Should I stop doing grammar for a bit?

Hi there! I just started using Bunpro to start grammar. I’m not having trouble with any of it, but I notice that a lot of the words in the examples I didn’t really know, and it uses terms like い -adjectives that I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t learned it quite recently with wanikani, and I worry that soon I won’t be so lucky to know what they’re talking about with exceptions and stuff. Should I have listened to Koichi and waited for level 10/20?

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Are you using any vocabulary resources other than Wanikani? If not, I really recommend you do. There’s so much essential vocab that Wanikani doesn’t have because it’s kana-only, and even some vocab Wanikani has that is usually in kana. If you have a different source for vocab, like an beginners textbook or some other introductory resource, you’ll be able to understand more vocab sooner.

btw, not sure if you knew this, but if you click on a grammar point they use in an explanation, a pop-up will appear that tells you what that grammar point means. So here on the grammar point です, “い-adjectives” is actually clickable!

tbh I think they should make it a bit more obvious that it’s clickable and not just text… I think it used to be more obvious?

I rarely recommend waiting (I’m of the mindset of starting grammar right away), but you can wait if you want. If you do decide to stop grammar for a bit, definitely don’t wait until level 20. Try starting up again at level 10 instead. Regardless of whether you decide to wait or not, I wouldn’t worry too much about not knowing all the vocab (as long as you still understand what the grammar is doing).

Hope this helps! :smiley:

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Thanks for the advice, I think I’ll just keep doing it until I reach a point where I can’t understand

There’s no rule that even when you do start studying grammar, you have to knuckle down and keep working at it until you understand all of it.

A rule that I think is a good one is, for every 50 vocabulary words that you learn, study at least 3 grammar points. If you do that, you’ll be learning about 7 grammar points per week at max WK speed, which will get you to nearly N3 level in a year. That’s nothing to shake a stick at!

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I started bunpro at level 33 here in WK so I wouldn’t have problem with vocab I didnt know the meaning and only focus on grammar point. It worked good for me until N3, but for n2 and n1 it didnt and I won’t renew anymore subscription.

So for grammar around lvl 20 here would be good for any other source.

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Try using Tae Kim’s guide to grammar, it’s a good resource and it has pretty simple stuff you should be able to read at level 5 too. It’s really easy to follow along. Also, it has keys for the kanji and vocab used in the examples. I use it, and I’m having no trouble learning grammar!

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There’s a tae Kim deck in Bunpro so I might use that too

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Genki and Tae Kim have word banks so you can keep up with the vocabulary. Also download yomichan!!!

I’ll echo the sentiment that you should download yomichan if you haven’t already.
That way, you can try reading some simple texts without having to constantly look up each individual word you don’t recognize. In other words, your lack of kanji and vocab knowledge won’t get in the way of learning grammar too much.
Bunpro itself has some reading exercises meant to match the lessons where you can try it out, but you can find plenty of other places online with a bit of looking (I personally like NHK News Web Easy).

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I recommend not SRSing grammar points. Or if you do, the max you should spend with the flash cards is about 2 weeks. No longer than a month. Don’t stop doing grammar, just do it slower.

WaniKani isn’t teaching in exact order N5, N4, etc so you will need to use another vocabulary. Before using Bunpo (different from Bunpro) I was using LingoDeer so I learned a ton of N5 vocabulary through that. There is also a Japanese crossword puzzle app that has N5-N1 crosswords so that might be worth checking out as well. Just use some kind of app that will teach you N5 vocabulary and then you’ll be able to read the example sentences on Bunpro when starting out. :smile_cat: