#kaekae

can gracefully convince street salespeople you dont speak a lick of their language (or english). never have to talk to anyone you dont want to ever again!

more countries you can move to when you need to fake your death

more languages = more places to relocate to when you need to fake your own death again

free brownie-points with native speakers of your target language (remember to exchange for actual brownies at your local embassy)

can convince strangers at parties you’re actually an exotic foreigner instead of a broke student

embrace your destiny of local weirdo/video game protagonist by pretending to have amnesia and not speak your first language anymore

more memes available

the “privilege” of being able to scoff at mistranslated subtitles. impress everyone near you with a more correct version that they never asked for. guaranteed to make you Popular

writing notes and messages in more than one language simultaneously. who cares if this sentence is in danish, english, and japanese? not me. im the only one who can make any sense of this horrific mess

Vocabulary words taken from page one of Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. 

場所（ばしょ）・  place

台所（だいどころ）・  kitchen

機能的（きのうてき）・  functional

出来れば（できれば）・  ideally / if possible / preferably

乾い（かわい）・  dry

清潔（せいけつ）・  immaculate

ふきん ・  dish towel

タイル ・  tile (like on a floor)

ぴかぴか ・  sparkle

輝く（かがやく）・  to shine / to glitter / to sparkle

たまらなく・  irresistibly

汚い（きたない）・  dirty

野菜（やさい）・  vegetable

床（ゆか）・  floor

裏（うら）・  sole (of a shoe)

広い（ひろい）・  wide

冬（ふゆ）・  winter

軽い（かるい）・  light (not heavy)

食料（しょくりょう）・  food

並ぶ（ならぶ）・  to line up

巨大な（きょだいな）・  huge

冷蔵庫（れいぞうこ）・refrigerator 

そびえ立つ（そびえたつ）・  to tower over

扉（とびら）・  door

油（あぶら）・  oil

飛べる（とべる）・  to fly / to jump

錆び（さび）・  rust

包丁（ほうちょう）・  kitchen knife

ふと ・  suddenly

窓（まど）・  window

外（そと）・  outside

淋しい（さみしい）・  lonely

星（ほし）・  star

光る（ひかる）・  to shine

A Japanese grammar practice app a lá Duolingo.

Score: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Free: ☑ Yes; ☐ No (offers paid version) 

Difficulty level: beginner | intermediate | advanced

Interaction with others: ☐ Yes; ☑ No

Available on: ☑ iPhone/iOS; ☑ Android; ☐ web

Version tested in this review: Android

Internet connection required: ☐ Yes; ☑ No

The Bunpo app is a relatively new study resource for people looking to improve their Japanese grammar. It has a simple layout that’s easy to navigate, as shown:

Bunpo divides grammar points by JLPT level and then further into smaller groups by topic or grammatical function. As grammar study is its main function, I’ve marked this as less suitable for absolute beginners at Japanese, even though the app offers kana and kanji practice as well. It also has a library of often used words (basic words) it’ll run you through, but this is, in my opinion, non-essential, since Bunpo has a rad dictionary that’ll let you tap words during practice, and the app will show you the English translation.

This only applies to the words highlighted in green, though - anything else, you’re on your own, which I find a tad sloppy, honestly.

When you open a grammar category, you’re presented with a list of grammar points. Clicking one begins the lesson, which starts with an introduction to the grammar point with example sentences. Very neat! Once you’ve gone through a few pages of this introduction, you’re taken to the test or practice part of the lesson. This is the part that’s similar to Duolingo: The various exercises involve you choosing the correct word out of a few possible selections and putting words in order. This is good for grammar practice, but it’s not infallible, as I discovered by accident:

I chose the word つまらない rather than 楽しい, which is entirely grammatically correct - just not what Bunpo wanted me to say. This resulted in me having to do this lesson all over again in order to have it marked as completed. I haven’t run into other examples of this “error” yet, but I’m sure they’re there. I hope they will be fixed in a future update, either letting the app accept multiple correct answers, or removing the “incorrect” ones.

Bunpo is a really cool app and I have a good feeling that it’ll continue to develop positively, but for now, there are a set of serious drawbacks that prevents me from rating it higher than 3 stars.

They claim that their app features all Japanese grammar points in the description on the App/Google Play Store. - This is simply not true. While obviously requiring a humongous effort, I don’t think they should write this just yet when the app appears to still be in its early stages of development. I’ve written an email to them about this and received a response 2 days later assuring me that more grammar points will be added in future updates, so I’m hopeful!

The app lags. - I suspect this may have something to do with the fact that the app is available offline (bless!), but there’s some loading time that can get annoying if you’re looking for just a quick review session.

