I just started using Renshuu for grammar. I did the free trial for BunPro sometime last year, but I liked the grammar resource I was using at the time, so I didn’t sign up. Both services seem pretty similar in how they test grammar, but Renshuu includes lessons. Renshuu also seems to have vocab and kanji (although I haven’t checked either out since I have lifetime with WK) and the kanji seems to go beyond what WK offers.
As far as price goes, Renshuu has twice the subscription costs, but a cheaper lifetime and more games/types of practices.
Has anyone tried both? Do you have a preference for one or the other? Why?
@Leebo and @Kumirei I apologize for @-ing you here, but both the threads where you had posted about using/trying Renshuu have been closed due to inactivity. Did either of you stick with it?
IIRC, that thread I made was like… me asking if anyone used it so they could give me some advice because I found it confusing, right? I don’t remember my confusion ever being resolved, and I just gave up on the idea of using it.
Renshuu seems to be more standalone, whilst BunPro works beautifully together with WaniKani - simillar interface and SRS steps, and with API you can turn off furigana for all kanjis "guru"ed here. That makes a perfect reading practice! I feel like sessions in Bunpro reinforced my kanji knowledge a lot. I currently study for N2, and I wouldn’t trade my Bunpro membership for anything, it has all the tools for suceeding at the JLPT.
Do you have a specific textbook you are using to study? I think Bunpro works well if you are learning grammar elsewhere and want an SRS to just do some quick daily reinforcement, but I wouldn’t use it as a stand alone to learn grammar. I generally read my chapter for the week and then go to the chapter of my book in the bunpro pathways and add the whole chapter. I’m not terribly far along, but this system allows me to spend maybe 10- 20 minutes a day on quick grammar reviews. I wasn’t super familiar with Renshuu so I just went and played around with it for a bit and found that even with me entering my chapter in my textbook it showed grammar I haven’t learned yet and won’t for a while, so that makes it personally not a great fit for me.
I don’t have a textbook. I’m focusing on studying the grammar points on the JLPT. I like the way Renshuu gives lessons because it’s almost exactly how I wrote notes from the online textbook I used previously.
So is it just that the lessons don’t line up with your edition of your textbook that cause you to dislike it?
Yeah I guess that’s part of it. It had me select my textbook, which edition, and what chapter I was on, but then in the grammar for today on the dashboard it didn’t line up and some of the stuff was from 6 chapters ahead of the one I selected as where I was at. To me I just found that a bit odd. As for the lessons I just went into the grammar section and clicked on particles and it has a simple rule like for か A or B which seems a bit barebones and similar to what I see on Bunpro which is usually a very simple explanation and some sample sentences. If you like it and it works for you I think you should totally go for it! I think it just doesn’t really fit my study style the best. If you are studying for the JLPT though I would recommend a textbook or maybe Tae Kim if you want a free resource since it would provide a bit more detailed explanation of the grammar which you can then reinforce with which ever of the sites you prefer.
I think it should depend on your learning style but as for pure grammar i would choose Bunpro.
If you are the type who uses intuition a lot or if you like exploring stuff, learning indirectly just through exposure works well. Renshuu would work well overall but extra resource on grammar wouldn’t hurt (smthn like tae kim)
The tried and true type guys and who prefer structure to exploration would be the exact opposite. They need some clarity on grammar usage. Renshuu could or couldn’t fit. Textbooks or tae kim work well.
Experience wise, i learned most of my knowledge about english (language) just by exposure. For example, i remember writing “a” before universe and got corrected. I was taught that a,i,u,e,o needs “an” before the exam but it just doesn’t feel right to write “an universe” because i got exposed to reading “a unicorn” and stuffs alike multiple times. Then i learn english from translating articles, english videos, and research papers. Heck i learned some basic grammar just through translating stuffs.
I never really noticed the issue with ‘u’ before, but come to think of it: A unit circle, an unlit candle. Personally, I would write ‘a universe’ without hesitation; ‘an universe’ definitely sounds weird to me, but maybe in some dialects it’s ‘correct’.
Then there’s ‘h’. It’s an honour to be a host on a hot day for an hour.
So far I have been using shirimono for grammar and it is helping me a lot to understand better the nhk easy news articles, so far it is free but limited to one sentence per review, but still useful.
As soons as I close my next milestone on WK, which is level 27 for N4, I will start another paid srs for grammar, maybe bunpro.
Can you try it for free like WK, BunPro, and other sites? I’m looking around the site but it has very little information about the details of how it works.
