I know this! (maybe)

Bunpro
#1

Curious on people’s thoughts on using the “I know this!” button.

BP has kept their format pretty flexible to keep people happy but I’ve wondered if this is good or not. If I recall, I think this might be a relic due to BP preventing order skipping at one point…not sure. For JLPT crammers, I see why this this is necessary but I guess now you can just ignore the lessons entirely.

I’ve been tempted to use it in the past just to focus on necessary reviews and keep review counts reasonable. Plus, SRS is time consuming (ghost reviews can be torture). Now many streaks are nearly done at this point so a bit too late. However, I’ve been collecting lessons (mostly in order) to throw them all in the mix because:

  1. I figured I paid for it

  2. If I already know it, should be easy, right?

  3. Fundamentals can be boring (but necessary) so forces a user study it

  4. I still make some stupid mistakes…so maybe I don’t know this as good as I thought.

  5. Give some sanity in the mix of difficult grammar I struggle with.

What’s your experience been like?

4 Likes
#2

I kind of feel like I would have cheated if I used that button, so I’ll probably never use it. My grammar was not very good to begin with, but with some things like か at the end of a question, I still haven’t used the I know this button, and I made a mistake with it once anyway, even though it is so basic. So that kind of showed me that even though I might be confident in my grammar, it is never as rock solid as I thought it to be.

6 Likes
#3

I get still get stuck on や/し/と/たり all the time. I thought these would be simple but when you start mixing everything up, not as easy. And then verb endings are easy mistakes too. Counters and calendar stuff are another nemesis I don’t particularly enjoy…could be practical for BP to include these too in N5.

5 Likes
#4

I used it pretty conservatively and I’ve only used it with with N5 stuff primarily. At this point I know that, for instance, か is used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question. I get it. I don’t need to do an additional SRS for 6 months to know that か= Question Mark in this context. So I put “I know this” for that grammar point.

Another reason is that I’m studying more advanced grammar points and doing reviews with advanced and basic grammar points mixed together can get really confusing really fast. When it’s asking, for example, to complete a sentence using the grammar point that means “must”, my first instinct is to put ～ねばならない or ～べき because they are what are fresh in my mind. But what happens is that I get it wrong because it’s a N5 sentence that just wants ～なくてはいけない, and doesn’t have the advanced grammar points as alternatives.

Now I’ve been good at reporting them so that the team can add them as alternatives but when it keeps happening for the umpteenth grammar point that shares the meaning “must” or “not just ~ but also ~” it can start to get frustrating to do reviews. So that’s another reason I put “I know this”, just so it cuts down on the confusion.

5 Likes
#5

Reviewing even stuff that you already know is a good thing. You would just quickly go through it if that is indeed the case and it won’t hamper you in any way.

The only grammar points that I personally skipped are trivial ones like basic particles (wa, wo, mo, etc.), basic words (koko, kore, etc.) and such. There’s no point reviewing “kore wa pen desu” :slight_smile:

But everything else is good :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#6

This is a valid point for advanced users. It’s getting better for sure and I’ve tried to be honest with over-rides when not excepted. I’m curious how this will influence speaking in the long run. I’ve tended to use my favorite grammar points subconsciously because 1) I know it works 2) conversation just moves too fast sometimes. But I’m starting to see the extra work w/ productive input on various points is starting to pay off with a wider speaking palette.

There is more “should/must” grammar points in N2 ?!? $@#$@!

6 Likes
#7

I already thought to write a user scripts that is getting rid of that button to avoid the tempation to press it

2 Likes
#8

It’s not used in modern Japanese as far as I’m aware, but it seems to be the go-to way to say “must” among all the questgiving NPC’s in FF14, usually with ならない → ならぬ to boot :stuck_out_tongue:

6 Likes
#9

I use it. But, I have JLPT 2 already and have lived in Japan nearly half my life. So, some of this is very much just instilled in my head. But, I dont do it to everything. I was restudying a few things even in N5 because I tend to favor a differetn grammar point and wanted to get more comfortable with what I would call the duller or simpler pattern. してから for example I usually only used rarely favoring した後 as they are essentially the same for all intents and purposes.

Ive noticed in N5 reviews if you miss someting its usually not because youre wrong. its usually because there are other gramamr patterns that suit the same purpose that youre brain jumps to because adults use them more. (N5 grammar comes off as kind of childish in my opinion and although you hear it… you hear the more adult versions more often). Also, some things in N5 are just… badly done. Like you cant use long-form past tense in most of the beginning lessons without being marked wrong. The same answer sometimes gives different results (Programming issue?) English sentences are not correct or true translations for learning purposes often and that probably causes some confusion.

From what I can see its definitely a work in progress in every sense BUT I love the idea and appreicate what theyre trying to do… and over time… it will become amazing. For sure. Keep on keeping on. Keep on fixing things. Look forward to seeing how good of a tool it can be. But, be more careful with English language. Im a masters of language acquistion and some of the things in teh translations truly worries me because it very well could cause people to internalize incorrectly and its very hard to fix those kind of errors or internalization later in the studying process.

4 Likes
#10

Oh, I also periodically go through Cram sessions on things I have put as “I know this!” and If I miss more than a few I plan to take them out of “I know this” so far im good. So, far the thigns ive said I nkow… I have in fact 100% in every cram session so far.

2 Likes
#11

Its good you skipped Koko. They really butchered how to use it and the english explanations. Im going through everythign to see if I can actually recommened it to basic students. In some cases, I would really tell people to study it outside of the system first and make sure they have a firm grasp of it because if you learned it based on their translations youd be in danger of internalizing incorrect meanings. Its concerning. (I always mark it and why thats the case when I see it though)

Im a language acquistion masters so that sort of thing scares the bejesus out of me to see

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