Pricing? What for? - The app is free, but its App Store description says there’s a paid subscription mode. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what one would be paying for; perhaps paid features are still in the works; I certainly don’t see them in my Android version. If someone has been able to figure this out, please leave a comment or message me!

Lack of information. - They have a website, yes. But it’s a Wordpress with a single page and a “learn more” link that leads nowhere. I do hope as they continue to develop the app that they’ll also make more detailed information about it more readily available to people who do not wish to download it before they’ve read more.

I’m hopeful for the continued development of this app, as more grammar resources are always welcome! However, it just seems sorta half baked still.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with or paid by the people behind Bunpo in any way. This review is my own honest opinion of the app.

I have, and I’m sure you have too, lost count of how many times I’ve seen a post with the OP apologizing for being inactive. And this goes out to all of you apologizing: You don’t need to! Unless your blog is your job, you really don’t owe anyone your time there, and let’s be real, there are tons of other, more important stuff you need to dedicate time to. That said, if you would like to post regularly, here are a few ideas from me.

Use. Your. Queue.

Honestly, it all boils down to this. Use the queue feature! Just do it! If you have Xkit, you can even regulate how often you’d like the queue to post down to the minute. Personally, I find that posting 6 times a day from the queue works well: It’s a nice, even spread over 24 hours, so I catch every timezone, and it’s not so often that my queue runs dry in a matter of days. Tracking some tags of interest to you is a good way to make sure you always have relevant stuff for your queue.

Schedule posts

In more than one way. You can set aside time to write posts for your tumblr. I do this, like, once every two weeks. In between writing time, I just write ideas down for posts - I have a Windows sticky note just for that, actually, and I’m nowhere near through it, so I have plenty of things to choose from when I’m writing! Then, also, actually use the ‘schedule post’ feature tumblr has. It’s super neat and you never have to worry about forgetting to post on time, because you already asked a robot to do that for you like, a month in advance.

Mandatory “don’t overwhelm yourself” point

Kudos to people who commit to posting every single day - I sure couldn’t! Instead, I post something new every other Saturday, with reruns of last week’s post the following Sunday. I used to post every week, but I find that this more relaxed schedule is way better suited to my needs. I can dedicate time to my studyblr, but completely avoid any feelings of guilt that I’m not studying (because I’m doing just that instead of wasting time on tumblr) or neglecting my blog (which I’m evidently not, due to consistent posting).

Just in case you didn’t already know what a Huge Dork I am.

アーマークラス　・　armor class

アラインメント　・　alignment

技能（ぎのう）　・　skill

キャラクターシート　・　character sheet

キャンペーン　・　campaign

サイコロ　・　dice

20面（にじゅうめん）ダイス　・　d20

ヒットダイス　・　hit dice

多角体（たかくたい）のダイス　・　polyhedral dice

セービングスロー　・　saving throw

ザナサーの百科選書（ひゃっかせんしょ）　・　xanathar’s guide to everything

種族（しゅぞく）　・　race

呪文（じゅもん）　・　spell

詠唱時間（えいしょうじかん）　・　casting time

構成要素（こうせいようそ）　・　component

発生（はっせい）　・　verbal

動作（どうさ）　・　somatic

物質（ぶっしつ）　・　material

呪文スロット　・　spell slot

習熟（しゅうじゅく）　・　proficiency

初期装備（しょきそうび）　・　starting equipment

状態異常（じょうたいいじょう）　・　status condition

組み付き（くみつき）状態　・　grappled

伏す（ふす）状態　・　prone

拘束（こうそく）状態　・　restrained

朦朧化（もうろうか）　・　stunned

気絶（きぜつ）状態　・　unconscious

過労（かろう）状態　・　exhaustion

ヒットポイント　・　hit points

武器（ぶき）　・　weapon

冒険者（ぼうけんしゃ）　・　adventurer

バーバリアン　・　barbarian

バード　・　bard

クレリック　・　cleric

ドルイド　・　druid

ファイター　・　fighter

モンク　・　monk

パラディン　・　paradin

レンジャー　・　ranger

ローグ　・　rogue

ソーサラー　・　sorcerer

ウォーロック　・　warlock

ウィザード　・　wizard

ポーション・オブ・ヒーリング　・　potion of healing

魂（たましい）を喰らう（く．）墓（はか）　・　tomb of annihilation

テーブル・トップRPG　・　table top RPG

特技（とくぎ）　・　feat

ダンジョンマスター　・　dungeon master

能力値（のうりょくち）　・　ability score

筋力（きんりょく）　・　strength

敏捷力（びんしょうりょく）　・　dexterity

耐久力（たいきゅうりょく）　・　constitution

知力（ちりょく）　・　intelligence

判断力（はんだんりょく）　・　wisdom

魅力（みりょく）　・　charisma

修正（しゅうせい）　・　modifier