JLPT N4-N5 mind map

Japanese
#1

As I’m preparing for the JLPT N4, one issue with BunPro for me was that it was so unstructured. When given a question for e.g. X seems like Y, I couldn’t easily narrow the options down in my head to all the ones that have to do with similarity.

To address that I decided to make a mind map covering all the BunPro points and other related grammar up to N4, grouping related grammar together. Most of the value was in the experience of crafting the mind map, but I thought others might benefit from seeing it, either to use for review, or as an inspiration for their own mind map (or a BunPro feature, hint hint!).

N5-N4 文法 Mind Map

  • Green nodes are links, usually to BunPro grammar points, but sometimes to secondary resources if the point is unavailable. Purple nodes are TODOs; sometimes they are also links.
  • The links between sections are chosen almost arbitrarily. Generally the ones I left are ones where the semantic connection is important but non-obvious (e.g. the different meanings of -らしい)
  • I’m an N4 learner, so take the rules in there with a grain of salt. Always rely on the linked resources for trustworthy info.
  • Please let me know what mistakes you find!
32 Likes
#2

Wow this looks fantastic! I hope you continue expanding it all the way up to N1! :wink:

I definitely need something like this for all the grammar points that have relatively the same meanings. But I have no idea how to even make something like this. Maybe I can make tabs in my grammar spreadsheet for the differences…

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#3

Thanks! I will eventually get at least some N3 stuff in since I run into them in the wild too often, but first I gotta pass N4! :smiley:

But I have no idea how to even make something like this.

This one is made in draw.io. I tried a bunch of editors, but while most of them look much nicer, they fall over as soon as you try anything non-trivial. Draw.io lags like hell when zooming in/out, and the auto-arrange algorithms suck (which is a given), but otherwise it has no problem dealing with a couple hundred nodes and has all the standard graph editing capabilities.

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#4

sounds a really good from what you say! unfortunally currently the link isn’t working :frowning: hope to see it soon!

#5

That site seems to be temporarily over its quota. Until it’s up, you can download the SVG from my google drive, but note that you have to actually download it - the google drive preview is broken because it’s too big a file.

#6

Hi max. Thanks for yout useful contribution. I’m a french native speaker and I learn Japanese for fun. I’m very interested to translate your mind map in french. Is it possible to obtain your mind map source in order to work with you for a translation ?

Thanks for your answer

Regards

Romain

#7

If you didn’t already know, there’s also a desktop version of draw.io that works better than browser variant.

Great job btw!

#8

How did you decide on how to group them? For example I just did つもり, I wouldn’t know how to classify that.

#9

Sure, here’s the .drawio file!

#10

Thanks! I didn’t know draw.io had a desktop version! I’ll have to try it out next time I’m working on a large graph.

I don’t think there’s a single right way to group them. I just made a list of all the points I wanted to cover, and if more than 2 or 3 were related to each other and not obviously part of another theme, I put them in the same box. I moved and regrouped these points many times as I was making the graph.

1 Like
#11

@max99x hi there, a question about drawio if I might. Which shape did you use for the rectangles that look hand-drawn? They look really cool, I want to copy them :slight_smile:

image

2 Likes
#12

I got that by setting the “comic” style property to 1.

3 Likes