Which vocab review method works best for you?

Bunpro
#1

I’m thorn between 2 methods of reviewing vocab

  1. Show kanji, put in the meaning
  2. Show sentence, fill in the blank with the vocab

Method 1 helps me remember the kanji but I’m finding it hard when I need to speak because there’s no kanji to look at
Method 2 is the opposite, I can recall the pronounciation when trying to speak but can’t read the kanji if presented, there’s a disconnect between the kanji and the vocab in my head

I wish we can change the review method automatically when the mastery of the vocab has reached certain level

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#2

I feel like you’re dealing with two separate issues here. Both methods as you describe them are a bit flawed.

TLDR - I think Method 1 + you need to get the reading write (aka the Wanikani method) is best.

Gaps
Method 1: For Kanji, you really need to have both the reading and meaning correct to move forward. This is why Wanikani splits it into two reviews, both required to move on.

Granted, the “usually kana” or even “usually furigana (宵!?)” kanji you can be more lax on. No need to learn 煩い, and 此れ too early (or maybe even until you see them in the wild).

Method 2: English to Japanese is better practiced with sentence and speaking production. Fill in the blank has a lot of gaps, the biggest of which is synonyms. I find a lot of the newer learners I hang out with IRL gravitate toward a single synonym, mistaking translation and nuance.

They think evening (宵!?), they say 夕べ instead of 夜. Thus, I think method #2 is actually more detrimental to learning, even for advanced students.

I’d almost go as far as to say Bunpro should remove it (for vocab mind you, not for grammar).

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#3

Yeah, I’m also leaning into method 1 + wanikani. I guess it’s time to resurrect my wanikani account. Thank you for your input!

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#4

Personally, I only started finding actual success with recalling vocabulary when I started reviewing vocabulary by using the fill in the blank method. I find reading books/video games helped me associate the meaning + kanji, so I never bothered studying that deliberately outside of WaniKani.

For BunPro, I specifically do vocab as fill in the blank. I found that I didn’t start being conversational until I specifically trained the ability to recall words in that order without seeing it. Personally, I also rarely bother reading the full sentence. This has the downside of not exposing you to the nuanced difference between words with the same general meaning, but I correct this through a mix of reading/gaming/conversation. Sometimes I’ll use the wrong one in a situation, but my friends/wife will correct me usually.

I’m not sure how effective this would be for people that don’t have the time to fully immerse through media and RL convos everyday, so this type of studying may leave too many gaps for the average person, so I’m not sure how advisable it is to use it this way for you.

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#5

Similar to deceir I do fill in the blank, not really reading the sentence and do no subs immersion. It works for me since I either eventually learn the difference via immersion or I learn so I can actually answer the question when it’s the same word. But that won’t work for everyone and everyone’s goals are different. It works for me for a combination of reasons, being the immersion and that I also pay attention to the parts of the words and what they mean (that said I don’t know all of them, I just kinda figure it out as I go and maybe look them up occasionally when I think it would help me tell the difference). But also I mainly want to be able to understand what I hear and possibly speak it, reading isn’t a priority for me.

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#6

For me it depends on the word. Typically I do translation, but there are some instances where I think cloze/fill in the gap works better:

  1. Same kanji words (e.g., 作物（さくぶつ）＆作物（さくもつ）)
    When I’m just shown 作物 and asked to translate with no context, it’s a 50/50 guess unless I enable the furigana.

  2. Grammar phrases (e.g., にもかかわらず)
    Controversial as you may argue it is better to study the grammar item as a fill in the gap and the vocab item as a translation, but I find for words like these (especially when written in hiragana), the exposure from the grammar point has already developed my understanding enough to understand what the phrase means in a standalone context.

Typically, I find FitG to be more effective for usage, while still being sufficient recall practice. However, I don’t think the difference is big enough to completely abandon one or the other.

Good luck!

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#7

Most advanced learners here and even many of the Bunpro staff always recommend reading mode over filling the gaps, at least on higher levels. I personally cannot get into it, after trying for several times.

Sure, you get used to reading the kanjis, but I’m already learning them separately, which I know many people would consider a bad thing. But this way it happens that I’ll encounter new or old words during review for which I didn’t know the kanji and its reading, and at that moment everything clicks together for the word + kanji. Same when I’m learning a new kanji and I recognize that I already know some words using it, so it makes learning the reading easier.

With that in mind, I don’t see the benefit of reading mode for me other than higher speed, and forcing yourself to read the whole thing. But even then, I prefer to use that time for reading other native material. The fill mode helps me to actually remember the word when I try to think in Japanese. Even if there are without doubt better ways to practice output, those take more effort, so I consider this fill mode a little help for my laziness (and the fact that I don’t know how to reliably practice output).

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#8

I’ve done fill-in from the beginning

The pre-immersion results compared to a handful of people who started with me, were very much as expected:

My ability to actively recall vocab was substantially better than theirs.
My ability to recognize vocab was substantially worse than theirs.

Reaching a point where you interact with the language, meaning: actually speaking, listening, consuming media etc, flattened it out. I feel like there’s still an edge to it. My reading and listening is still a little behind theirs, and there’s a gap between learning a word and being able to catch it in the wild. They don’t have this gap, they do however have a gap when it comes to using that word themselves.

In short: do you want to prioritize recognition, or recall?

I don’t regret having done fill in from the start, and if I could go back in time, I’d do the exact same thing again. There’s lots of other things I’ve wasted time on, and regret doing, in my Japanese learning journey so far - fill in vocab is not one of those things.

The main reason for this, is that the natural opportunities to train recognition later on are plenty, especially once you start consuming media. The opportunities to train recall are few and far-in between, if you don’t live in Japan.

This is of course my completely unfounded opinion based on a sample size of a handful of people. Take it with a grain of 塩

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#9

As someone who’s at the start of their journey and was debating the benefits of each, thanks for the insight!

I’m curious what some of these other things might be that you feel you wasted your time on?

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#10

my main advice would be to not overly fixate on other people’s advises but to try things out and see what makes you stick to it, rather than chasing for the 100% most optimal method that will burn you out.

Only because people say “Do X to learn the quickest”, you don’t need to do it if you don’t enjoy it.
If you do the second-quickest, or the third-quickest, but you enjoy it: the difference is marginal and at least you’ll keep learning.

Most of us non-native speakers learned English in a classroom in the most inefficient way possible, yet we’re using the language.

It’s gonna be fine.

But to answer the question: Contrary to popular opinion, my main regret is wasting time trying to immerse too early, when it didn’t make sense yet (to me).

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#11

I can vouch for reading mode too.

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