So I’m just starting to learn Japanese and I’m almost done with level 3 of Wanikani. Loving the website so far, except for the fact that it’s missing a lot of the common vocabulary (I know it’s a kanji learning app and not a vocab one).
And then I found Bunpro which has Wanikani sync so u can supplement the missing vocab, but I don’t understand how to use it.
Basically what I understand is that Bunpro will automatically burn vocab that I have already seen in Wanikani, but the thing is some vocab I see on Bunpro before I see it on Wanikani, (for example “book”), and so I’m forced to study it twice since there is no reverse way of doing it, (burning items on WK that ive already seen on Bunpro).
Also would be great if there was a way to automatically remove all vocab that exists in WK from Bunpro without ever seeing it.
What do u guys suggest?
I almost finished the n5 vocab at bunpro and started wanikani, but eventually gave up because doing 400+ reviews every day is too much
So what do u do now?
You could pick the vocabulary you want to learn manually. You use bunpro to focus on vocab that is kanji-free and wait until learning the kanji on wanikani to start reviewing that in bunpro.
Alternatively you could use bunpro as a way to be introduced to the vocabulary without trying to learn the Kanji by the time it shows up in wanikani it will be easier for you over there, since you already know the pronunciation.
I think it’s possible.
Bunpro allows you to set words learned in Guru mode on Wanikani to be considered (by default) as Seasoned.
If you set the default option to “Master,” words that pass Guru mode on WK will then be set to Master on Bunpro, and you will no longer see them in your Bunpro reviews.
Yeah but I’m starting both WK and Bunpro from the start, so for example I will get words on Bunpro like “Cat” early on, but will only see it in Wanikani a few levels later and will have to relearn it even though I already know it from Bunpro.
Basically the Bunpro setting only works in one way.
Yeah I like that second idea. Thank you.
When I reach adept level on a word, I hide the furigana and try to memorize them. And when I read sentences, I sometimes hover over the words to see if I read them correctly.
Bunpro allows you to manually set a word to “mastered”, so if you come across a word you’re also about to come across on Wanikani, you can just get it out of your Bunpro queue that way.
But my experience is actually that it’s quite nice to learn a word on Bunpro before it comes up on Wanikani. It gives you a head start when Wanikani wants you to start learning a kanji. Wanikani and Bunpro are great to use at the same time.
I started with WaniKani too, although I was quite a bit farther along with it when I found Bunpro. After some trial and error, here’s the strategy I’ve ended up with.
First off, I’m doing grammar only for now on Bunpro. A lot of the common words are taught as part of the grammar lessons, and leaning on the furigana and translations for words and kanji I don’t know yet doesn’t feel like it’s hurting my progress. I’ve also picked up quite a bit of vocab organically that way, just from seeing it frequently in example sentences.
I’m also doing grammar much more slowly than kanji. For me, I feel like I need to do new lessons in WaniKani every day to keep my momentum going. I don’t feel that same pressure for grammar. Sometimes I need to stew on a grammar lesson for a couple days before I add more. I do 3 grammar lessons a day, generally. Sometimes I don’t do any. Sometimes I do an extra 3 if the first three were easy and I feel good about where I’m at. On WaniKani, I consistently do 15 new items a day.
I do want to add Bunpro vocabulary at some point to fill in the gaps, but for now I feel like I’m making good progress without it.
To be honest, I wouldn’t do vocabulary on Bunpro while also doing WaniKani. When I first started using Bunpro, they didn’t even offer anything but grammar, so I never had that option, but even with a do-over, I wouldn’t go about it differently. WaniKani opens up a lot in terms of teaching you vocabulary as you get into later levels.
I currently learn 5 items a day on WaniKani during the week, 3 grammar points a day on Bunpro during the week, and do all my reviews daily (reviews without learning anything new only on weekends to help keep them down). My reasoning for the low number is to make it sustainable in the long run rather than ever having the chance to become overwhelming. More may make sense for others, but this fits within my lifestyle as it amounts to an hour or so learning per day (I do a lot of immersion throughout the day naturally anyway). This year I also added in flashcards I make on an app called Mochi, but I those are all self-made cards and I don’t add to it much. It’s generally just stuff I find in the wild and want to drill.
The other thing is that no matter what stage you’re at in your learning journey, you are always going to be learning vocabulary, and in my opinion, there’s no great rush to be drilling it across two different platforms. That just seems like a road to drowning yourself in reviews.
If you made it through level 3 of WK, you’re on the path to success.
To avoid overlap as much as possible during N5, thus keep super efficiency…
- Learn katakana vocab from the Bunpro N5 deck to improve your katakana reading ability and grasp the nuance of Japanese loan words
- Generally, the Bunpro vocab decks will just overwhelm you until you’re past N4 grammar
- You don’t need to start Bunpro until you’re at WK level 10
- Target for completing N5 grammar is WK level 15
- Target for completing N4 grammar is WK level 25-30
- Target for completing N3 grammar is WK level 40-50
- Target for completing N2 grammar is WK level 50
- WK past level 50 isn’t as useful as Bunpro’s vocab decks through N2
If you race past these benchmarks, it’s not a bad idea to slow down a bit on learning new things in one system.