Update: 2/17 - Decks & Vocab Beta

Bunpro
#1

Hey Everyone!

We are happy to announce that Decks and Vocab Reviews are available via our Open Beta.

You can check them out here: Decks

Decks

Decks are a new way of grouping and displaying content on Bunpro. They can be grammar only, vocab only or a mix of the two.

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An example of a mixed deck:

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We have created one grammar deck for each JLPT level that follows the Bunpro order.

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There is also currently an N5 Vocab deck that is ordered alphabetically.

We thought that alphabetical arrangement (especially in the higher N-levels) would give users the opportunity to see several nuances of the same kanji, one after another, when they appear in succession. This is another tactic that we feel will help greatly with learning, and in-turn, retention.

We plan to add N4 vocab to the platform over the next 1-2 weeks after which we will add a corresponding N4 Vocab deck.

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Lastly, we have created a deck for each Path.
Other than Genki I, which currently has both mixed decks and grammar only decks, the paths are grammar only. As we add more vocab, we will be able to create complete mixed decks for other paths as well.

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We have made your progress the source of truth across all decks. If you study a word anywhere on the platform, that progress is tracked across all decks it might show up in.

For example, if you complete the Bunpro N5 grammar path, the progress will be reflected in the Genki I deck meaning you won’t get requizzed on what you have already learned.

You can use the “Study New Batch [X]” button on any deck to quickly study the next X items from that deck. Which leads us to…

Vocab Reviews

It is now possible to SRS vocab on Bunpro (maybe we should rebrand as 文単プロ :stuck_out_tongue: ).

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During quizzes, you will simply be asked to mark it unknown or known. Unknown can be triggered with the [1] key and Known with the [2] key. All other hotkeys also work ([Enter], [Backspace], & [F]). This is similar to the Anki style of reviewing.

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Vocab reviews can be added, reset or removed from your queue just like for grammar reviews. This is accessible from any deck or from the vocab popout should you come across words in your ongoing study that you want to SRS.

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For vocab reviews, we have hidden the English by default, giving you the opportunity to try to figure out what those words mean first, through reading. Naturally, you can just press ‘Show English’ if you want to skip this step and purely bulk memorize, but we would like to give you every opportunity to learn through Japanese, rather than English translations.

This is an initial release and only represents a portion of what we believe decks and vocab reviews will ultimately be capable of.

We would like to get your feedback on these new features. Some of the key things points we are most curious about are:

  • Should Vocab Reviews also be manual input?
  • Should there be a third option that keeps the SRS at it’s current level? Something like a “I kind of know this” button.
  • Would you like to be able to bookmark decks? How about an option to set a Deck as your “Path”?
  • Would it be helpful to be able to set the batch size for each deck individually?
  • Would you like to see a notes indicator on content within each deck that you have a note for, similarly to how you can see your SRS progress on certain words?
  • Would you like to be able to add notes to vocab? How about a separate place to make your own mnemonics for each vocab or grammar point?
  • Would you like to see a Bunpro N5 mixed deck where we show you vocab then grammar in such a way that the vocab you learn first will then show up in the examples for the grammar you just learned?

Update 1/31

Bookmarked decks

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Your bookmarked decks will now show at the top of the decks page for quick access.
You can bookmark any deck via the “Bookmark” button at the top of that deck’s page:

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Deck Settings

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Using the deck settings button at the top of each deck’s page.

  • You can set your deck to be the “Main Deck”. Doing so will make it so that using “Study” will automatically use this deck for learning new content.
  • You can change the deck batch size for new items.
  • You can set a default SRS level for content from that deck. This is mostly useful for going through lower level content as a refresher.
  • Lastly, you can change the new vocab you learn from a specific deck to be manual input or flashcard style.
  • Should you need it, you can update all the already learned vocab reviews for a specific deck to be a certain review type.

Review from Deck
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It is now possible to limit your reviews to content that comes from a specific deck. You Do Not need to be actively studying that deck to utilize this feature. It can be particularly useful if you want to do just your N5 grammar reviews or want to only do vocab reviews, simply use the relevant deck(s).

Manual Input & Flashcard Display

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Deck content now shows its input style. In a future update, we will allow for individual settings on each vocab word to adjust input style

Manual Input Vocab Reviews

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Manual input vocab reviews are here :partying_face: The logic behind matching your answer to the possible answers, taking into account typos and other possible answers is still a work in progress. We want to look at the data and get feedback from you guys before we adjust it too much. If you feel it is too lenient or too strict, please let us know. In the next update we will add the ability for you to add your own synonyms and accepted answers to vocab.

Wanikani Sync

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This will mark all of the Wanikani vocab you have learned so far as “Known” on Bunpro, preventing a doubling up of reviews.

Due to the large number of vocab, this can take a little while to process so please wait for the page to automatically refresh. :bowing_man:

Bug fixes

  • When you have finished a deck, you should get the proper display message
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  • The bug with ghost review vocab has been fixed. You shouldn’t have reviews getting stuck on loop any more.

Update 2/17

N4 Vocab Deck

N4 vocab is a set of an additional 1100 words, each with a minimum of 8 context sentences (meaning close to 9000 new sentences all up!).

