Huge Vocab Update, Feb 17/2022

Hi Guys!

As many of you already know, we have implemented vocab into the site recently. A big part of this process manifested itself in the form of decks, and a new review queue that incorporates your vocabulary and grammar simultaneously.

Naturally, being a new feature, we have made our fair share of tweaks and hotfixes since inception. However, we have still been working hard behind the scenes on adding to the base content that we have, so that the service itself becomes more fleshed out.

With that said, N4 vocab is ready! :partying_face:


N4 Vocab Deck

N4 vocab is a set of an additional 1100 words, each with a minimum of 8 context sentences (meaning close to 9000 new sentences all up!). Like N5, the sentences have been written in a way that slowly increases in difficulty, and focuses on natural usage of the words themselves.

This doubles our currently available vocabulary as part of ‘decks’, and these words will be clickable within any sentences that they are encountered in on-site.

Here is the N4 Vocab Deck: Bunpro N4 Vocab

Spoiler - We are currently on track to have roughly 7000 to 8000 words complete by the end of this year. :fire:

As our list of vocab and decks grows, we recognize that filtration will become an issue. This is why we have also added a vocab ‘all’ page, with a search function. :sunglasses:


Vocab Search

The vocab all page will allow you to scour the depths of our database, searching for any particular words that may be of interest to you for learning. This means that you will not need to click on each deck in order to search, and will let you compare vocabulary more easily based on where it is located.

As a very small example of how this will be useful, take a look at this.

As we can see, typing anything will bring up all results that include what you type. In the future, as our database of words grows, this will allow you to see collocations, phrases/idioms that use certain words, and make assessments about when you learn anything, regardless of what deck it is in by default.

Checkout Search Here

We plan to add more filter options and searchable parameters in the near future (including an overhaul on the grammar search).

This sounds awfully like something that would benefit from a note taking system, in order to keep track of things… :upside_down_face:


Introducing Vocab Notes!

Now, you have the option to make notes on the words that you are learning, in a similar way to how the note system works for grammar.

We hope that this will provide a place for you to add extra example sentences, mnemonics, your own links to external sources, etc.

If you are someone that really likes to include a lot of data though, this could potentially get messy very quickly, which is why we have added a separate section in which you can put your own lists of synonyms. :heart_eyes:


Vocab Synonyms

It is well known that a great way of learning words, is comparing them to similar words, and examining their differences. This is one of the main reasons that we have added the ability to list synonyms to your vocabulary cards.

In the near future, this will be a great/timely way to jump between vocabulary, so that you can read the context sentences back to back, facilitating your understanding of unique nuances even faster!

The other key benefit of synonyms is allowing you to put in alternate answers you would like the manual input vocab reviews to accept.

Adding synonyms is not case sensitive, and each word just needs to be separated by a comma.


Split Reviews

If you are currently reviewing vocab through the Opt In Beta, you may have experienced the unruly nature of a mixed queue of grammar and vocab.

There is now a setting in your General Settings under the “Review” section called “Split Reviews”.

image

It will split the “Reviews” button on your dashboard into two separate options, one for grammar and one for vocab. You can still use the “Review” button in the navigation to get a mixed queue.


We hope that these new additions are another step (or leap) in the right direction toward making vocabulary a more valuable resource that you will study with us here on Bunpro.

We would like to thank everyone for the awesome feedback thus far, and encourage you all to keep it coming in the future! The best way to turn Bunpro into the ultimate study resource for you, is by making your voice heard! :grin:

That’s all for today, and as always, hope you’re all having a wonderful week!

63 Likes

I was just coming on to ask for synonyms to be added, because I kept getting marked wrong for calling コンセント a plug socket. So happy to see this! Thank you guys :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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This update is pretty awesome! I really really wanted my vocabulary reviews separated from my grammar reviews and you’ve granted my wishes!~

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This is great! Thank you for the hard work you guys put into building BunPro. That said, I’m sorely missing a Quartet I and II path. Is this something you guys are working on? If so, when can we expect it?

Thanks again!

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I haven’t used the new decks yet (since I keep my own Anki decks so far) but really like the vocab search. It’s great to be able to get all the example sentences from easy to hard for reference. Keep it up! :slight_smile:

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does anyone at bunpro ever sleep? the speed at which this is developing is nuts. i really hope people take advantage of all the example sentences being crafted for the vocab. 2022 is shaping up to be huge!

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Hi @Jose7822! Thanks for your kind words, and for letting us know about what you want to see on Bunpro.

