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

Bunpro
#21

As someone that also uses both WaniKani and Bunpro, I can offer my perspective. WaniKani is based on kanji complexity and builds vocab out based on that; thus, it doesn’t necessarily follow the JLPT progression. Personally, what I do to avoid burnout, is 5 lessons on WaniKani a day along with 1 grammar and 5 vocab a day on Bunpro. It is not a fast progression, but it works for me, YMMV. Make sure you sync WaniKani progress to Bunpro in your Bunpro settings. The beauty of using both Bunpro and WaniKani together is that as you make progress on your kanji and radicals knowledge, it will make learning vocab in Bunpro so much easier. Likewise, when you encounter vocab from Bunpro in WaniKani, half the battle is done and you gain the richer, underlying aspects of the vocab. Often times I will encounter a new vocab in Bunpro, and it will click much faster based on radicals/kanji knowledge. I bounce back and forth between the applications and deep dive into specific kanji and allow that interest to naturally deepen the knowledge/branching out from the root.

With regards to communication, that is sometimes the easier the part, as practice makes perfect. However, it is easy to get stuck in a rut where your language doesn’t improve and remains static to the vocab and grammar constructs that come naturally. This is where Bunpro and WaniKani will continue to push your envelope. Practice with your aunt as much as possible. You are very lucky to have an option like that.

Best of luck in your language journey!

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#22

thanks, brudda

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#23

I have a funny story about thit. I kept skipping words I thought I wouldn’t need, one of them being “丸” And then I started seeing it everywhere. I started watching “Hells Paradise: Jigokuraku” where one of the main characters is Gabimaru (画眉丸). And than the story of a cat named Maru, who became the most popular Japanese cat on YouTube. I felt like it was haunting me

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#24

I did that too, with a lot of N5 words some time ago. “I wont need all this specific road side language ect” and it took me some time to learn (I only learned it because all the N5 practice stuff used it so I had to know) but now that im floating around, I see it all the time, like damn. I wasnt aware I spoke about street corners and lights as much as I apparently do.

#25

I’ll just suggest WK and BP level parody since most things are covered above.

  1. WK Level 5-10, Starting with a base of vocab / kanji
  2. Start N5 Grammar
  3. 100-200 katakana words from Bunpro N5 Vocab deck*
  4. WK level 10-15, Finish N5 Grammar
  5. WK level 20-25, Finish N4 Grammar
  6. Complicated - Anywhere from WK 35 to 51 for N3 Finish**
  7. WK Level 51, Finish N2 Grammar

*- I see most beginners struggle with katakana reading speed early. Since it’s not covered in Wanikani much, this is a great supplement.
**- N2 grammar sentences in Bunpro are quite hard. It’s OK to just focus on WK and reviewing the much more important N5 to N3 grammar.

N1 not mentioned because I believe it’s better to add it as you find and look it up than to do formal study.

WK 52+ has some kanji that are far less common than others that are missing in the earlier levels (ex: 釜) so it can also be skipped if desired.

In my mind, doing WK 52+ and N1 studies is putting off just using what you actually learned. Speaking from experience on the WK part at least :slight_smile:

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#26

so when should I start trying to talk to people? Now? I’m still a fledgling. Also, do you have a link to a/the katakana word deck? that sounds like a good idea.

#27

One of the mistakes I made was trying to use Bunpro like I used Wanikani. I think SRS is great for vocab but limited for grammar. You need to find the right pace to introduce new grammar items. One a day might work at first but they get complicated fast.

What I try to do is whenever I get a new grammar item I try to write new sentences that uses it and mix with the vocab I am learning.

As new grammar keeps piling up, whenever you make a mistake, make a point to write new sentences with that grammar item.

#28

There isn’t a specific katakana deck. You’ll have to manually add them one by one from the N5 or a Textbook deck. Despite the inconvenience, I highly recommend it!

I requested someone who has better extraction abilities create a version that copies the most common ones in the deck requests / feedback thread, but no takers!

If speaking is a big goal, I wouldn’t start later than sometime during N4 study. Having a good base can speed up speaking learning a lot since pretty much any learning method requires reading.

Group speaking / learning classes can provide a great networking opportunity if they’re available locally. Otherwise, tutoring or a very patient practice partner is worth seeking out.

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#29

Do you think this is something you can do with an AI program? Just prompt it to collect the top however-many-you-want popular katakana words and list each in a new row. That sort of thing always works for me when I generate lists. I would even say “so that I can export it to a spreadsheet”.

#30

I was hoping someone could do it specifically for the Bunpro N5 decks. I couldn’t see a way to do it without data scraping which I’m assuming would be highly frowned upon.

#31

True, but you can either upload a publicly available one or ask it to generate a list by sourcing multiple public listings. That being said, it won’t work if you are looking for the specific words found in Bunpro. However, if all of these lists are correct (or close enough), it should be close enough to what Bunpro offers and should supplement well enough.

If what I am suggesting is unethical, please let me know, and I will delete this post (or an admin can). I am not very familiar with what is allowed to be stated on these forums.