Long time learner, new to Bunpro

Bunpro
#1

I’ve been studying Japanese a very long time and have quite a track record. Countless books, college courses, language exchange partners, a paid subscription to TV Japan for a couple years, studied abroad, played full RPGs in Japanese, even hosted a local study group for years. Still, the length of time I’ve studied doesn’t coincide with how much I actually know and how fluent I am. This is attributed to a lot of factors, one of them is having grammar be an afterthought over the past few years.

So far, Bunpro has been great and I really wish I had this a long time ago. I really feel like it is one of the components that will help me get out of the limbo I’ve been in for a while. When I hear Japanese, it still sounds fragmented to me. I’ve acquired a lot of vocabulary over the years and it has helped a lot, but grammar is the glue that holds everything together, and I’ve neglected it. I’m glad I found this program and this community. The journey is easier when you’re not alone.

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#2

Amen! I’m in the same boat as you – studied Japanese for years, have lots of knowledge, have many experiences, but it still sounds fragmented. I agree with you that Bunpro fills in a lot of holes in my understanding.
一緒に頑張りましょう！ :blush:

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#3

I don’t know how relevant this is to your difficulty, but I have wondered recently about how much of being in limbo or stuck at intermediate or whatever is about how comfortable studying can become. Because I think back on all the different things I was asked to do in school, that I didn’t even necessarily have any interest in, and a lot of them I wouldn’t particulary want to have to do in Japanese either.

It reminds me of this practice someone once told me about in certain private schools. You pick an unprepared student and ask them to stand up and speak about a given topic for say 5 minutes in front of the class. Most people in their day to day lives would never volunteer for that, yet it probably produces some pretty confident public speakers.

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#4

That’s good question. I’ll admit that I enjoy studying quite a bit, and over the past few years I’ve spent more time in the books and apps than in real life situations, but I was always active and never really shy about speaking in front of class and in front of others. In study sessions, getting people to speak was definitely the hardest thing to make beginners do. Not using it essentially makes you the equivalent of a sports analyst, but not necessarily a player, even though you want to be one.

I can speak well enough to get by and read well enough to get through a lot of materials. Most of my dilemma comes from not understanding as much as I would like. Maybe I’m holding back from taking a deeper dive. Thanks for the insight.

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#5

“Maybe I’m holding back from taking a deeper dive.” I was doing this recently without really noticing. I’d been avoiding this version of “A study in scarlet” I found https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000009/files/55881_50044.html . Telling myself I’d get to it later when really it was just because the language was difficult and it halved my usual reading speed.

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#6

I know that feeling. Novels aren’t really my thing, but it happened to me with Persona 5. I’ve been able to play through other RPGs with no major issues, but the Persona series in Japanese has been a thorn in my side. I also keep saying I’ll get back to it, but haven’t. The beginning conversation was with a lawyer which was, yeah I don’t really use that vocab on a daily basis.

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#7

Thanks for the encouragement. It’s easy to talk about accomplishments, but not so much about where one has fallen short. Let’s get back up and keep moving forward.

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#8

Yeah, to be honest, I’m super glad this site was well underway when I finished all my college courses, because despite knowing how important grammar acquisition is, I absolutely loathe the thought of trying to self-study grammar, let alone review it all by my lonesome with Anki…

This platform has been an absolute godsend for me, since now all I really have to do is show up regularly. Even self-study is pretty easy to set up now; I just make a custom review here under grammar point #1 (だ) and it appears in my regular reviews along with everything else :slight_smile:

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#9

BunPro was my introduction to grammar more involved than your average です/あります/けど/からs, because despite being an English Linguistics graduate, grammar just… I don’t wanna say it bored me, because I did come to enjoy studying it, but it was something of a slog. Maybe because you don’t really get the instant gratification that you do when you study kanji - learn a kanji, learn the readings, see it in the wild, get that sweet sweet serotonin. With grammar it’s a lot harder to get to that point, I feel.

I too have had quite a long journey in studying Japanese, but the previous trips along my journey have been primarily wasted by not focusing in on what would get me to the destination faster. BunPro has been an absolute godsend for me, and although I know it’s gamification to a degree, the motivation to log in every day and do reviews and study new things really works for me. It’s made things click, and that’s invaluable.

Also, the community’s alright too, I guess :kissing_heart:

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