Here is the N4 Vocab Deck: Bunpro N4 Vocab

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Vocab Search

The vocab all page will allow you to scour the depths of the Bunpro database.

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Checkout Search Here

We plan to add more filter options and searchable parameters in the near future (including an overhaul on the grammar search). If you have any suggestions on parameters or filters you must have, please don’t hesitate to let us know!

Vocab Notes!

Now, you have the option to make notes on the words that you are learning, in a similar way to how the note system works for grammar.

We hope that this will provide a place for you to add extra example sentences, mnemonics, your own links to external sources, etc.

Vocab Synonyms

You can now add synonyms to any vocab word. These synonyms will become accepted alternate answers when doing manual input vocab reviews.

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Adding synonyms is not case sensitive, and each word just needs to be separated by a comma.

Split Reviews

There is now a setting in your General Settings under the “Review” section called “Split Reviews”.

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It will split the “Reviews” button on your dashboard into two separate options, one for grammar and one for vocab. You can still use the “Review” button in the navigation to get a mixed queue.

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As always, thank you for your support and feedback. We will continue to strive tirelessly to make Bunpro the best it can possibly be! :bowing_man:

P.S

With the next Beta release, we will allow you to start making and sharing your own decks. Stay tuned!

83 Likes
Bunpro vocab
SRS Speed
How to study vocabulary in bunpro?
#2

Wow, this looks incredible, thank you!! Looking forward to bunpro becoming more of a one-stop shop for all things Japanese :blush:
I personally really appreciate manual input for vocab as it helps me to drill it, and additionally stops me saying that I know it even if I’ve got it slightly wrong, and thus gaming the SRS. Notes are also really useful to jot down mnemonics/ways to remember. Would it be possible to be able to make public notes, like how memrise used to have mems? (I’m one of the old long-time users of memrise now searching for an alternate platform).
Thanks for being so engaged with the community! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

19 Likes
#3

Yay, vocabulary deck is totally awesome!
Thank you for your hard work!

Yes, it would be a nice feature! But it needs to add a lot of synonyms for every item I guess, so the feature can be pretty complicated to launch. Unless users could add publicly available synonyms and vote for them perhaps?..

As for me, just an additional setting “Vocabulary deck batch size” would be sufficient.

And please add a “Report” button to vocabulary items as well, because there is no way to report bugs now (translation put in a wrong field here I guess)

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16 Likes
#4

If I click Show English just once, then English is displayed in all study items without clicking the button.
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4 Likes
#5

First off, thank you so much for your consistent hard work, it definitely doesn’t go unnoticed! The platform is growing so much in such a good direction, it’s absolutely amazing!

I have not properly tried it out yet myself, but I just had a very brief look at the decks section and two things occurred to me:

  1. Is there a way to mark a word as ‘known’? As in, so it doesn’t show up in reviews at all?

  2. I think it would be interesting to incorporate the gradually more difficult sentences in reviews. Like rather than just seeing a word and saying ‘yes I know it’ or ‘no I don’t know it’, there is a sentence and the word in question is highlighted or something. In that way, it simulates seeing the word ‘in the wild’ more.
    And with every review the sentence could become more difficult. Not sure if this is already in some way the case, as I haven’t thoroughly looked into it, but if not, I think that would be a really unique approach.

I often find myself drilling vocab, but then when I see it somewhere in text, I still struggle to remember because it’s such a different environment, so actually including full sentences in reviews as a standard rather than just an option would be quite helpful I imagine.

Again though, thank you so much for your hard work, it’s really changed the way I study over the years!

18 Likes
#6

This looks useful. Personally I would prefer manual input due to how often I find myself going “pfft this one’s easy” and immediately typing in the wrong thing on Wanikani.

Speaking of Wanikani, and going on the above “mark as known” suggestion, would it be possible to automatically mark all vocab that is on Wanikani as known? It would help users who use both Wanikani and Bunpro simultaneously like myself.

Another thought would be to use your Wanikani API to mark all vocab already, say, Mastered and above as “known”. I realize this is a rather technical feature request of course, but if either of these were done I think it would help for learning all those vocab that Wanikani doesn’t cover.
Edit: Personally, I would prefer the former option of simply just marking all Wanikani vocab as learned on Bunpro due to Wanikanis particular strengths and weakness.

21 Likes
#7

this is really cool!

i just did 25 N5 vocab cards for fun and when i was done i noticed that it added them to my total number of reviews counter for tomorrow… im not sure how i feel about that yet… maybe it would be better to have the vocab and grammar review counters separate?

anyway, nice job with everything! i love this new flashcard feature! :slight_smile:

17 Likes
#8

Love this feature!

It would be cool if you could change the order of the vocab deck to something like frequency, because some words that are teached early on don’t seem that important for a beginner.

12 Likes
#9

This is excellent! Definitely also need the “mark as known” feature, (and ideally the wk sync).

Thanks for your hard work!

9 Likes
#10

Awesome feature, this must have been a lot of work.

Personally, I would need this to be manual input for me to use it. I think the manual input format is a strong feature of Bunpro that really helps with my retention.

