This is probably gonna be a longer topic so apologies in advance and please bear with me.
Since I started using renshuu approx. 7 months ago, I've always stuck with the renshuu's own vocabulary/grammar JLPT packs which go together. For a while now, I noticed that while sometimes vocabulary and respective grammar lesson fit quite well together in terms of "timing" (when you learn what) but other times it's quite the opposite. Let me clarify that with a few examples:
Just the other day, I learned the grammar "22. Using ため and ために" (N4) and in the respective vocabulary lesson I had the same words. Perfect - just like it should be, according to my understanding.
On the other hand, I can see (in the lessons overview) grammar lessons coming up for phrases/expressions etc. where I already learned the associated word/expression a long time ago.
A few examples:
28. Seems: らしい
29. Seems: よう, そう
35. Explanations with んです
39. Giving & Receiving #5
49. Conjunctions #2
You could say, everything is in there, from the short conjunctions like し and なら to longer words like いただく. Now, why is that? I thought the point of those schedules was that grammar and related vocabulary always go hand in hand?
Besides, the above mentioned examples already appear in grammar quizzes after having learned the word/expression, but not yet the grammar for it. I usually report these via the "?" because I believe the grammar quizzes should not include unknown grammar (please correct me if I am wrong).
I believe, I discussed this topic quite a while ago and in a much shorter version with Michael directly but I wanted to get other people's point of view on this. Maybe I am misunderstanding some mechanic or so..?
I'm about to set off on a trip, so apologies for the short answer.
If you see a sentence in a grammar quiz that you feel has grammar that has not yet been introduced, the best thing you can do is tap the ? button at the top, then report a quiz error.
In the quiz error, copy/paste the sentence in, and if possible, say "I do not think XX in this sentence has been taught yet. I am currently on lesson YY".
I do look at all of these entries, and often make adjustments to the sentences to bring them inline in terms of content.
I am back, and slowly transitioning back into work (and working through the backlog present).
I'm rereading your original post, and I'd like to request some specific lesson/sentences examples to clarify what you're saying, if you think it is something beyond what I noted earlier. It sounds like you're suggesting the opposite, though: that a current grammar lesson (and the sentences that come up with the lesson) are including grammar/vocab from earlier lessons (including the target grammar), is that correct?
Alright, I didn't mean to pressure you or anything, was just curious, when you'd be back!
In short I am saying that oftentimes you learn some vocab that SHOULD belong to a specific grammar unit ages in advance. I often have a mastery level of ~80% on vocab before the actual grammar unit for it.. a few examples are in my original message. Does that make it clearer?
Yes, that does make sense. In those cases, it may indeed be the original issue, that the sentence itself (in the question) was too advanced, and that the words are partly sourced from the sentences.
So the original "report them with the ? button" will work for these as well :)
How would you like that reported? Sth. like "I learned the word(vocab) らしい in this sentence weeks/months ago and just now learned the grammar unit for it" or so?
The only way I'll be able to look into it (given my time constraints) is when the original sentence comes up (so it may be too late in some of these situations) with the message "I am currently on Lesson XX, got a sentence with YY in it, but have not learned it yet."
It's not that I cannot look these things up after the fact, but realistically, I will not be able to dig that deep into isolated words with my current workload, so a quiz report at the point of the sentence remove enough of the friction so that I can get it done.
"I am currently on Lesson XX, got a sentence with YY in it, but have not learned it yet." I am already reporting that kind of sentences, that is not what I meant, though..
I'll try again:
When I learn the grammar unit "28. Seems: らしい", shouldn't I learn the actual word/vocabulary "らしい" in the exact same, corresponding vocab unit (and not way earlier)?
Usually, yes - that would be ideal. The issue (well, my issue) is that I do not have the time at the moment to look back on each grammar lesson, track down the related words, and make sure they are not introduced too early. It's far from ideal, but a report (by anyone) on when that sentence first pops up (as it was most likely a sentence in a grammar question that had the word らしい in it, therefore requiring that it come up in an earlier lesson) is the fastest way for me to get them fixed.
At some point, I'd like to be able to go through the entire list, but it's just not realistic given my current workload :(
As an aside, I think it might be a good one-time crowdsourcing project to map these vocab words to the grammar (Or rather, the other way: for each grammar point, say "are there any unique words used by this grammar". If we had that mapping done, then the vocab dictionary could, if you look up らしい, for example, have a "Check out the grammar for this" link just below it.
