Would it be possible to have a setting to remove the casual speech answers? I have been studying at University with the Minna No Nihongo 2nd edition book and am finding that the casual stuff being chucked in, even when I select the Minna No Nihongo study to be setting me back a lot and not aiding me in my studies.
Also, please could the site be updated to use the 2nd edition, especially on the Readings pages.
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I know that you are studying specific materials most likely leading to a specific test, but I would say that learning a language more holistically is in the end, a much better idea and therefore you shouldnât try to avoid things such as casual speech just because it wonât appear in your textbooks (yet) or on your test. The upside is that when you do get to casual language, youâll find it quite easy.
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I get where youâre coming from and I probably would have felt the same way when I first started studying Japanese 5 and a half years ago. However on hindsight that really isnât a good idea. I came to Japan to study Japanese for a year during my degree, and by the end of the whole year there were many people in my class (and I mean way more than half) who fell into the trap of relying on the polite form because thatâs what they had used from day 1 in their textbooks. So many of them could communicate but not very naturally. Therefore in my opinion itâs in most learnersâ best interests to learn casual form as early as possible (Iâve ranted about this on these forums before 
)
I totally understand that you think itâs holding you back in your studies so if it were me, I would use my textbook in conjunction with other materials (there are loads out there on the internet) and learn the casual forms alongside polite forms. Youâll be surprised how quickly it starts to come naturally to you.
Was there a specific casual form you lack confidence with? Like specifically verbs, adjectives, etc? Iâll try to help wherever I can.
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Priority is to pass my exam and this slows me down just adding tones more on to it and getting in the way. I can learn the casual stuff later.
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I do agree with you, but my priority MUST be to focus on the exams I have every week. Once university is over I can then study the casual stuff better.
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Learning plain form and polite form at the same time as a beginner can be very confusing.
Thereâs a reason why some unis donât teach plain form the first year.
To me it was easier to learn polite form and later go back on grammar points and learn their plain equivalent.
Also, I agree on the fact that plain form is probably better to communicate amongst friends but polite form is way better for any other situations and Iâd rather speak like a book to my boss/the cashier/the landlord than mixing stuff together because Iâdâve tried to learn plain & polite form at the same time.
Maybe thatâs just me and yâall are much more skilled in learning languages but I think Iâm not the only one out there who feels this way.
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Youâve said it better than me. This is exactly how I feel about it. 
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I thought it already accepted both in most cases, but looking at the path there also seem to be items that just donât fit MNN. For example MNN introduces äžæ and äžæ in chapter 9 but only with nouns, while the bunpro items mapped to chapter 9 are for verbs in dictionary form + ăź. In chapter 12 MNN introduces N1ăăN2ăźă»ăă but on bunpro this item includes the usage with verbs. MNN only introduces the dictionary form in chapter 18 so MNN users canât do this.
As a beginner I feel the exact same way! Iâd rather learn and solidify speaking politely before I tackle more casual speech. Itâs definitely been a struggle trying to do the Genki track and having Bunpro assume that since I learned ă-verbs, I must also know the negative plain form. Even if casual forms were included separately or they removed/made optional the questions that require casual form answersâŠ
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Itâs an interesting point of view. For me the casual form is much easier and logical to follow than the polite one. Maybe itâs because I study it more with Cure Dolly?
Still, I think that the difference between those two isnât so great when you are the beginner. And you can easily learn them both at the same time.
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Another point that no oneâs mentioned⊠While itâs called âcasual formâ, itâs still used in polite speech as the way to conjugate an embedded phrase. (Itâs also called plain form and dictionary form.)
Example:
I talked with the man who ate the cake.
ç§ăŻ ă±ăŒăăéŁăčăç· ăšè©±ăăŸăăă <-- This is a polite sentence.
I totally respect that you are focused on understanding the skills to pass your test and I encourage you to stay focused on that goal.
On the flip side, Japanese is an incredibly difficult language to teach because the structure of the language is so different from English. Looking back, I wish someone had explained to me early on that beginner classes teach a somewhat simplified version of Japanese just to make it easier for English speakers to grasp and to lay a foundation for intermediate and advanced Japanese.
