Too many higher level Vocabs in Vocab (Reading Mode) Reviews

Bunpro
#1

Vocab being tested: 離れる
離れる (JLPT N4) | Bunpro

N4 Sentence: 将来は都心から少し離れたところに一軒家を建てようと思っている。

Vocab that isn’t N4:

  • 都心 - In Bunpro’s N3 deck
  • 一軒家 - In Bunpro’s N1 deck

Why are the N4 sentences containing so many higher level vocabs?
Shouldn’t it stick to N4 level vocabs?
It is very annoying - I know what the vocab word means when reviewing, but I can’t understand the sentence because of these extra words.

Since the other non-tested words in the sentence are too hard, I will never be able to read it at N4, and might as well just use translate mode. See the word, test myself on the reading, meaning and transitivity.

10 Likes
#2

I agree. I have also thought about this and find it strange.

Wanikani does the same annoyingly.

5 Likes
#3

This is something that has and continues to actively put me off studying vocab with Bunpro. There is no point to me personally having a sentence for context if I haven’t got the foggiest clue what anything else in the sentence means (and even with translation I can’t really “parse” it). I might as well just learn the word via a regular Anki deck that drills words out of context.

I think it’s cool that higher level sentences are available, but most people learning, say, N4 vocab via SRS are going to be at N4 ish level.

I think for N5, examples used in the SRS should be N4 max, N4 should be N3 max, etc.

3 Likes
#4

I feel like this is one of those things that is potentially suboptimal but not really critically so. I just treat at as essentially native content where I understand some of it but not the rest, and then try to use the translate mode to work out which bit of the sentence I don’t know and relate that to the translation. In the end there’s a lot of content I consume where I know 50-80% of the vocab and grammar and I think I’m fine not having all the answers straight away.

10 Likes
#5

Same thing happens in the grammar where there’s two unfamiliar grammar points where you’re learning one and go okay so what’s this other one changing the entire sentence? You click it and it’s N1 grammar.

I love having earlier grammar be incorporated into later lessons and sentences. But new should only ever been N+1 so to speak

2 Likes
#6

Do you think this problem becomes more apparent from N4 onwards? I’m still at N5 and have not found it to be a big issue. Having some new vocabulary in the practice phrase has helped me learn a couple of them from reading, but whenever I get a phrase with lots of unknown vocab I also tend to ignore the phrase/context altogether.

I also noticed that if I try to then add words from higher levels to my learning queue, those will come with higher level phrases that then just add to the problem. Not sure if this is just my bad luck with vocab choice

2 Likes
#7

In the grammar section N5 has no issues with this that I remember then mid way through n4 it starts

2 Likes
#8

I think being exposed to any level of natural Japanese is always beneficial. Also, using only N4 level vocabulary would result in rather boring sentences.

12 Likes
#9

Do you have an example of this? As far as I know the grammar sentences were deliberately written and ordered to only use grammar that had been previously taught up to that point using the Bunpro order.

3 Likes
#10

This x100. I feel like this question comes up at least twice a month. There have to be dozens of threads on it by now. If your goal is to learn real Japanese, you are always going to be encountering words you do not know.

It is a great opportunity to start learning to handle ambiguity, learn to use context, and learn how to quickly look up words you don’t know. If you have yomitan, the process of looking up words is so easy, and you’re building familiarity with many more words, which is never a bad thing.

Besides, there is no “official” list of words if I recall correctly. Even if there were, on the JLPT words may come up that are above your given “N” level.

10 Likes
#11

I actually like it simply because I know this will be the experience until the end of time while learning another language. Are you going to get frustrated in the real world when you encounter words you don’t know? You won’t get to N1 and magically be fluent.

Also, with the limited number of sentences on Bunpro, it’s a way to learn new words. If you encounter a word enough times, there is a good chance you’ll remember it even if you aren’t actively trying to memorize that word. It’s just a freebie for your deck later.

As a suggestion, if it really really bothers you… why not add these words to your review deck as soon as you read them?

10 Likes
#12

Yeah, I think the only time I’ve seen a “higher level grammar point” was when i was following Tae Kim or something and it’s covering a N2 point. It doesn’t happen when I go back with bunpro’s path to fill in the gaps.

1 Like
#13

I’ve never had this problem with grammar but have noticed this with vocab too. I think a good compromise would be to limit vocab to an N+1 level. It’s great to encounter new vocab like how you do actually reading (learning how to infer and whatnot) but I agree it can really detract when I see an N1 level word in a sentence that I probably won’t be encountering in any other text I’m interested in and therefore will not retain at all.

1 Like
#14

I used to think it is annoying. Now I either add the unknown word to my reviews or just skip over it.

2 Likes
#15

would be nice if bunpro has data of how often it gets wrong, or average reviewtime, and choose and adjust the outlaiers that way. tiktok has an automated system where it feeds the most addictive clips aswellwith the algorythm etc.

1 Like
#16

I think in general the examples are waaay too complicated. They should stick with barebones phrases since the focus is to learn a specific vocab in the basic context.