How good is BunPro for learning as a primary source of grammar, accompanied with something like A dictionary of Japanese grammar.
Is it recommended to have a textbook accompany it or is it better for begginers to use this as a supplementary tool?
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Much of the A Dictionary of ⌠Japanese Grammar series features as grammar points here on BunPro. The books are still good for additional details, though.
You donât need a textbook to work through BunPro, although some people find it helps. I donât personally use one. I bought Minna no Nihongo, but found that I outgrew it pretty quickly.
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Iâm personally of the opinion that BunPro should be seen as a supplementary tool. The best way to get familiar with grammar is to be exposed to it again and again by reading / watching. It is however vastly superior in getting grammar ingrained to a textbook. If you are already following along with a textbook, just use bunpro as a supplement. If you are planning on picking up a textbook. Iâd personally just recommend using Bunpro along ADo(B/I/A)JG and trying to jump into reading as soon as comfortable possible. (Iâd recommend at least N5 grammar under your belt personally, but it al depends on how comfortable you are with ambiguity)
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Itâs definitely getting a lot closer to a primary resource these days!
Honestly, I would say it depends on your learning style. We could all preach the usefulness of textbooks until weâre blue in our faces, but the fact is itâs not gonna work for everyone. If you work well with a textbook, then by all means work through it alongside Bunpro. But they donât work for everyone, and so I would say itâs more of a personal thing. However you get the information is good, as long as youâre getting good information, and itâs sinking in for you at the end of the day.
I would however suggest against only ever using Bunpro. Use it alongside reading material, TV shows, whatever you like doing. Definitely delve into the additional grammar sources linked on Bunpro too - some of those buggers are really invaluable! And of course the Dictionaries are incredibly useful resources, and work beautifully hand in hand with Bunpro for crosschecking whilst studying, in my opinion.
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For me, getting using a textbook with various targeted exercises for the grammar (instead of just inserting that one word like on Bunpro) while using Bunpro as a supplement was the best method by far, but like @severian said, everybody learns differently.
Judging by past threads, there seem to be a lot of people here whose main grammar exercises seem to be Bunpro, so youâd be in good company.
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From my experience, itâs absolutely good.
tbh, all my grammar sources are Bunpro and Cure Dolly videos along with immersion, and so far so good 
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This right here. Bunpro is great, but if youâre only using Bunpro (or even if youâre using it with a textbook) youâll most likely only get surface level knowledge of the grammar unless youâre really studying it in depth. Personally, immersion is a must, especially taking some time to break down sentences you come across in the wild and understanding them 100%. Iâve seen so much improvement in my ability to break down sentences over the past few months because of this. Iâm also a lot more confident in my ability to correctly understand a lot of harder sentences without needing to check the translation.
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100% this:
and writing!!! (though writing may not be easy if you are solo studyingâŚ). The more exposure the better hehe
There have been posts like this before. Its possible and Bunpro is getting there. Bunproâs descriptions and features have improved so much over the last 3 years!
Personally when starting out ie N5 to early N3ish⌠I would not recommend it. Just because Japanese sentence structure is very different ( compared to Western languages). If starting out, I think a mixture of resources would be better. Maybe a certain textbook has really good explanations which make more sense to the learner compared to Bunpro.
For late N2 and N1, I basically just use Bunpro. If I need extra sentences / explanations, I would find them online. At this stage, reading becomes much more importantâŚ
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Personally agree that its subjective. When i started years ago i tried textbooks. After a big break in studying because life + laziness happened I only check books for another description of grammar points and additional input now and then.
I switched to bunpro as primary grammar source, WK for Kanji, already know a few thousand words over the years though. All that paired with immersion though.
I spend lots of time on Bunpro but as much I spend reading reading reading articles and visual novels etc. And with the right mindset and structure you can get a good understanding of many (easier) texts with n4/n5 grammar and having heard some of the higher âlevelâ ones. Just jump into it and profit!
In the end, try it out, one more week for bunpros discount as well. Bunpro is an absolute steal right now for all it offers and all the love and update it receives by the team. And even after the discount ends its still a steal for its massive content.
So no matter if you are like me and use it as primary source which you deepen/strengthen by doing lots of sentence/vocab mining and grammar training by reading stuff even if its slow/hard and refer to Bunpro for some of the more frequently encountered still unknown grammar points whenever you come across them + only read up on additional sources if immersion + bunpro somehow doesnt work
OR if you are the type that wants a textbook path and bunpro for srs/compilation/different angle,
it doesnt matter.
Both works and I guarantee you there is no right or wrong way. You could become a chad at grammar any way. Figure out what works for you. But no matter if bunpro, texbook or other sources: Applying them in reading (or listening if you are better at that) frequently is what really gonna lead to true comprehension and progress. Imagine in school you learned all Math rules or chemistry elements but never apply them in any way⌠would be weird to apply them even if you know them in your head if you never did so before, right?
With languages its just important to see lots and lots of the language to make it click and get a language feel.