(If I were to design my own university class, Iâd teach polite language for the first year and then casual and polite language in parallel every year after that. 
)
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If you were going to learn one form first to avoid confusion, Iâd focus on casual form. From what Iâve seen so far, correct me if I am wrong, you can use casual form without needing polite form, but you canât use polite form without using casual form.
This thread is a bit oldâŠ
It is, but the OPâs problem was that he wasnât even close to learning that. As Iâve mentioned before, MNN doesnât introduce the casual form until chapter 18 or so. If you use the MNN path on bunpro, youâre exposed to a bunch of stuff that you donât know yet.
I would also choose the casual form first, but someone who attends a class that uses MNN canât just do that, and for those people an MNN path with casual forms all over the place is just misleading because you canât actually use it to accompany MNN.
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This is true. Itâs not my intent to diminish the pain of the OP. I was pointing out, similar to other people who posted, that the casual form is powerful in understanding Japanese.
Itâs an unfortunate situation. But maybe we can accept that MNN and Bunpro have different authors who wrote their material with different philosophies in mind, with no obligation to accommodate the otherâs material. The fact that Bunpro is as versatile and as functional as it is, is pretty amazing. Iâm sure the Bunpro authors will find a solution in the future.
(In the meantime, maybe MNN users can pause using Bunpro until after chapter 18, and then use this site as review material.)
I donât know. Thereâs a Minna no Nihongo path. If it isnât actually useful for people using Minna no Nihongo, itâs rather pointless and should be removed rather than advertised as a feature.
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Just to confirm, I am indeed using the Minna no nIhongo path on this site and they do not teach âcasual speechâ on the first half of the book. But this site on the Minna no Nihongo path chucks you straight into it, with no explaination.
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As someone living in Japan and seeing people âtryâ to speak Japanese every day. If your main concern is level of politeness, there is a 90% chance you arenât going to be able to put a whole sentence together anyway. This is not me being rude, this is something I have seen hundreds of times.
I understand your position with your tests, but I would say you should learn the dictionary form of verbs, if anything, in addition to that, learn how verbs conjugate, that way you will always know the ăŸă form just by seeing the plain form.
Just as a side note, everybody should stop worrying about politeness. Japanese people are not idiots, they would much prefer you be able to hold a conversation (in any politeness level) than have you standing there like a deer in headlights trying to conjugate verbs in your head. Doesnât matter if they are your boss, the prime minister or a homeless person. What they DO appreciate is ANYBODY who takes the time to learn the language, in any degree.
-sorry for rant
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Learn to speak first and then speak fancy afterwards, right?
Politeness is just decoration and thereâs no point trying to paint a work of art unless you actually know how to hold a paintbrush.
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I wouldnât say politeness is just decoration. Japanese people expect you to speak with the appropriate level of politeness. Although you might get some slack if you are foreign, and it will also depend on who you are speaking with, you should still try to use the right level of politeness at all times.
Just to illustrate why this is important: at my university we have a Japan campus and you can go there for a semester or two as an exchange student. While doing this, you have the option to choose to board with native Japanese people in their homes. I forget what this is called, but it isnât really relevant here. Anyway, the school warned all those who were thinking of choosing this option about using respectful language because they actually had a homestay family, as in the people that were boarding the students, very angrily complain to them in the past and quit the program because a student spent the whole semester speaking to them using casual speech. They said the student in question was shocked themselves when they were reprimanded by the school afterwards because the couple had never mentioned being bothered by casual speech to them.
Tldr: You can get in hot water if you use casual speech without even realizing it.
You have to remember there are exceptions to situations like this. Maybe the couple were an old lot or very strict on their beliefs etc. In my experience, (and I donât speak for all) itâs not too much of a big deal. Yes if you can then by all means do it. But if you canât is it better to not talk at all. Personally, I donât think this should be too much of an issue since we arenât masters of the language nor are we Japanese. But I know for some they take formality very seriously.