How Do You Guys Use BunPro? Am I Doing This Wrong?

Bunpro
#1

Hey fellas. I’ve been using WaniKani longer than BunPro, and I’m wondering if there’s inefficiency in my study process.
Currently, I study might BunPro lessons by copying down whatever grammar lesson it generates for me. I have a notebook that I’m filling up with lessons. But this does take a lot of time to even do one lesson, and I’ve lowered me daily BunPro grammar goal to one lesson a day. I’ve been significantly more consistent while doing this, as one lesson a day (20 minutes or so) is actually feasible considering my work and school schedule, as well as my BunPro reviews, WaniKani Reviews and WaniKani lessons. I would like to throw my textbook learning back into the mix, but I’ve been slacking on that, and I could always do some more listening.

My lack of patience will show through this next part.
I would like to reach N5 like all of you would. N3 is the biggest goal right now, as that’s the time that I’ve set where I’ll start trying to talk to native speakers in Japanese (fortunately my Aunt is one), and I think things will go quicker from there. But according to BunPro, I’m still 489 grammar lessons away from finishing out N3. At the rate I’m going, that’ll be another year. I know patience is a virtue, but is there anything I could be doing instead? Is using the notebook too time consuming? How do I optimize my process?

Thank you, guys. Love you guys. Love BunPro. 'ate the Anti-Christ. Simple as.

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#2

Hi there! I personally think writing down the lessons is a good idea since physically writing things is good for keeping things in your memory, but it might be a lot to write down the ~whole~ lesson. Maybe try summarizing important points, and then copy down a few of the sample sentences? That should lessen the total time it takes you to complete a lesson while optimizing what you’re retaining. I’m also a big fan of the self-study sentences function, so if you can write at least one per lesson I think that will also be more beneficial than writing out the whole lesson.

I also think Bunpro’s reading samples and the accompanying audios are a great way to solidify the grammar in your head while practicing your listening! If you’re wanting to layer in textbook materials for getting at this, then that works too, but you’ll also end up with the same time commitment issues where you’ll be physically writing more for the textbook’s exercises (which is great for learning, but since you’re self-proclaimed as lacking in patience then you might not like that). If there’s any way you can do more than one Bunpro grammar lesson in a day then that’ll also speed you up, but I think that it’s a good idea to balance the quantity of what you’re learning with how well you think you’re retaining.

Best of luck!

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#3

  1. ‘without grammar you can’t speak well, without vocab you can’t speak at all’

  2. therefore, you absolutely don’t need N3 grammar to talk to your aunt… but you might need 2000 words

  3. use a textbook and the corresponding deck. Each bunpro grammar point lists the page number so syncing isn’t hard.

  4. I put the CD that came with genki in my car and listened to it while commuting. I’ve seen good reviews for the podcast “Nihongo con Teppei”. I like “Let’s learn Japanese from small talk”- once you finish N5

  5. I recommend you get your writing practice with the textbook

  6. don’t be afraid to pick and choose what vocabulary you want. Wanikani, bunpro, textbook teaching you a word you don’t care about? 専攻, 丸 or 玄関, mark as mastered.
    learn some other word you like more, like 頑張る [I’ll try]or 助ける [saveme]add to reviews in bunpro

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