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I agree with @zerohbeat here. I started using Bunpro just a few days ago, at N2. I failed the N2 test back in December by just a few points. So Bunpro is being quite helpful for me. At this level Iâm already practicing a lot with native material, but passing the test requires you to memorize specific grammar points that you might not get enough exposure just from native material.
However, I also checked the N5 and N4 content from Bunpro and I feel itâd work better as supplementary content. If I were starting to learn Japanese now Iâd use Bunpro N5 alongside a textbook, and ideally classes from a teacher.
I think that just learning grammar points isolatedly when youâre starting isnât the best idea. Textbooks and classes are great in that they tend to present grammar points in a broader context, and you get to practice a lot. I think that for N5 and N4 itâs important to have more âhandholdingâ.
So if youâre starting Iâd recommend getting a textbook (and getting classes if you can), using it as a primary source to learn, then using Bunpro to keep practicing the content as you go.
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I think it depends on your goals. I have 0 intention of taking the JLPT tests, but Iâve done all of Wanikani and all of Bunpro. Wanikani was great for memorizing kanji, but not much beyond that. However, it laid the foundation for me to do bunpro without focusing on anything but grammar.
Part way through Bunpro, I was able to start reading novels. Mind you, I use the kindle dictionary constantly, but it helped to see grammar in the wild to hammer it in.
To me, I think Bunpro + reading is going to be your best route (but again, I know nothing about tests, I am doing this for fun).
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I think bunpro stands pretty well on itâs own. The only issue with the site is lack of vocab but they are working on adding vocab decks soon. But at the end of the day bunpro is really good at one thing. Getting you good at doing bunpro reviews. I donât think itâll actually fully teach you japanese or let you be able to listen to japanese or speak japanese. You def will need more than one source of knowledge to actually learn the grammar.
Incase you are wondering if the site does help teach grammar and is worth the time to use, thatâs a complete yes.
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I am not a student to look into books nowadays so bunpro is helping me a lot!
This week I got the confidence to start watching anime with japanese subtitles and I see many grammar points in those dialogue sentences and it helps to stick to my mind so many of those points. Now at N3 it becomes a little overwhelming, but of course, I am only almost 4 months into bunpro so, time will fix this lack of memory of mine with repetition.
I really like the reviews and I do 2 grammar points every day.
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may I ask what ADo(B/I/A)JG is? I tried googling it and cant find anything
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Personally I think bunpro works best as a supplementary tool for very basic grammar (basically most of N5 and some of N4), then once you got the basics I think using bunpro as a primary source of study is fine.
Early on you need a little more handholding and explaining to make sense of it all and bunpro is better used for additional practice I think.
On the other hand once you start getting towards more intermediate topics, youâre probably better able to make sense of them on your own based solely on bunproâs explanations and examples.
After all most of the N3 and above content is mostly idioms and set constructions, not the more complicated and multifaceted constructs you meet early on with the ㌠forms, conditionals, ă, ăŻ, ă°, potential forms, passive forms etcâŚ
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I will echo the sentiment that Bunpro works fairly well as a primary resource after youâve established some strong foundations.
After working through Genki 1 & 2 in a classroom environment, I moved to Bunpro as my primary resource. If I had just done those lessons through Bunpro, I think I wouldnât have had the necessary guidance to properly understand a lot of the information I was receiving.
Nowadays, grammar points go 1 of 2 ways for me. I study the lesson, write down some rudimentary notes, add it to SRS - If I am immediately capable of getting most of my SRS right, I leave it be and wait to encounter the grammar in the wild. If I find Iâm really struggling with certain reviews, I go find different resources to explain the grammar more in depth.
All in all, it depends on the resources you have and are willing to expend - you most certainly will be better off with additional resources, but Bunpro alone can definitely take you a long way.
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If anyone here would be able to or would like to elaborate on the things you think we can do at the lower levels to help out more, feel free to let us know! Weâd love Bunpro to be a resource that will get you from 0% all the way through to near native, so weâre all ears!
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The thing that immediately came to mind was a conjugation drill tool. Iâve seen talk about considering implementing one elsewhere in the forums and if itâs not a made decision Iâd like to chime in my support for it here with this being a reason. I think it would be pretty easy for a new learner to get confused about the different inflections if they were only using Bunpro as is.
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In the past I have said BunPro should only be used as a supplement, but I have changed my mind since whenever actual grammar explanations where added, instead of a brief description with a community link as before. BunPro is still not perfect, but it sure is getting there with each update. A conjugation tool would definitely bring it closer to perfection, for the reason that was mentioned above.
Besides that, I think having links to real world usages of the grammar points (or adding links to the ă˛ăźă č¨čŞ YouTube channel, which has tons of examples for each grammar point taken from popular video games, would be a good alternative). This would be a monumental tasks, but imagine if even some of the sentences in BunPro where enacted in a way that portrays real world scenarios. Then they wouldnât have to worry about copyright issues. That would be amazing!! That said, I understand how time consuming this would be to achieve.
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