Update: 2/17 - Decks & Vocab Beta

[Ochamame]

Neat addition! As others before mentioned I’m mainly here for grammar and burried way too deep in Anki decks, so probably won’t be doing any vocab on here myself anytime soon. However, I can see especially the mixed sets being a great tool for newcomers! Especially the textbook ones… provided they follow the textbook’s contents closer than the paths so far
But also yes, learning vocab which will then show up in grammar sentences would be great.

Do the vocab reviews come with those vocab example sentences that you mentioned in an earlier update? Having a whole set of context sentences for every word sure would be something to give Bunpro an edge over a random Anki deck that just pulled words straight from a dictionary. Especially stuff like which particles are used with that word etc.

Being able to add personal notes to vocab (or grammar) would be super useful. I usually also use pictures on Anki to help with context/nuances of similar words.

And yes, “I kind of know this” option, for grammar as well. As well as an “easy”, while you’re at it (Or an extra 6 options in between for even more nuance… how about a difficulty slider?)

J → E input I probably wouldn’t use, E → J input however possibly yes. Also toggle between kanji and kana input? There’s several words where I know the kanji, but rendaku… uhhh. Meanwhile plenty others it’s the other way around.

[Jake]

I agree with what @Megumin said. Right now the new Decks and vocab reviews are still very much in the beginning stages of development. Until we build out a lot more functionality, especially something allowing you to import your progress from Anki, sticking with your current study approach will pay the most dividends I would think.

@tai @Megumin As always, we appreciate the honest feedback. I think all of the changes we have been able to make in the past 6 months compared to the year before that are a testament to what the new and expanded team is capable. We will definitely be continuing to pump out more updates and a lot more content.

We have N4 vocab + context sentences lined up for early next week, after that comes 関西弁 and then a bit further down the line the N3 writeups.

@Ochamame The context example sentences do indeed show up with vocab

[devonhollowood]

This is very cool! I wish this had been around when I started learning Japanese. However, I’ve been using a different app (KanjiSenpai) for a few years, and I’m currently working on N3 vocab. For the most part, I like Bunpro’s explanations and notes much better, but starting N4 and N5 over again seems like a pain. I still want to see that old vocab occasionally, though, so I would like some way to review them.

One thing that would really help me in adopting Bunpro for vocab would be the ability to mark an entire deck as being in “review” mode, or something like that, where the whole deck would start off at some intermediate SRS level and be scheduled to show up in reviews over the next N months (say, at a rate of a few per day). Then, I could start using Bunpro for both reviewing old vocab and learning new vocab.

[Marcus]

@Jake

Which is better: See the English, input the Japanese or see the Japanese, input the English

When I use Kitsun, I have it set up so that I see the Japanese and have to input the English (and I’ve turned it off the other way round), because it’s easier for a beginner like me, and I’m here to learn to read more than anything else. But surely, as in Kitsun, ideally the user can change it as they like.

[sulami]

@Jake

Should Vocab Reviews also be manual input?

So much yes. I currently use Kamesame for vocab, purely because it’s a reasonable SRS system that allows me to both learn whatever is common, but also sprinkle in vocabulary that is more specific to me and my hobbies.

@Jake

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

I don’t really believe there’s a stage between knowing or not knowing, so no.

@Jake

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

How about not doing batches at all, and just allow me to keep learning new things until I decide to go to the initial review phase? That’s how Kamesame works as well if you go to review before you reach your (default 100) new lesson limit.

@Jake

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?

To be honest, I think this might be overrated. I either know a word or I don’t, if I have to search for it for more than a few seconds I don’t know it. I find notes useful for grammar because I can add usage or connotation examples, but for vocabulary I don’t see the need.

[whinette]

I would love to be able to use the srs deck on another platform (namely, kitsun) to regroup all my srs in one app.
But I understand if you wouldn’t.

[retrohusky]

Soon Bunpro will replace the service with turtles.

[gasshou]

I, too, have had several Vocab appear for a second and third time in the same review Session even when they were marked as known. Is this supposed to happen in the SRS or is it a bug? At any rate many thanks for the great addition by the Bunpro team ~ your hard work is much appreciated!

[Daigo]

@sulami

To be honest, I think this might be overrated. I either know a word or I don’t, if I have to search for it for more than a few seconds I don’t know it. I find notes useful for grammar because I can add usage or connotation examples, but for vocabulary I don’t see the need.

Yeah but it’s nice to have our own mnemonics for vocab as well. Some of us come from Heisig, some from WK, some from Kanji Damage, there are many options and to be able to customize a field with a personal story that help us remember the vocab I think it’s not only and option, it’s a must. Actually a lot of people in WK complain about the lack of freedom in regards to this.

At the end of the day, if a person does not need their own mnemonics they can simply skip this field. It does not hurt to have it.

[Katzerin]

Okay, so I’ve had a couple of vocab reviews now plus I took an in depth look at (mixed) decks (Marugoto, since I own the books but never actually studied with them, so I was curious how much of their curriculum I know).

Reviews:

• As others commented before me, it would be nice to have vocab items for both directions (recognition + production). Ideally in a way where you wouldn’t get the other direction of the same item on the same day, even if it is scheduled for that day.
• Audio would of course be great
• Just a minor annoyance on mobile: The Known button and the Next button are kind of far apart and also not horizontally aligned (because the answer is displayed after clicking known/unknown). I would love to have both in the same spot, though I realize this is difficult with the current UI layout.
• The review summary, stats and review activity diagram mix vocab and grammar. Just for the stats nerds among us it would be nice to have a way to tell the item types apart (maybe color coded?)

