When to start tackling vocab decks

Bunpro
#1

Hello,

I’ve recently started Bunpro, currently working through N5 lessons. I noticed that there is also a vocabulary deck for N5, but I don’t know the vast majority of the kanji that I see on the vocab deck page. I’m currently also working through WaniKani, but I’m only at around 36 kanji or so.

WaniKani also has vocab lessons, but I figured learning from two sources wouldn’t be too bad. In WaniKani though, the vocab you can learn is locked to the kanji you’ve already passed, which on Bunpro it isn’t as far as I can tell. How long should I wait before starting to do the vocab on this site?

Thanks

5 Likes
#2

Hey @Slysoft! Welcome to Bunpro, I hope it proves useful to you in your Japanese journey. :partying_face:

By the time you’re around level 10 in WaniKani you should be able to read 95% of any given N5 vocab, including our deck, so it might be a good time to start going through it.

And if you’re worried about overlap, we offer a sync function in which any vocab you’ve studied on WaniKani will not be asked here on Bunpro. You can find it on Settings, General, Content Display.

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So, to answer more concisely, I’d wait until I hit 10 on WaniKani, hit the Sync WK Vocab button, and start chipping away at the deck.

Hope this helps! Have a nice day!

3 Likes
#3

Yeah, that answers my question. Thanks. Good to know about that sync function as well.

1 Like
#4

Just to add on, I think you can use both sites at the same time to great effect like @Daru already mentioned. What I’ve read some people doing on here in the same situation as you was to continue with WK like normal, but during their grammar review sessions on Bunpro they would jot down all the new words they stumble across and then add it to the vocab deck. This isn’t a knock against WK at all, but they teach their vocab (and kanji) based on a certain route. However I can see that a very common word like 傘, umbrella, is taught in lesson 28 despite it being a common N5 word. Same exact thing with 誰, who, which I see is taught in 43. Again, not knocking them, that’s just their way and what they want to prioritize.

I’ve read of a user script that allows you to mark WK items as “burned” or completed. Theoretically you could still continue with WK, and if you come across a word you already learned on Bunpro you could use said script. Or just do it again? There’s no real easy way to be honest.

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#5

Yeah, the thing with WaniKani is that they only teach you vocab related to the kanji you are learning for the purposes of learning them, and they don’t necessarily teach kanji “in order”, since it’s based more on the simplicity of the character than the simplicity of the meaning. That’s why I was looking at doing Bunpro vocab as well, since the vocab is actually categorized by JLPT level and so the focus is more on general vocab instead of just vocab related to the kanji. In fact, as far as I know, WaniKani doesn’t teach any vocab at all that has no kanji in it, while Bunpro does have vocab words without kanji.

I don’t really mind doing the same words on each platform, since if I already learned it once then it’s just an extra 5 seconds of typing it in for a review.

3 Likes
#6

You’re right about there being no hiragana only vocab (unless things have changed significantly in the last year or two). I’ve always seen the vocab in WK as a learning aid to help memorize the Kanji it goes along with, not as a vocabulary learning tool by itself. The vocab provides context for the characters, so you know how they are used in real words. It’s a kanji learning site, and it’s really good at teaching kanji. Everything else is a bonus.

Well, beside the Kanji they also have an amazing community. It’s how I found this site and many other resources! Nothing but love for the mighty :crab:

#7

how do you even start vocab? I got the button on the dashboard page but don’t know how to start any of that.

Word!!

#8

Hey there! Assuming you’re signed up for the vocab beta, here’s what you can do to start adding vocab words to your reviews:

  • Decks (at top of main page)
  • Scroll down a bit to where you should see Bunpro Vocab Deck, something got tripped up in the system and it should be titled Bunpro Vocab Decks instead of seeing two Bunpro Grammar Deck (we’ll fix that in a sec!). Click on the N5 one just for simplicity sake
  • Hit any word you wish to review - 丸 is at the top so let’s go with that
  • From here it should open a new page, here you’ll see all the info about said word. You can add your own notes if you feel like it, otherwise scroll to the bottom and hit ‘Add to Reviews’ and voila, you’re all set!
2 Likes
#9

How far is vocab from coming out of beta?
I would like to use it but I’m not super certain I’d like to opt in for the beta or any future betas.

1 Like
#10

Ah… had to sign up?

Is the bunpro beta thing in settings not the same thing?

#11

Nah it’s the same thing, I just wanted to double check that’s what you meant by the button you mentioned. Did you get it working on your end?

#12

It’s one hell of a bonus, though! I’ve started listening to Nihongo Con Teppei recently and I’m amazed how many random words he’ll say that I recognize thanks to WaniKani.

As for the decks here, this might have been said already, but you could at this stage add a few kana-only words (by manually selecting them) each day.

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#13

Yeah I think I got it, thanks!

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#14

Are these vocab questions ever going to ask to spell it out or just what it means?

Seems like a missed opportunity if it’s just knowing what it means.

#15

I agree that they should eventually add that functionality, in my opinion. However, there is a website called KaniWani whose only purpose is to do this exact thing (and it integrates with WaniKani, however it is not necessary to use WaniKani). There is also a website called KameSame which I heard is also good, but I’ve never used it.

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#16

Yeah I know them both very well, I got to level 60 on WaniKani the 28th of Feb, I reached half way with KaniWani, as around level 45+ in WK, it starts getting super ridiculous… how ridiculous? (951 drills in a day ridiculous - I even had to write a post about it and how it drove me mad: https://nihonscope.com/learn-japanese/a-wanikani-story-what-is-so-great-about-the-number-951/)… however… these vocabs are much different right away than WaniKani… WaniKani doesn’t really focus on popularity of words/phrases etc or at least, it’s not it’s top priority.

Their main purpose is to make it so you can read the Kanji, sure… absolutely you learn a lot of vocab words. But even just in the first 25~ words I’ve went through, they are radically different.

These vocab words seem more like they run along side popular usage other than just making a vocab word for the heck of it… and of course there is tons of katakana words which wanikani doesn’t hardly focus on.

But! I will check out KameSame, I’ve never heard of it.

Thank you for the reference, that’s how I ended up here.

1 Like
#17

You can also check out kitsun.io, it’s a paid service but afaik it’s effectively a modern version of anki. I believe there are japanese vocab decks that have interactive input like what you are looking for, but I also have never used this.

#18

I checked out KameSame… and that’s certainly interesting for sure.

I’m gonna dabble with it, it is a bit different than WaniKani, but certainly is the same in a way.

It’ll take a bit to get used to it I think.

I do also appreciate this new resource, thank you I’ll look into it!