Why aren't the later levels of grammar and vocab taught in Japanese?

Bunpro
#1

There’s probably a simple answer to this that I’m missing, but why is everything up to the end of N1 defined and explained solely in English?

Because from what I understand, by the end of N4/start of N3, at the very latest, someone making their way through both the JLPT grammar and vocab decks should have all the knowledge needed to start making the transition to monolingual explanations of new grammar and vocab, right?

So if that’s truly the case, then why are the grammar explanations and vocab definitions entirely in English, even all the way to the end of the N1 material? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to be taught Japanese in the context of Japanese once a good foundation in the language has been built, or at the very least start giving explanations in Japanese that you know someone who has followed the decks up to that point would be able to understand in addition to the current English only explanations?

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#2

You’ll be pleased to know that the Grammar explanations have Japanese translations from N2!

Check the top right of this screenshot:

Screenshot 2026-09-07 at 11.14.56
Screenshot 2026-09-07 at 11.14.561876×770 106 KB

Adding them for N3 too might be nice though

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#3

…and now I have absolutely no idea how I missed that, as it’s super obvious now that you’ve pointed it out :sweat_smile: thank you so much, and I apologize for the trouble!

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#4

I don’t mind, I get to be the bearer of good news :clinking_glasses::joy:

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#5

I do think that the feasibility of explainable/understandable explanations for the N3 grammar points is something that would be worth looking into as well, honestly.

'm still in the middle of learning y’alls N4 grammar points, but I do have to say that I’ve gotten a subscription to the 例会学習国語辞典 and 例会学習漢字辞典 via the DONGRI S app - native 国語 and 漢字 dictionaries for elementary schoolers in Japan - and although dictionary Japanese is almost like a whole new dialect, I’ve been surprised at how understandable the definitions in them have been for my current level of knowledge lol

It’s what made me start wondering why the concept behind y’alls graded readers in the Reading Practice section hadn’t been applied to your later level grammar and vocab decks, although I see now that I was wrong about that assumption lol :sweat_smile:

Anyways, that’s just my $0.02 on a matter that I probably don’t have enough knowledge to actually accurately weigh in on lol

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#6

Just found out we do have it for N3!