3 Likes
#14

I would say that this is more a problem of the kind of volume required in remembering conjugations, rather than a problem with the way Bunpro teaches grammar as a whole. For the vast vast majority of grammar points, there really is only one ‘structure’ that you need to remember, so the standard SRS process works fine.

A conjugation tool of our own is something that we are working on to help alleviate this pain point in the future. Until then, as other users have suggested, there is quite a few on the net specifically for just doing conjugations for verbs/adjectives til you get used to it. Sorry that we don’t have anything right now that adresses this common issue! :sweat:

5 Likes
#15

I created this thread specifically for your case scenario:

It has almost everything you need to know about conjugating verbs in Japanese. The first video I linked there is where you should start as it explains the basic verb conjugations. Eventually you can get to the second video, where you can learn the rest of the conjugations (kind of, since I think there’s at least one he forgot to include).

Then to reinforce that knowledge, you can use BunPro, as well as that Japanese verb conjugation website that was linked in the first reply. There’s also an Android/iOS App called Conjugation City (活用市) if you prefer apps. Either way, you can practice any verb conjugation with these tools (at least until BunPro gets its own, hopefully soon!)

HTH!

6 Likes
#17

there are certain important basic grammar points which are quite large by themself. This is one of them. For those i would recommend learning it from textbook and just honing it with bunpro.

1 Like
#18

there are no stupid questions if you learn something. I don t want to know how many accidents in the world happened because people didnt want to ask.

5 Likes