Massive audio update … and other news!

I lowkey already thought you were officially part of Bunpro :sweat_smile:

おめでとう! Looking forward to seeing your contributions popping up! Also, many thanks to you and Haruna for your wonderful work on the audio!

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Some of the comments pertained to not wanting English in the advanced sections, assuming N2+ or having a translation exercise, that came up several times. I have to admit I’m struggling with this as well, when you can perfectly understand the context as written without thinking any English but you just can’t find the word (or in grammar synonym hell and just fishing for the correct answer) in the BP review. My theory is that BP compliments output practice…I’m struggling because I haven’t practiced these grammar points enough in daily life (writing or real word). Some points are literary, may not need an output exercise as well. So I think this translates to a low review percentage which can be discouraging that doesn’t meet immediate goals…and if you don’t practice output regularly but read alot, it’s just a different exercise.

Community boards have taught me the spectrum of language goal, it’s not always to be ‘fluent’, or whatever that means. I suspect BP may have a higher percentage of users in or intending to go to Japan (or goals to communicate the language) just on community board traffic I see though I have no way of proving this. But if true this would give a different urgency to have grammar output skills that BP exercises provides. This is a stark contrast to reading manga/novels as a primary goal (if not only goal, which is true for many learners) where an internal English understanding isn’t necessary, which of course is nothing wrong with…in fact I find the spectrum of learners to be very interesting and inspirational.

I also have a theory that grammar may require a different exercise depending on the level. I see the raw beginner N5 struggle here a bit. I think it might be things like conjugation or all the adj/verb rules…all the recent changes are really positive though. BP is perfect for N4/N3, so much great productive output to use…it’s a treasure. Then by N2/1 all the synonyms are a juggle and the literary context and eng->jp, it gets frustrating a bit more. But I still love it though, haha…just got to get better.

Hopefully this is constructive, I think everyone respects the amount of content on platform.

Sorry to distract on your celebration thread.

:scream:

I can’t believe I did that. At least I didn’t make up a name that doesn’t exist, which I’ve been known to do. Please don’t tell on me :relaxed: Yeah, and don’t make that mistake out loud :rofl: (stay safe!!)

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This is awesome. Congratulations and can’t wait to try out the new content and all the future things to come.

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This is all really useful feedback. Thanks for taking the time to write it! It is interesting that you pointed out that ‘for people that like to read a lot and aren’t as concerned with output’, the BP system is much more effective. BP definitely compliments output like you say, but it is difficult to ‘pinpoint’ an area that the platform is most effective.

Considering ‘liking to read a lot’ describes me really well, I think that points out a bit of a blind spot in my own view toward BP. Because I am not ‘as’ concerned with output. I never even noticed some of the things that would be really frustrating for people that have that focus. I will make sure that I take extra time to think about different sets of goals, in the process of further developing Bunpro.

I 100% agree about the struggle of trying to find the right word when it is all a soup of 10 similar grammar points in your head. I also agree that a ‘fully’ Japanese approach upward of mid N3 would be highly valuable. A small interesting note on fluency. I read somewhere that ‘fluency’ means being able to get your point across in all situations, whereas ‘accuracy’ means being able to to say what the listener expects you to say (casual words in casual situations, formal in formal, dialect, etc). I think this comparison between fluency (being understood) and accuracy (having word choice awareness) is interesting, and useful to think about when we try to measure our overall ability.

Thanks again for writing such a detailed reply! I have made notes and will have a think about how some of these things can be addressed sooner rather than later!

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Congratulations, very exciting news! Can’t wait for the N4 + N5 updates :slight_smile:

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Perfect! Congratulations!

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Please see the editied original post guys, it includes the google drive link for all of the new, and old audio.

Thanks again for everyone’s congratulations and well wishes. It is great motivation for me to do the best I can!

