How does Bunpro order vocab sentence reviews?

Bunpro
#1

I often feel like Bunpro starts me off with the more archaic meanings of a word when giving fill-in-the-blank sentences. I’m level Beginner 0 on 立てる and getting this:

母()が娘()に：「やかんが湯気()を 立()て たら教()えてね！」

Mother to her daughter: ‘Let me know when the kettle gives off steam!’

Wouldn’t it be more useful to start with the common meanings?

Side question: What even definition is that using?

  • to raise (a cloud of dust, etc.)
  • to make tea (matcha)
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#2

Hi there!
I get your point and I also often find that Bunpro presents the less intuitive meanings first. You’re right to question whether that’s the best way.

That said, it’s not archaic at all. It’s just a colloquial that you need to memorize as a set. “To raise/make the steam rise”. It doesn’t make so much sense literally, but in this context, it’s simply the natural way to say it.
There are lots of expressions like this in Japanese as in any language, and you need to get used to them.

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#3

Thanks! Sounds like an AI response, though, so I’m still looking for opinions.

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#4

Haha! I was not prepared for this! The world is not.
:upside_down_face:

#5

The “I hear you” part -
Learning N5? This stuff shouldn’t be there at all. うるさい is N5 vocab, but 煩い with kanji is N1+. これ vs. 此れ. Split-meanings too like 立つ. Adding too much early just makes things confusing. It makes bunpro for vocab really hard to recommend.

Bunpro should try to solve this at some point without slowing down on its core value which is the all-in-one grammar textbook which has a few, similar issues mentioned in recent thread (the だって one).

The ‘solution’ if you want one -
I’m still of the mind to point people to Wanikani to learn vocab for a while for long term efficiency. Yeah, you don’t learn うるさい and つまらない early, but Bunpro’s vocab can at least fill in those gaps as you encounter them (we just hit these two specifically in the group class I’m helping with - we’re using Marugoto).

I really want someone to extract and recreate a katakana / hiragana mainly/only deck for N5 vocab to complement Wanikani better. Maybe I’ll do that today…

Shared and submitted for public verification - Bunpro N5 Vocab - Kana Only | Bunpro

While building this, I noticed a few crazy things that kinda go in line with this thread

  • Tons of grammar as vocab
  • Some N4/N3 grammar as vocab, mostly interjections / conjunctions
  • I almost added a section for “should be kana for N5” but after thinking about it, I realized many like the days of the week 火曜日 were just N4/N3 kanji (the 曜). There’s a huge rabbit hole here, but I’ll keep it short and stop here :slight_smile:
  • A lot of loan words I thought were English were from another language (example: アレルギー ・メートル)
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#6

I don’t necessarily disagree, but which meanings of 立てる specifically are more common and preferable to go first?
To physically put something in upright position (erect/stand up)? That’s already the first example sentence, 指を立てる.
Other than that, there are just so many things one could 立てる.

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#8

That’s what I’d expect, and while it’s the first example sentence, it’s not the first quiz sentence. At least for me. I don’t know if it randomizes them.

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#9

Thanks! Yeah, I’m level 33 in Wanikani. I was noticing I’m midway through N3 kanji and still shaky on N4 grammar and vocab, so I’ve been focusing on Bunpro more. It’s also been extremely helpful to have sentences with context and be asked to translate English to Japanese

But the vocab on Bunpro can be really frustrating. It really struggles for things with a lot of meanings. I kind of wish it’d break certain words into sub-words. Like if 湯気()を立()てる were a separate word, that’d help me remember it more than just seeing it once as part of 立てる. Then it could focus on the main meanings in 立てる.

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#10

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