Learning Update: Jan 2024
Hello! It’s been a long while since I updated this part of my site…. almost 3 years in fact (March 2021 was my last Learning Update).
To summarize… I got through some part of Tobira with a discord study group, but missed out on many sessions over the last couple years. The group finished with the book a long while ago and now we mainly do random practice things.
I’ve left off on chapter 6 of the Tobira reading portion (I went back and started reading it from the beginning), but haven’t picked it back up for quite some time… I was struggling to actually study the grammar past just reading the descriptions. I got partway through chapter 5 taking notes on them, but it was just so sporadic and then I wasn’t reviewing them still.
So feeling stagnant, and still wondering how I was going to review those grammar points from N2 Sou Matome (my friend and I started doing private study sessions together with this book), I finally decided to try Bunpro because it has spaced repetition for grammar (SRS). I wasn’t about to go spend the time and energy I barely have for Anki making a custom grammar deck, nor did I think that would be effective.
So currently, I’ve been on the free trial of Bunpro for a bit over a week or so, and just the past few days I’ve been putting more effort into actually studying more grammar points at a time. I started with N3, and I realized just how much I need to study. This is probably why I struggle reading/watching harder content, so I’m really hoping this boosts my stagnant progress into real progress.
I like the SRS a lot so far because rather than just a flashcard like Anki, it provides a sample sentence and you can control the initial hint level to be nothing for the maximum difficulty, and it actually forces me to think. And the conjugation is included in the answer to challenge that part of my memory as well. I started it alongside my friend, so I think it will really keep me accountable so far. I felt really motivated after a group study session and seeing someone else actually know the grammar points during a cram session, so I feel like it will really work. I’m keeping the tab open on my browser so I can’t forget it. As I mentioned in my original post about choosing a textbook, I originally did not go with Bunpro because I felt that I’d easily forget about a website and make no progress. On the upside, it seems Bunpro has grown a lot since it was created, so it probably wasn’t a bad thing that I picked it up only now.
Bunpro also lets you add your own practice sentences, so I’m planning on migrating the ones from my Tobira notes to the respective grammar points on Bunpro! And they actually have “integrations” with some popular textbooks, including Tobira, so I can easily see the grammar points in Tobira’s ordering! So I’m planning to return to Tobira at some point with Bunpro as a review tool.
I really have my friend to thank for all this, though. If we hadn’t stuck together after all this time (I thank FFXIV, ironically it has caused me to study both less and more now), I would not have brought up studying more together to keep us accountable. It really motivates me, too.
Aaaand my next step is hopefully getting around to reading all those Koupen-chan books (like the short stories) I bought!!! I can’t let them gather dust! T_T (And all the Chainsaw Man volumes I bought. O_O)
Finally, I really hope this newfound effort and motivation really improves my translation ability. I’ve realized just how much more I have to learn, and I’m glad Bunpro provides some concrete definition of that.
