One Month to N5

[Hilbert90]

Oh, goodness. What a month. I’ve been studying Japanese on and off for quite some time (first attempt over 10 years ago with almost as long a gap).

I got my feet back wet with a few months of Duolingo. It got the words and sentences flowing again, but I hit a wall (and boredom) very quickly.

I went through 2 books: Genki I and the Hippocrene “Beginner’s Japanese” book. I did months of Wanikani and started watching anime without subtitles and reading graded readers, consulting Tae Kim and Jisho when necessery.

I thought I was doing good. My vocabulary and understanding from input were both much higher than I thought it could be for the year I’d spent.

Then came Bunpro. I tried to fill in the blanks on the most basic grammar and failed. I had never tested myself. It was shameful. Hundreds of reviews (I eventually turned the ghosts down) piled up on silly things like basic past tense and negation.

I worked hard and did a 30-day streak during this month trial and got through all of N5 with my last day at 95% accuracy.

Thank you Bunpro. This is the best thing to happen to my studies out of anything I’ve done. You have more than earned my yearly subscription.

[AlliCrabi]

Well done Hilbert; I’m glad it has been working for you.
I agree … I’ve been having great success with it too since I joined 6 days ago:

6 Days to N5 ... What a Great App!

6 Days to N5 with 100% accuracy … What a Great App!! N1 here I come I am interested to know how far people have been able to get within their first free month trial? I’ll be subscribing for as long as it takes to get to N1 that’s for sure.

[Kai]

I’m glad you posted this actually, because I’d forgotten how surprised I was at my own failure to answer so many basic grammar points when I first started!

Of course, given enough time with the SRS every day, those kinks have been hammered out to the point that most of what I struggle with now are more obscure grammar points that I rarely (if ever) see in my own encounters with “real” Japanese. But… when they do finally show up somewhere… I’ll be ready!

[Rivvie186]

Congratulations and thanks for posting this! I have also just started this month and am sucking so bad it hurts…
However, I bought a year subscription and intend to go through things slowly and steadily until it sticks.