Can you read Japanese? I’m only level ‘whatever’ but it already feels pretty damn awesome to recognise kanji in sentences and get the generally gist. It feels like I’m starting to see shapes in the fog.
At what level could you read and understand Manga? I’m looking forward to reading One Punch Man in Japanese.
Yes! I can read pretty much anything I come across ^^ however, it’s one thing to be able to read and another to be able to actually understand what you’re reading, which is why balancing your studies with grammar is very important
Hmm, I’d say the most significant realization of being able to read things came around the level 20-30s? That’s a great time to start jumping into reading easier native materials too, that way you’re not having to look up quite as much ^^
Not level 60 yet but I’m coming up there, just wait 1 month to read my response and we’ll be fine
I think it was around level 40 that I could read manga comfortably. You may be able to read manga at lvl 10-20 if you really buckle down on grammar, but it will be difficult. I’m starting to read novels now if that counts for anything. WaniKani alone won’t do a whole lot for you. You need to study grammar and vocab outside of WaniKani, and that’s just for reading. Understanding spoken language like anime, drama, etc is something else entirely and I’m still not fantastic at it myself.
I think I started reading yotsubato when I was in the mid 20s on here. I read some of the saekano manga i got in japan too, but that was post 60.
Just a heads up tho, there is no such thing as a level where you will be able to read stuff. You can get to 60 and be unable to read simple manga. It depends very greatly on your grammar ability and the words you learn outside of wanikani.
I can follow manga pretty decently now with minimal dictionary use. The problem isn’t the kanji or the grammar, it’s the vocab. I haven’t read that much compared to other people though… don’t be like me, be like @RysingDragon! lol
I only really started back last week when I finally powered through my 700 reviews that had built up. I’ve still been practicing Japanese though, I’ve been using Anki every day for over a year, and I just went to Japan for the first time in May!
Comfortably even at 50! Maybe even 40. But you’ve got to keep up with the other aspects of the language that make reading easy: (1) knowing 和語, (2) knowing your grammar, (3) getting familiar with collocations and idiomatic language.
Maybe hit level 30 or 40 and start using some other vocab resources in conjunction with WK. Maybe something for 和語!Because for all the glorious 漢語 on this site, running into うっとり, ずばり, さっぱり–words that are more “Japanese-y” than “Chinese-y”, words that don’t really have kanji–running into these in the wild, can be a rude awakening. There are a lot of them, and they are wonderful! But they are not a feature of this site.
Grammar! Here’s the secret: you don’t have to master it, you just have to get a general feel for it. True story! But you definitely need to master Genki I and Genki II. That stuff is your bread and butter and there is no softening or escaping it. By the time you hit advanced grammar, though–think N1, maybe even a lot of N2–it helps to be familiar with it, but you don’t need to be a Jedi Master for an enjoyable read.
Last but not least, collocations and idioms. Collocations are frequent word pairings. They’re how you know that when you’re talking about an お風呂, you お湯を落とす; you don’t really プラグを引っ張る. Idioms are anything from 四字熟語(一所懸命!)to things like 痛い目に合う. You get the idea. You can buy books on this stuff, slam that shiz into an anki deck, and pound it into next week. You can also just start reading, you know, books in Japanese and pick these things out of your ORIGINAL TEXT and put THAT stuff into an anki deck and things will get easier as you go.
Those are your three! (1) 和語, (2) grammar, (3) collocations/idioms. Study those in combination with WK (which gets you your fourth pillar, (4) KANJI), and you’ll be reading in no time. Prob by level 40~50. Go. Do. Become, disciple of the gator crab.