Interesting. I just made an eerily similar post in another thread. Do you have any reading resources to recommend?
At what level of WaniKani do you suggest starting Bunpro or Genki or any other grammar studies? Do you need to have more of a Kanji and vocabulary base knowledge to start?
Personally I started learning grammar right after I learned to read hiragana
Tae Kimās grammar guide is nice because it has vocab lists for all its example sentences
I think by level 5 you should be good though!
I checked out Bunpro, and it looks interesting - currently, SRS learning seems to work well for me. I even accidentally found out that they offer Paypal payment, too - this makes this European student without a credit card rather happy
Iām taking a beginnerās class at university which at this point focuses mostly on basic conversation, and grammar is only an aside, but I feel like I should start to understand it as soon as possible. Classes wonāt get easier in the future! Iām glad thereās a free Bunpro trial - Iām not really sure how learning grammar by SRS is supposed to work, but now I can find out how (and whether) it does. Thanks to everyone who recommended it!
I think genki is good to go to as soon as you learn hiragana and katakana. After all, it is meant for the very beginning of a studentās journey. I would start bunpro after you know a few more kanji since it appears they use some from the very beginning. Maybe around level 7-10 if I remember correctly after resetting my account Other input would be great on this since my memory isnāt the best.
Those are good examples. I think for me, the SRS helps bridge the gap after being able to read/comprehend a sentence and then execute it cleanly. For example, even with conversation partners and classes, I donāt have a great opportunity to practice keigo type sentences (though reading comprehension is not a problem) so BP has helped me with changing scenarios with various verbs to humble/honorific. Another example might be causitive-passive type sentences which are not exactly rare but i donāt always have a great excuse to use them often either. Again, reading is no problem but conjugating the verb correctly or fliping the sentence structure from caustive to causitive-passive (or switching the shorter version) takes some practice for me. Another example might be there are a million ways to structure āmust/shouldā. Speaking, I have several favorites I like to use but there are subtle meaning differences and I want to be solid on all of them and at least for listening (BP helped me get a bit stronger on this front). I hear you when it comes to time so I suppose we have to be selective on how we use it.
Bunpro lets you hover over the kanji-containing text to reveal the hiraganaā¦ or is it hovering over the hiragana text to reveal the kanjiā¦ anyway, itās hover to reveal.
It can also show furigana across the board, and thereās the option to import oneās WK API key and only show furigana for kanji one hasnāt encountered. Pretty nifty! Also prevents me from being lazy and just reading the furigana when Iām not 100% sure
Iām a higher level than you and Iāve still got the furigana switched on. Already have enough trouble with remembering grammar, I donāt want the added difficulty of unlearnt kanji screwing me up too!
Understandable! I like that thereās a possibility to turn furigana on or off, depending on what oneās main focus is. I can see myself turning them back on when grammar gets more complicated so I can focus more on that. But as I only started out doing the first N5 lessons, having to watch out for the few kanji I know is not too overwhelming yet
Ohhh, yeah, totally true. I forgot about that one.
Learning keigo from reading alone indeed could mean delaying that considerably as compared to the rest of studies (considering texts written with keigo will most likely be aimed at adult audiences); but then again, I recently picked up a å½čŖ (japanese language) review textbook aimed at kids preparing the entry exam for middle school; so itās more or less the same difficulty than the rest of stories Iām reading, as the target audience is the same ā¦
That alone opened my eyes to keigo (in a very basic way though) been present in a lot of my shows (specially in office related enviroments or even more in military conflict related shows, where itās quite clear how the difference in ranks affects the speech).
Anywayā¦ I hope itās not much of a derail. But following å½čŖ lectures (for example in NHK School and also in NHK Kokokoza) has been a great resource for grammar (most likely not really a possibility until actually reading / watching native content aimed at kids at least), specially for those who arenāt too fond of textbooks / drillling.
Thanks for the links, Iāve never checked these out before but I like what I see. I wish I had more time to read native content outside of a few readings of NHK easy I do everyday or textbooks. I certainly donāt want to be doing drills forever and Iām sure you find native reading far more engaging. For those on a JLPT path or need to crunch content, seems SRS is a lifesaver. Hopefully when Iām more confident in the N3 arena kanji/grammar wise, I can transition a bit more to your current approach. Good luck in Japan, what will you be doing?
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