I just tried the vocab lessons, and if I understand correctly, you can either set it to require you to type the kana for a missing word in a sentence, or show you an isolated word and have you translate it to English.
If I’m filling in a missing word in a sentence, I get to learn its usage in context, but I’m not tested on my understanding of the kanji. And if I have to translate an isolated word, I am tested on my understanding of the kanji, but I don’t get any help to remember the meaning from the context of a sentence, which I normally would if I’m reading a natural text.
Is there no way to have it show you the word in a sentence and ask you to either type the kana or the English translation for that word? This is the type of exercise I feel like I would need the most.
Edit: Also, if the above is not possible, is there any way to make it so that I have to do both types of reviews rather than just one or the other?
What I do is pick “read”. My furigana is set to “none”.
I read the translation and furigana before I grade the card.
This is the method I used for anki.
Because it shows you the word you’re testing on and asks you to write the English translation. If you disable furigana you have to know the meaning of the kanji (as used in the given word) to pass it. It doesn’t require you to know the reading though, which is a weakness. But if you use Noxsora’s method, you can set your own standard for passing the word (like remembering both the meaning and reading), which is good enough for me.
The OP simply means that Translation style presents the Japanese word, including kanji if it’s used, and then you must recall the meaning (English) based on that information. So, it’s testing your understanding of kanji, specifically recollection of the meaning of the kanji (within the vocab).
I agree. For the most part, it seems like it’s a one-or-the-other situation.
The way, say, WaniKani deals with this is to have the same Vocab item consist of 2 distinct ‘cards’ or ‘review items’ during a review of each Vocab item: The ‘meaning’ card, and the ‘reading’ card.
Unfortunately, the WK solution does not include the usage of Cloze style interface, which would in turn include the usage of example sentences for context.
I think that – if this were to be addressed in Bunpro Vocab – probably the simplest and most straightforward solution would be to allow folks to include both types of reviews for each Vocab item: Fill-In (Cloze/context) style, and Translation style.
Perhaps one of the the simplest solutions (but not best) would be to just treat each style of review as a completely separate ‘card’ or ‘review item’ (1 Vocab item = 2 Review items/cards). So, if you have 量 (ryou; quantity, amount) as a single Vocab item, it would have 2 different ‘cards’ or Review items associated with it: One presenting a Cloze where 量 (ryou) is expected as the answer, and another presenting 量 (furigana: ryou) and expecting ‘quantity’ or ‘amount’ (or any other alternative) as the answer.
This (very simplistic) solution would require basically keeping track of two ‘progress’ SRS levels, one for each card/item. This would actually be a bit messy if the cards were treated as completely independent.
But if the system only showed the lowest-SRS-level card for an item (random if tied), then it might be workable as an approximation to the WaniKani solution, without a huge amount of structural changes in the back-end of Bunpro (database stuff, for example).
E.g. If I’m currently studying 量 using Cloze-style only (at SRS 5), and then I change my setting for the 量 Vocab item to [Both Fill-In and Translate (WaniKani-esque)] then that would activate the card for 量 which required a Translation answer. It would start in my review queue right away at SRS level 1 let’s say, and the next time I review and get it right, it would go up to SRS level 2.
In the meantime, even if the Cloze-card for 量 becomes due, Bunpro would withhold it from showing up in my reviews until the Translation-card gets up to at least the same SRS level 5. At that time, they would both be available for review, and would both independently get scheduled as if they were independent cards. However, if I ever got, say, 量-Cloze at SRS 6 served up for review before I got 量-Translation at SRS 5, then Bunpro would not present 量-Cloze for review. It would wait until I eventually get 量-Translation up to at least level 6 also.
In that way, by keeping the 2 cards within one SRS level of each other, you could simulate having a single SRS level for the Vocab Item as a whole. (Perhaps you could treat XP as being based on the minimum level of the 2 cards, when this mode is activated? There are other options too.)
Now, that’s just the simplest solution I could think of off the top of my head for emulating the WaniKani solution. I’m sure that there are better solutions. I even have at least one in mind, but it’s more complicated so I don’t want to drag this comment on even longer. The point is simply that it could be possible to implement what the OP is hoping for. But currently, I don’t think it’s possible precisely. More so, I don’t think it would be super-easy for Bunpro to just flip a switch and make it happen. It would take some thinking and some development effort.
But hey, if the OP were to submit this request to the Feedback - Suggested Improvements/Feature Request thread, or upvote it or second it if it’s already a request, then it might become part of the Bunpro Team’s priorities for new features/improvements. Worth a shot!
I hate the way wanikani handles multiple cards. Turning off furigana so you have the kanji, and need to know the hiragana and meaning is a better solution in this case.
I like how bunpro handles multiple cards (the different example sentences) much better than wanikani. (and I like anki’s even better)
