I would really like to us the voacbulary I learn. I was wondering if end of level 1 what can I read? I think if there could be books attached to each level that we should be able to read after completing each level it would be great.
And would really love to know, after what level I can attempt to read Harry Potter in Japanese ?
I’d recommend trying the Japanese Graded Readers. They can be bought on White Rabbit. But they have an app as well.
If you use a program like WKstats, it will use your WK API to determine what percentage of kanji and vocab you have for each JLPT level.
These Graded Readers are levelled by JLPT level, so it’s pretty easy to determine what one should be able to read.
As for Harry Potter, I haven’t read it in Japanese personally, but I’ve heard people say N3 level at least.
According to WKstats, at level 51, a user will have learnt 100% of the Kanji for N3.
I should also add, in addition to WK, if you want to read, you should probably work on Grammar too, if you’re not already. I haven’t used it yet, but a similar program to WK but for grammar is called ‘Bunpro’. Alternatively, The Japanese Time released a series of really useful grammar dictionaries that can be used while you are reading.
Also, there are a few bookclubs on the WK forums, there’s an Absolute Beginner one as well and we’re starting a new book next week. If you’re up to that level.
Good luck!
I haven’t picked it up to re-try recently, but that seems quite accurate. At the time pretty much only N5 knowledge - barely got into chapter two after quite some effort before giving up.
I guess my version is without furigana, so that got in the way also, but I would not call it a very straightforward read in JP.
And the JP audiobook version is also read out very rapidly. 
Could not keep up with Mcgonagall’s dialogue at all when listening. >>
If you’re on more of a budget, you can also get some free graded readers here, and more if you follow the links at the bottom of the page. The writing/art quality of them is all over the place, but it’s reading practice regardless.
By level 30 you can probably read Harry Potter. You’ll still need a dictionary, but you should have enough to work with that you aren’t looking up 10 new words in every sentence. You should also probably be familiar with up to N2 grammar as well. N3 might be sufficient, but N2 is definitely better.
Excellent resource! I wish I had known about this a long time ago!
Do you know any grammar? That’s likely going to be more important initially to bootstrap reading.
Wow that’s a great resource! Thank you! I’ve not heard of that site before. Super helpful!
Also look at this dog! He wants to wear a Kimono too!
Maybe we could create a thread for short stories that incorporate a variety of the vocabulary and kanji from each level - as a community?
I often hear people talk about how the Japanese version of Harry Potter has lots of strange translation choices, so I’ve always hesitated to try reading it. I would be interested in hearing examples of them though, if anyone can find anything concrete.
Unrelated, but I find it really cute and funny how Japanese draw dogs eyebrows. It makes them look a bit fierce, but it’s super cute especially when the owner is drawn that way also
It depends how good your grammar is as well. I’m roughly at JLPT N2 level, and I started trying to read Harry Potter last year. I would have been about level 35 in Wanikani at that point. I can struggle through it, but it’s still not easy for me. (Although, that’s probably in large part because I haven’t done enough reading generally!)
Isn’t that just what their eyebrows look like?
It’d be hard to give specific reading recommendations for each level for a few reasons (but pretty much all of them are centered around the fact that WK is a kanji-reading site and not a general Japanese-learning site):
We don’t know how much you’ve been learning or practicing grammar outside of WK, which is a large factor in determining how readable a text will be. (Possibly moreso than kanji, since you can’t just look grammar constructions up on the fly–even though obviously too many unknown kanji are also a deterrent.)
WK isn’t structured around the frequency of its vocabulary, but the difficulty of its kanji, unlike, say, a specifically vocab-focused SRS app (like iKnow and others) might be. This means that there’s a mix of obscure and foundational vocab spread out over all its levels. It’s not a simple step up in complexity each part of the way. (It is for its kanji, but not necessarily the vocab tied to them.)
That said, I’d totally suggest perusing reading material on your own–whether that means graded learners, easy news apps, light novels, or diving in on an even deeper end. I’ll say that in the 30s, kanji should no longer be the biggest hurdle for you in reading. That isn’t to say you’ll be able to comfortably read all adult-level prose in the 30s–it’s just to say that kanji should no longer be the most significant hurdle. (There will be unknown ones, but even most adult-oriented books will still be delivering them at a comfortable n+1 level where the unknowns are less common than the knowns, so you can start to remember them on your own.) So if your grammar and general vocab are sufficient, you can start making your way through. (You can also start making your way through even earlier.)
Also though, just, like, go ahead and try stuff that’s too hard for you. Worst-case scenario, you decide it’s taking too long because you don’t know enough vocab/kanji/gramamar yet (so it’s “too hard” for your current level), and … no loss, you know? You probably learned something and can better gauge your next attempt. There’s no science to this, so get reading.
Edit – But also, after level 1? Yeah; probably graded readers, though you should also just be learning foundational grammar in some way, I guess. For every level under 10, if you’re also just starting with Japanese, most native material is going to provide too big a hurdle in terms of both kanji and vocab to really be useful. I think the most I could say is that I feel like prose without a lot of furigana attached will first start to feel really accessible somewhere around the 20s. And by the 30s–again, if you’ve also been steadily learning grammar and outside vocab–basically anything but extremely complex native prose should feel accessible even if you have to grind through a lot of unknown vocab and lack of comfort with reading native prose in the beginning. But even before that, you can probably tackle younger-skewing light novels that are gentler with all three of word count, kanji and vocab.
Edit edit – I’m actually kind of a bad person to ask about this, now that I think about it, since I read manga in Japanese while below N3 level, and then around N3 level just jumped straight into adult literary prose and ground through it until it started feeling easier. So I skipped graded readers, light novels, etc. But I’m here to say you can do that. All of this was painfully slow at first, full of look-ups and settling for half-understandings, and then slowly that gave way to quicker reading times, fewer look-ups, and full understandings. Language knowledge is one thing, but reading is also just its own skill you have to practice (ideally while taking notes on vocab and phrases to whittle down the number of unknown elements as you continue).
Not really, the drawing looks more angry to me haha. But in saying that, because some shibas do have eyebrow type markings, that’s probably why Japanese draw dogs having eyebrows.
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