Hello,
in the moment I use Bunpro only for grammar. For vocabulary I use Anki. Core 2k/6k is the deck I’m using in Anki.
However, I have recently noticed I can also study vocabulary on Bunpro. And there are more words to be learned on Bunpro than in the Core 2k/6k that has around 5999 words.
I’d like to hear advantages and disadvantages of both ways or if I should use both.
I’m going through this decision making process myself.
Most Anki Core Decks + Kaishi don’t really tell you the bigger picture of a word, so there’s some false sense of having understood a word from those decks alone.
I went about halfway through the Kaishi deck before finding out about Bunpro, and when I added some random mature cards to Bunpro’s SRS to try it out, I realized how I was completely unable to use those words, or didn’t know the other 7-8 meanings they could have. A recent example for me being 事, which seemed really simple in Anki, but Bunpro revealed there’s a lot more to it than just "thing / incident".
The good thing about Anki is the sheer efficiency when it comes to amount. I can not comfortably bruteforce 20 new terms a day via Bunpro. With Anki I can.
So my personal conclusion for this issue is, that I will just use Anki for new cards and keep them until they’re somewhat reliable in recall (7 days interval-ish), then suspend them in Anki, then add them to Bunpro instead, so use them in context and learn them in a more proper way.
I don’t know how efficient / good this strategy is, but it gives me the feeling that I am able to understand and use those terms better than if I primarily memorize them in isolation.
Of course none of this will replace actually being exposed to and using the language, but I feel like this could bridge a gap between learning a term in isolation and being able to understand how and in which situations to use it.
Please note I’m at the start of my Japanese learning journey myself, therefore relatively inexperienced. This is the first time I’m learning a language in my adult life and none of what I’m saying is backed by any sort of evidence.
I think the best way to find out for me would be to try it. It’s true that Anki just teaches you the broad definition of the word, not all of them. This makes sense, because some words have an insane number of meanings. Try looking up 掛ける on jisho.org. That word has so many meanings Anki won’t help you with that.
The advantage of Anki is that you can easily create and change cards to learn what you want.
Do you want 10 different cards for かける with one specific meaning in context in each card? Easy. You can add your own pictures and audio for context, remove information that doesn’t click with you, suspend and reschedule cards in bulk, anything you want.
Different card formats for the same words for listening or reading or typing? Quite doable.
On the other hand, with Bunpro you can focus on just provided content, and this content (sentences and voice-overs) is probably of higher quality than what’s in pre-made Anki decks.
So it’s more about how much time and interest you have to tailor cards and mine sentences.
Personally, I’ve realized I need JPDB-reader or equivalent for my vocab, and so I cannot use either.
Do you currently consume material aimed at natives (e.g. books, TV etc)? I have not tried Bunpro’s vocab function, but with Anki I am able to add words from things I am reading, change the information on each card, and modify scheduling/learn order very easily in a way that is not possible with less customizable software. That being said, if those features are not important to you and you would prefer to learn words in a predetermined order with the definition/explanation included as part of the learning material rather than inductively learn those things from a lookup dictionary+context, my guess is that Bunpro will be as good or better than an Anki premade. Obviously I prefer the Anki way (because that’s what I choose to do) but depending on your learning strategy, you might make a different choice.
I want to attempt immersing at multiple milestones in my Japanese journey. Once I see I understand like 80%, I immerse more.
I don’t immerse as much as I’d like to yet because comprehensible input content is about as boring as it can be, but it’s useful. So I force myself to. I wouldn’t wait until some super-high understanding level before immersing. You do need immersion / exposure to understand a language.
As someone who at this point primarily uses Bunpro for grammar and vocab learning, I guess one thing Anki has over Bunpro is being able to add custom cards for specific words to the point where you can add media (image/video). But I’m too lazy to do that 
Regarding vocab that has several meanings, besides the several example sentences that Bunpro already has, you could just write your own Self-Study sentences for that word. Unfortunately you can’t really add them in Crams if you want to review those sentences / words at any time…
Just try learning on both and see how you feel? That would be the most optimal way I guess…
Something to note - try to not overwhelm yourself and sometimes less is more (using too many tools may get confusing).
Personally, I used Bunpro just for grammar until I “added to review” all grammar points and recently I am slowly adding and reviewing vocab here too. Its great that its all in one place and that a lot of vocab have sentences which can help with remembering. Its all pre-made and its enjoyable to use.
For Anki, I make my own cards for everything but it does take a lot of time. I mainly make notes of new kanji / vocab that I see while reading and then make cards for that. Best advantage - Its all how I want it to be . Anki / AnkiDroid (I mainly use Anki on my phone) is great. I need to do some light maintenance from time to time though when there is a new version as it could break my code lol .
Renshuu (I have Renshuu Pro), I just like that everything is pre made and I do a bit of reviews from time to time. Great that it has images / sentences / can study a bit of everything. I used it a lot more before to study kanji but somehow I have shifted to studying more wtih Anki these days.
Personally using too many apps is not good as I can’t feel / see the progress being made and it does get confusing. For me these three systems sync well together and I try to use them for like 10 minutes each every day.
You have it completely wrong.