Actually, we have been compiling the Quartet resources recently, and have added them to 2 individual decks… which we are releasing right now :joy:

Quartet 1

Quartet 2

These decks will act as a replacement for a standalone path, as decks actually function in a similar way to paths anyway (showing you one item after the other, and being in order of appearance). Our current navigation system that we have set up for decks is a bit more user friendly, as you can see a lot more information about the grammar points at one time, than you would be able to in the path page.

We hope this is what you are looking for! :blush:

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Wanikani and Bunpro are now :open_mouth: undeniably the best combo in existence. Thank you heaps.

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Thank you for all the amazing work you’ve been up to!! :grin: Just wondering if you’re planning to enable E->J typing tests at some point? (Or the option is somewhere out there already that I can’t find?)

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Thanks for these! I’ve been waiting for quartet paths as well!

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I just gave this feature a try and am liking it a lot so far!

There are quite a few vocab words that could use some meaning refinement, especially since sometimes the way they are used in the bunpro sentences are not actually reflected in the given meaning. For instance, 大変 does not reflect “horrible”, 綺麗 can have the additional meaning of clean as used on Bunpro, etc. (these are just the 2 I noticed in my first 13 words).

I also would really like to see the “Add to reviews” button placed not just on the official vocab page, but also in the pop up window when you click on the word next to “view vocab.”

Re-Edit: The big dashboard button that says “New JLPT Grammar - Learn a batch of new grammar!” takes me directly to studying vocab when clicked.

Thank you, you guys were so quick to implement everything!

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OMG this is great. I love you guys (and girlz) <3

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thanks for your hard work dev!
@Asher
If i may ask, could you give a clue when the N3 vocab will be out? Because currently im learning N3

edit: i clicked “syncing vocab” but nothing happened for N4 vocab

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I found it a bit surprising that I couldn’t really do a kana or romaji search. For example, 帰る returns results, but かえる and kaeru don’t (awesome that english → jp search works though!). I don’t think it’s super necessary since I think I’d be getting to the vocab items through other views, but it feels a little rough after being spoiled by Jisho. It’s also a bit of a shame since I might know things by sound and not with their kanji (thank you for all of those nice new audio recordings :wink: )

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Ah, thank you so much! :partying_face:

Yup, same on my end.


Only thing I personally really need to sink my teeth into the vocab decks is a quicker way to burn the backlog of vocabs I already know. I understand features take time to implement (if hopefully something is indeed planned). In the meanwhile, is the following the most efficient way to do this?

→ Choose deck → Open individual items → Add to reviews → I know this

Alternative to actually do a quick test: → Choose deck → Learn 8 items → Click through to quiz right away → answer (correctly) → Show vocab info → Add to reviews → I know this

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Hi @stillwill, I cannot give a guaranteed date, as sometimes priorities etc change around the office. However, we are currently on schedule to have N3 done sometime around the end of March (maybe very early April). N3 is a bit bigger than N4 and N5, and will consist of 2000 new vocab by itself.

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That seems to perhaps be a bit of an oversight on our part cookf, but I am not exactly sure how the search itself pulls information from our database. I will have a chat to the guys about how it works and see if we can get it included. I agree that it is definitely something we would want to have as an available search method.

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We really want to streamline the process of people potentially starting to use our decks here, rather than what they were previously using. I am not sure exactly how we will implement it, but we will try to find a speedy solution that can work from either the deck itself, or in the process of doing lessons.

In any case, it definitely should not be something that is a headache, and we will find a fix asap.

As for the synching issue, I will let @Jake field that one, as it could be something that is only an issue short term until some sort of server refresh or something happens… Please note I know zero about that kinda thing, so if a server refresh is not even a real thing, please feel free to laugh at my expense :joy:

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You guys are incredible! I feel like you’ve accomplished more in three weeks than I could get done in three years (corporate processes ftw). Get prepared to be thoroughly tested :smiley_cat:
I am kind of afraid of starting N4 vocab though… I’m busy with a brand new project at work and have had trouble keeping my review schedule across different platforms. I haven’t done a single grammar lesson this week :crying_cat_face: Plus, my accuracy has gone way down and I’m beeing haunted by ghosts now :ghost:

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Very good update! Also like the addition of the Quartet decks (and paths?).

Question/request: I have no way of accessing the decks from my dashboard. Until I read this post on the community board, I didn’t even know the decks existed. Should a link maybe be added under the Content tab? Or maybe their own tab?

If you have a plan for this, do ignore me :slight_smile:

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