Recent Changes to Hint System

Bunpro
#1

Thank you all for providing feedback on the change to the hint system on Bunpro.

We decided to make this change because, more often than not, the hints alone made it too easy to guess an answer. For many review questions, a single keyword allows you to answer without the need to try to interpret the Japanese sentence or understand the context first.

Ultimately we wanted (and still do) to make it possible for you to answer with as little information and as few English hints as possible. This meant that we needed to do something different with the way we provide additional information (nuance, translations, context notes) for each sentence. We had hoped the changes we made would help get you into the right mindset, gaining a better understanding of both the grammar point and of Japanese itself.

However, we quickly realized that what we had thought was going to be a relatively straightforward change was actually much more complicated. Our original implementation didn’t adequately provide you with all of the necessary information needed to determine the best answer to give for all review questions. We also did not anticipate all of the special cases where particular hints are required to quickly deduce the correct answer. For that, we apologize.

While we continue to flesh out how hints, information on nuance, context notes and additional translations are displayed within reviews, we have added a fifth setting to Review English: “Always Show Nuance”. Choosing this setting will display the orange text in reviews on all hint cycles. “Always Show Nuance” will essentially return reviews to the way they were before we implemented the change. The tense tags ([casual], [polite], [formal], etc.) that appear in the blank in the Japanese sentence will continue to be visible.

Thank you for your patience as we go through all of the sentences to make sure that the necessary hints are in place.

Cheers!

37 Likes
#2

I just want to say that it’s incredibly heartening to see how much thought and care is going into this platform. Thank you all for being so responsive and involved in the community! It’s exciting to see all the ideas everyone’s coming up with; all potentially ways the system might be refined and perfected in the not-so-distant future.

Keep up the fantastic work! It’s immensely appreciated :grin:

28 Likes
#3

I second everything @Kai said!

9 Likes
#4

Thanks for this. It is definitely making it more challenging, but not impossible, so that’s fantastic, thank you!

6 Likes
#5

I’m so thankful for that :sweat_smile:
I sort of understand the sentiment for the new system, but I really don’t think it’s something that can be solved easiely. You’ll always associate with something , not matter how vague the hint, and I don’t even think that’s a problem.

For me, Bunpro is more about making sure I dont forget about grammar points. I don’t think you could ever replace practicing in the wild with Bunpro.
It’s probably about meeting a healthy middle ground. Hints that still make it clear what to use but don’t give away too much information (Which is very hard with how many nuances there are in Japanese)

Definitely am not here to improve my “figuring out vague hints”- skills though :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Also am agreeing with Kai, you guys are amazing :gift_heart:

Edit:
Is it possible to add a setting that enables hint+nuance?
Hitting space really isn’t all that much work, but for quite a few items, the nuance alone really doesnt seem to be all that helpfull (especially when negatives and the like are asked)

7 Likes
#6

Is it possible to add a setting that enables hint+nuance?
Hitting space really isn’t all that much work, but for quite a few items, the nuance alone really doesnt seem to be all that helpfull (especially when negatives and the like are asked)

It has been passed to the programming team :+1:

6 Likes
#7

This explains some recent changes for me. Thank you for all the work!!

5 Likes
#8

This has gone a really long way in stopping me from ‘memorizing the answer’, rather than figuring out what I’m meant to be saying; having to figure out what’s expected of the answer feels a lot more like I’m learning to understand instead of memorizing answers.
Credit is due for maintaining legacy behaviour for where people prefer that, too. It’s pretty common for devs to completely remove things people were fine with, so a bit of fresh air for it to be kept around.

7 Likes
#9

Thank ya’ll for the hard work and dedication. I don’t even know how I was studying grammar before BunPro; holy moly, those were dark days.

7 Likes
#10

Really appreciate that my criticism were taken to heart. You are on the right tract to make such an amazing app. Kudos!!!

5 Likes
#11

You guys are amazing. Much love to the entire team!!!

6 Likes
#12

:heart_eyes:

2 Likes
#13

Will throw my support in too. Always glad to see you guys working on things and trying to improve. Even if there are occasional missteps, it’s always better to work toward improvement!

I’ve definitely hit a wall on a few things with the new system, mostly because I only understand, say, one or two of multiple uses of a word or phrase, etc, so when I just get that single blue word, sometimes I just have no idea what it wants. I’m sure more failures will eventually mean better retention, but there may be a happy middle ground in there somewhere. I’m sure you guys will figure it out.

6 Likes
#14

Just want to chime in that while just the nuance hint is good, I’d love the hint + nuance system to come back as well, so hoping that it’d come out soon if possible :smile:!

5 Likes
#15

Having used this one for a while now. I can say I really like it. There have been a couple of grammar points where maybe it doesn’t work perfectly yet (already discussed), but overall I really like it and it forces me to focus on the sentence and start guessing what could be put there. ^^

5 Likes
#16

I wish the casual/polite flag could be visible while typing. I get so occupied with getting the grammar right, then forget which formality level is needed!

This is just whining. I end up loading the answer twice, which is not a bad thing, just slow.

13 Likes
Feedback - Bug Reports
#17

This is a great idea, I always forget halfway through typing. In addition to this I think one big change should be made to hints.

On grammar points where there are many positive/negative reinforcing options, we should get a positive/negative flag.

For example ăŸăŸă‚‰ăȘい、しかたăȘい all these sorts of points can mean ‘very/extremely’, but they convey it negatively ‘no way around, no denying it’ etc

Having something like ‘double negative’, ‘negative positive assertion’, ‘positive negative assertion’ etc in the clue will narrow it down heaps.

3 Likes