7 Likes
#11

This looks really helpful! There obviously wasn’t much time yet to thoroughly test this, so here’s an initial impression:

  • I would prefer to at least be able to set different batch sizes for vocabulary and grammar. I can do a lot more vocabs per session than grammar. I might even use different batch sizes per deck (I do in Anki), but I could definitely live without it.
  • I actually prefer Anki mode at least for beginner vocab, so I can efficiently refresh what I should already know. However, I can imagine wanting to switch to manual input when I progress. So maybe make it an option?
  • A bookmarking feature seems like a good idea. I’m already annoyed by having to scroll down for the vocab decks, so at least let me choose which decks should be on top of the page. I might even like to have the decks I’m currently working on show up on my dashboard (the chosen grammar path is basically the same thing as a deck and it is on the dashboard). E.g. so you could have N4 grammar and N4 vocabs side by side on the front page.
  • It would be great to have a way to tell vocab and grammar reviews apart in the review forecast. I like to be able to plan my day in advance (already not a fan of the forecast being hourly when reviews can be every half hour). Since grammar reviews take way longer for me than vocabs, the total sum doesn’t really help me in that regard. This could be differently colored bars or at the very least a breakdown of item types on hover (plus you could also add the half hourly breakdown while you’re at it :blush:).
  • Mixed decks sound like a great feature especially for new users who don’t have the whole Anki/Wanikani/etc. toolchain going. Personally, though, I would probably stick with seperate decks for a while yet. A nice feature there might be directly adding an unknown word you encounter in grammar sentences to your vocab reviews as a kind of light integration between grammar and vocab.
  • Adding notes to vocab would be helpful e.g. for synonyms or nuance.
  • I found the options to mark vocabs as known or to reset, but I think it is rather hidden (open deck, click on vocab, click on view vocab, scroll down). Could the options maybe be included in the vocab info overlay?

And I second the idea of Wanikani sync for known vocabs. I also noticed there’s XP for vocab, so I’m curious how this will play out in regards to leveling and possible WK sync.

Last but not least a little display bug (I’m almost exclusively on mobile):

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Also: Sorry for the wall of text, I do this kind of stuff for a living and can’t help myself :innocent:

16 Likes
#12

The Anki script I use for WaniKani uses 1 for a correct answer and 2 for an incorrect one; having it be the other way around here puts me off using this as it’s just going to lead to me making mistakes.

It would be great if you could add your own items (vocab/kanji) to a “user’s custom SRS” section and review them separately. I currently use a program called HouHou SRS for this purpose, but having it on a website would be nicer.

4 Likes
#13

Sorry to be so ignorant, but what is a deck? How does it differ from what I’m already doing here on Bunpro?

7 Likes
#14

i would like the option to use manual input for vocab

7 Likes
#15

Lovely, I can’t wait when vocabulary cards examples have translations and audio files. But as a first release of the feature I absolutely love it

7 Likes
#16

I know its a small thing, but it kind of bothers me that in the stats page under " New Grammar Per Day", vocab cards count as grammar. It would be great if these could be separated.

7 Likes
#17

Great update as always!

  • Should Vocab Reviews also be manual input?*

It would give it a good edge over other alternatives, so I’d say yes. Maybe make it as an option?

  • Should there be a third option that keeps the SRS at it’s current level? Something like a “I kind of know this” button.

It would be a nice addition but not something I’d give a lot of importance.

  • Would you like to be able to bookmark decks? How about an option to set a Deck as your “Path”?

Bookmarks yes, Paths I’d be wary, as people might confuse the Grammar path and the Vocab path.
If done, maybe a way it’s clearly stated which is which? (Also unsure, if you would be able to set individual paths or it would be something global?)

  • Would it be helpful to be able to set the batch size for each deck individually?

Yes, definitely. Not all decks are the same difficulty.

  • Would you like to see a notes indicator on content within each deck that you have a note for, similarly to how you can see your SRS progress on certain words?

Yes.

  • Would you like to be able to add notes to vocab? How about a separate place to make your own mnemonics for each vocab or grammar point?

Yes as well. This would be useful for people that have their own native language too, as they can add a note that helps them more personalized to them.

  • Would you like to see a Bunpro N5 mixed deck where we show you vocab then grammar in such a way that the vocab you learn first will then show up in the examples for the grammar you just learned?

If it’s done, it has to give a very clear (not only text) cue of what is being asked if vocabulary, or grammar, or a mix of both. Maybe with a color or something visual that it’s accessible for everyone.

Now for my own feedback that’s not related to the feedback questions:

  • I know it’s a long stretch, but a way to export the decks to Anki, CSV or something similar.

  • The deck page designs are better than the current ones to browse grammar. Maybe unify the design by updating the grammar listing designs?

If I think of something else I’ll drop it too.

Cheers and thanks again for the update!

8 Likes
#18

A small bug: pressing Enter to jump to the next review triggers this blue “Please choose 1 or 2” tooltip. Firefox 96.
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5 Likes
#19

Awesome! I think I found a mistake

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10 Likes
#20

We are really happy that you like the new features! :bowing_man:

We are working even today to add some new decks soon :+1:

10 Likes