(Mixed) decks:

• Filtering decks: As I was interested to know if there were any grammar points in Marugoto I hadn’t studied yet, I would have wanted to filter for Grammer vs. Vocab and for Studied vs. Not Studied.
• I was considering setting easy vocab I definitely know as Known. That is a lot of clicks that need to be repeated for every single vocab. It would be cool to have a way to select multiple items and mark them as known. Although this would of course open the door for easy XP grinding (and abuse), every vocab being worth 90 XP Not sure if I want to earn my XP this way, but I definitely also don’t want to flood my reviews with hundreds of words I know in my sleep. On the other hand I really like those 100% bars I almost feel like I don’t want vocab to give XP (or have separate levels for grammar/vocab, though I know this would really overcomplicate things).
• The other way around might also work: Let us select multiple vocab we want to study and add the batch to reviews. Then at least there wouldn’t be 100 known words for 1 unknown to review.

One final minor thing: For decks with 100% completion there is still a button Study New Batch which of course only leads to the Congratulations! page. Maybe you could deactivate the button?

[kush]

I tried using the nuance setting and I found the nuance doesnt disapear if there is a vocab review right after it.

I also had the issue where vocab reviews wouldnt stay done, I took a screenshot of the console if you need it.

It seems to show up a few more than 3 or 4 times for me

Refreshing did fix it for me though

[UshiMo]

Overall super good, y’all rock.

Should Vocab Reviews also be manual input?

Yes, you can give folks the option to override it, but it would be nice to force myself to remember the spelling of loan words in katakana. I often find myself typing the word in English.

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

Isn’t that just the same as not knowing it? It wouldn’t upset me if it was there, but I wouldn’t use it.

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?

Yes. The number of times I thought 箱 was a verb in te-form because it was being used in the context of a casual quote is way too high. I think the context was does it look like it would fit in the box.

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?

For sure, have y’all considered adding a “show picture/gif” to help with context guessing or giving me the option to add it? Also, certain words have a lot of cultural significance which isn’t totally clear to a foreign learner. For example, I wasn’t able to guess お地蔵さん. It would probably mean a lot more if it was paired with story, folklore, and tradition. Things like オレンジ would probably be fine with a picture of the fruit or just a colored square. The Bunpro team has been making the big push to be a place where you learn Japanese (not just grammar), but I haven’t heard as much about the last component of learning a language, culture.

[Zoular]

Will these Vocabs be their own batch of SRS, like will I be able to keep track of how many Grammar/Vocabulary are at certain levels?

For example
I was keeping my new Grammar with a total quanity of 30 splits across SRS 0-2, SRS 3-5 and Ghost. I noticed after trying the Vocab, they were also added to SRS 0-2

Just being able to see how much Grammar/Vocabulary are in each SRS level I’ll be able to continue my method.
WaniKani has something like this, showing you Radicals, Kanji, Vocabulary in each SRS level, once the mouse cursor hovers over them.

[lucylavelle]

• Should Vocab Reviews also be manual input?

  • Yes please!

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

  • Yes (Unless you decide to do manual input, in which case I guess you wouldn’t need this)

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

  • This seems like a nice quality of life thing, but isn’t important to me personally.

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

  • This seems like a nice quality of life thing, but isn’t important to me personally.

• 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?

  • Not 100% sure what this means

• 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?

  • Sounds useful, but probably isn’t something I would use personally

• 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?

  • I’m past the N5 stage now, but this sounds like something I would have found useful.

In other thoughts, I agree with previous posters that being able to chose Grammar, Vocab or Both for reviews would be really useful. I found doing my reviews a bit jarring today switching between SRS vocab and manual input grammar. Having them separated in the Summary screen after reviewing both together would also be an improvement for me.

It would also be nice to include a context sentences in reviews. I find it quite hard to remember single words in isolation, and also find that when I do manage to memorize a word in isolation, I then often have difficulty recognising it in context!

But overall, this is a great feature, and I’m excited to see where it goes in the future. Thank you for all your hard work!

[lungmao3]

@Jake Mems were basically a text and/or picture field, with fun reminders or sayings that would help you learn a word, the sillier/more ridiculous the better! It was a bit like the wacky phrases WK provide for learning vocab, except because it was a community effort and everyone could contribute a mem it was often much easier to find one that personally stuck with you, if you couldn’t/didn’t want to think up your own.
Instead/additionally, you could use the mem to add extra info, e.g. a list of related words using a similar stem, or even the translation in another language, anything that helps you make those connections. (I did the latter a lot because I’m also learning Cantonese, and some onyomi are very similar to the Canto pronunciation.)
The mem would then be shown every time you get the answer wrong, to remind you of your “hook” and reinforce the mental pathway. Hope that helps!

[FelineSinth]

Kanjis seem not to align in the “Study new batch” tab:

I’m using Firefox 96.0.1 if that matters.

@kush

I also had the issue where vocab reviews wouldnt stay done, I took a screenshot of the console if you need it.

I also experienced that some vocab reviews had to be reviewed more than once.

[Manab]

Bug in the reviews I don’t know where else I can get help. Could you look into this issue, please? I think this bug might be related to this new feature.

[Jake]

Sent you a DM!

[Wippo]

Cute little something I had today:
I studied the last few grammar points of N5 (that were added after I finished N5 initially) using the decks feature, so I would not have to downgrade and then upgrade.
Once I did it told me to upgrade the JLPT Study Level in the Settings, despite me being on JLPT Level 4.
Again that is cute, does not hurt anybody or anything, but I thought I’d let you know nonetheless.

Edit: You can even click on the study new batch button for completed decks. Sending you to the same screen again

[Tohoku]

Not sure if anybody’s already mentioned this, but, perhaps rather than selecting that the vocab is either, ‘unknown’, or, ‘known’, to us, we could instead type in one English translation example? Similar to that of WaniKani?