You are not supposed to fully know a word after going through it in Anki.
Anki is merely a tool that is supposed to help you.
You mainly see how a word is used when you actually go and immerse and read japanese native material.
If you would have immersed just a bit you would have realized very very fast that 事 can be used in many different situations. Anki is not supposed to teach you that.
Anyways to reply to OP:
I wouldn’t use Bunpro for vocab. Use a short deck like Kaishi 1.5k and after that make your own mining deck. (Mining means you are putting your own vocab you come across while immersing into a SRS deck.)
Also a lot of people in this thread seem to not be aware how easy it is to make your own cards. There are plenty FREE tools that make it so you can make an Anki card with everything you need (Definition, Sentence where you mined it from, Picture, Audio, anything else you might want) with two or three clicks. My own Anki deck is of higher quality than what Bunpro provides in addition from being sources I actually consume.
On the long run Anki will be better, you can adjust your core 2k/6k deck into a potential mining deck that you will fulfil using yomitan when you’ll consume native content.
I don’t know what are your goals with japanese language, but if you want to go beyond N1 one day and learn vocabulary outside of the JLPT, only anki will help you regarding that, there are plenty of easy to follow tutorial on reddit on how to setup Anki + Yomitan for vocab mining.
Vocabulary that you find while mining will also stick better as you’ll have the context of the source material which will solidify your knowledge / interpretation on the said vocabulary.
if your goal is JLPT → stick to Bunpro
if you want to ‘think out of the box’ → go on anki and set up yomitan to mine vocab while you immerse in native content
When mining only stick to vocab that you think will be useful at your level, don’t mine every word you don’t understand, in minecraft you mine for Diamonds and then you throw away your accumulated cobblestone right ? it’s the same for vocab mining.
I want to first reach N1 Japanese. Then I’m gonna immerse full time. I am gonna try immersing sometime now to see what is my Japanese like.
Maybe I have misunderstood, are you saying that you are going to wait until you have learnt all N5-N1 grammar and vocabulary before you start watching Japanese programmes, listening to podcasts, reading books, speaking to native speakers….
Finishing N1 grammar and learning 6000 words I see as the final deadline to start immersing. I might immerse after certain milestones, such as completing N5, N4 and so on. At appropriate levels.
That sounds like doing things in the wrong order.
The best method I’ve used for building a larger vocabulary is actually reading and watching / listening to native Japanese material. Much easier to stay in my memory if I can connect it to a piece of media I’ve consumed, rather than only some vocab card on an SRS app (but I still use Bunpro and Wanikani). And if you immerse in Japanese everyday it essentially becomes like an SRS, but actually enjoyable.
Your method kind of seems like the equivalent of learning how to become a proficient swimmer, before entering the water.
You’ll probably learn much faster if you put yourself in the environment you’re training to be in, as soon as possible.
Can I do it like this:
That’s a doable way to go about it. I started reading simpler manga with N5 grammar and a few hundred words vocabulary and novels with N4 grammar and a thousand or two or so vocabulary, it wasn’t easy but you get better by doing.
You don’t need to plan your entire journey yet, I just winged it as I went by trying things out. Shoujo romance manga or slice of life anime are usually somewhat on the lower difficulty spectrum. You’ll probaby get caught off guard by colloqiual slang that you haven’t studied, but that’s one way to learn it.
Definitely start immersing sooner rather than later. Just need to adjust the difficulty here and there and hope to understand some of it, then most of it, and no need to worry if there is something you don’t understand in the beginning. Just keep going if you can’t figure it out yet, you’ll probably get to it eventually.
One of the most crucial thing with immersion is that it actually helps reduce your review workload because you actually reinforce what you’ve studied so you won’t forget it so easily. Reviews will be easier and faster the more you’ve immersed and come across a word.
Let’s say that I’ll start mining soon. What if I will find a word I don’t know, but the Core 2k/6k contains it but later in the pile of cards?
As for the words that the deck does not have, I assume I just put them in my mining deck. I already came across 笹 that the Core 2k/6k had only in a sentence.
You can reposition a card so its on the top of the pile if you want to prioritize it immediately, I have 14k *new mined cards I’ve yet to go through that sadly grows faster than I can work through it. My strategy here is to simply just read and if I try to mine a card I’ve already mined I put it on top of the pile and assume the most common words will be on top of the pile most of the time, though I don’t know how the kaishi1.6k or 2k/6k decks are ordered in terms of difficulty, you may as well just do nothing and wait until it arrives eventually unless it’s a word you keep seeing and forgetting in which case you should prioritize it to save lookup time.
If a word already in the starter deck you’re using you don’t need to mine it again of course. If it’s only in a sentence but not a word you’re being tested on, mine it.
Right now I am using both. It can be more work if you are not careful.
I am using Bunpro to learn grammar and vocabulary and it fits very nicely with so many example sentences where I can practice both points. 5 new vocabulary entries every day.
I am using Anki mainly for learning kanji with 3 new entires every day. At some point both apps end up overlapping some entries but it ends up working nicely. I use it as a reinforcement.
I struggle with some kanji even if I already understood the word so this way I feel like I am progressing more.