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Then I don’t understand why does Wanikani attract them? Because from my point of view BP is just the same as WK but for grammar :thinking:
And grammar helps me to consume media much more than a large vocabulary. Because it can be that one can understand every word in a sentence, but doesn’t understand the meaning itself, but if one understands how words are connected, they can always look them up in a dictionary.

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I don’t want to entirely speak for everyone or misrepresent anyone here. Personally as a WK user though, I can say it is conceptually quite different…opposite in fact. WK has zero production exercises; it’s a kanji reading tool first and foremost. JLPT is very similar, a reading/listening comprehension test with little regard if you know how to say ‘hello’ or ‘where is the nearest restroom’.

To give a BP example it would be much like giving this sentence to understand the meaning and accuracy. That is the WK approach; a comprehension exercise which fits well with media consumption.

石川県にある「法師」旅館は718年から今に至るまで1300年以上商いし続けている。

BP does not do this while using a English-> Japanese exercise which is a harder leap. Also when reading, once you get to a certain level, no one is translating Japanese to English anymore or vice versa (unless struggling). Necessary for vocab study but we want to eventually lose this so putting in English grammar has more weight. I only do this when I have something what I want to say that is more intricate or just not natural saying for me yet (which is plenty). But listening comprehension moves way to fast to even consider this. Thus keeping an English component in more advanced setting, though great for checking comprehension, is not always economical. Lets not forget about the SRS, which is more challenging to either WK or Anki; 12 levels of unique fresh content rather than just taking a word/card through 8 levels of SRS where the content is stagnant.

It’s not to say BP doesn’t help comprehension, we can attest to this which is why it’s important to read the sentences IMO and listen…plus at ~10k sentence, it’s got content galore and BP has certainly helped my reading. But fishing for the Jp from English is not same as reading a page of manga or a novel.

Another wall text, sorry but hope this helps explain a bit.

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Personally, I feel like the whole database of grammar points, explanations and how they relate with one another is the best part of Bunpro. Everything else is a huge bonus and elevates the experience :smiley: hehe.

Regarding Japanese explanations, I think it could be possible from as early as N4 (with some exceptions)… A lot of Japanese JLPT drill books do it already…
Saying that, its great that everything has English translations. I feel like it was the right approach to take to build a foundation.

In my case, I made my own notes in Japanese on each grammar point before adding it for review. In that way Bunpro really helped my comprehension as I would try to read and copy different explanations from books / online.

@s1212z Some people just don’t enjoy learning grammar whatsoever hehe. Probably some people don’t like Bunpro to a point for media consumption because it may not seem very cost effective (in a way).

Eg one studies really hard on WaniKani and spends the rest of the time “reading” Japanese manga and does a little bit of grammar study (eg Genki 1, Tae Kim), eventually due to the pictures and lots of “reading”, the reader probably can guestimate some / most of the unknown grammar points. Or just look up individual grammar points online.

A lot of similar types of works have similar grammar points / vocab. I can kinda relate to this, for a bit, I did not have an urge to study new grammar while reading manga / simple light novels…

Hopefully as people learn about the new Bunpro Readings section things change :smiley:

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I’m currently on N4, so the new audio is really, really appreciated. Also really like the voice! Can’t wait to discover all the newly available audio :slight_smile:

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Congratulations on the new role, is it something that unlocks at level 90? Did you get a new badge? one of us now !

頑張って!

(taking a risk with that, think that’s good luck, though my verification process is ‘I think I’ve heard that whilst watching anime’)

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頑張って is perfect, good guess! It means ‘do your best’, but ‘good luck’ is also a good translation sometimes. :blush: Thanks! I will do my best!

Yep, it was a secret achievement at level 90. Instead of receiving an admission letter from an owl like Hogwarts, you receive a job offer from Bunpro in a bamboo scroll, delivered by a crane. Although I must admit, I am not sure how they trained the crane. :rofl:

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Another big audio update guys! 50 more grammar points of N1. Take a look at the full details in the original post. :grin:

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Thanks! (not that I will be concerned before a few months/years but thanks)

And by the way, congratulations for joining the Bunpro team.

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