Got to level 60 - Can you read a Japanese Newspaper?

[sblevine]

Those of you who got to level 60 - Give us underlings some motivation, please.

Are you now able to:

Read a Japanese newspaper?
Read an (adult level) book?
Walk around Japan and understand all the signage? (carona exception here)

How problematic is it for you that Wanikani didn’t teach all of the readings of the kanji?

Thanks
Stuart

[Leebo]

Disclaimer: I previously was level 60

Reading comprehension depends far more on grammar and vocabulary knowledge than kanji knowledge, but reading the kind of stuff you’re talking about at all is very cumbersome without kanji knowledge.

@sblevine

How problematic is it for you that Wanikani didn’t teach all of the readings of the kanji?

You will certainly encounter lots of readings you didn’t learn here. But you’ll be well-equipped to figure them out, because you won’t have to waste time trying to figure out what kanji you’re even looking at.

[UInt2048]

@jprspereira

See how many people are behind you. See how far you’ve come. Really great job But now, what are your plans? Yes, your plans. Plans for what? For what’s coming next! You didn’t think you’d get to level 60 and be fluent, did you?

Here’s my story after reaching level 60:

I got comfortable, very comfortable. By this point, my weakest point was vocabulary but for that I could just do a quick google search. In terms of grammar, I was with a very solid N3. I was able to chat with my Japanese friends with barely any other difficulty besides slow typing. On the other hand, I didn’t have a strong sense of direction in terms of where to go next. My main goal was Wanikani in 1 year, I’ve made it, but then I got lost for 3 months. For 3 months, I didn’t know what to do next. This is precisely the reason why it took me 3 months to actually write this Guide. Japanese wasn’t captivating anymore. The thing is… I wasn’t burned out. I was simply lacking specific goals in my journey to learn Japanese.

This is why I advised you to make your studies broader and to start focusing on something other than kanji on the chapter “The level 30 syndrome”. That is also why it’s important to do a Level 60 celebration thread for yourself in order to organize your ideas and next steps.

Realize that the journey is far from being over.

You can rest and celebrate, but start nibbling on new stuff. Find your missing piece of the puzzle. Gradually, dedicate more time to it. Remember, you started learning Japanese because this challenge attracted you. Remind yourself of that exact attraction. Remind yourself of how it feels. Move forward

Maybe check out the Ultimate Guide if you haven’t… good stuff in there!

[Madmonkey]

Disclaimer: not level 60 yet, but I’m getting darn close

I’ve started reading in earnest much more lately. It’s pretty much like what @leebo said, reading comprehension depends a lot on your grammar and vocab knowledge. That said, when I’m reading now, it goes infinitely more smooth than it used to. I recognize most of the kanji I see and it just is one less thing I have to worry about. It allows me to spend less time on word lookups and focus more on deconstructing the grammar before me. For grammar itself, I went through the Genki books a while ago, but I would highly recommend the Cure Dolly Grammar serious. Once you get past the vtuber schtick, the information is super valuable.

Best of luck to your studies and I hope to see you around the forums for a while to come!

[ren_grantz]

Disclaimer: I’m nearly level 60 (trying to finish level 59 lessons at the moment)

@sblevine

Read a Japanese newspaper?

I’ll confess: I don’t read Japanese news so I really don’t know. I used to read NHK news easy when I was in level 20s but it got boring because I’m not particularly interested in what’s happening on Japan (and even in my own country, I just don’t care much…)

@sblevine

Read an (adult level) book?

Yes, I can. Not as smooth as how I read texts in English, but still far better than when I was at teens level. Well, I still need a dictionary specially on words I don’t encounter much. I like reading fantasy or supernatural ones, so I tend to really search a lot of words because the only core vocabulary I know a lot of is about daily normal lives context (about high school, classroom setting, simple salary man life, household chores stuff like that.)

@sblevine

Walk around Japan and understand all the signage? (carona exception here)

I don’t know, since I don’t really plan to go to Japan. But my guess is no, I can’t read all signages with confidence. But guessing from the signages I see in anime, I can probably read about 60% of them (rough estimate)

@sblevine

How problematic is it for you that Wanikani didn’t teach all of the readings of the kanji?

I can’t really tell since I’m the type of person who can memorize more of the vocab meaning and reading than memorizing kanji meaning and reading. I’d rather hammer a kanji reading from vocabularies, and not vice versa. So after I finish WK, I’ll switch on SRS focusing on vocabularies because I find it much efficient

Good luck on your journey! The early levels are the time where you still figure out how to balance WK, other SRS apps for Japanese learning, or if you need to jump start immersion.