WaniKani level and manga reading

Japanese Language Reading
1

Aside from grammar, at what level can one expect to be able to start reading teenage-level mangas?

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Probably when you can read upto Grade 6-7 Joyo Kanji, (it is for teensā€¦)
But you can also start whenever you want to, after all you learn by trying. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Itā€™s worth noting that most manga aimed at teenagers has furigana on all words. You can be level 1 in WaniKani and still be able to quickly look up any word. The main advantage of progressing in WaniKani is that you wonā€™t be thrown off looking at text that doesnā€™t have furigana, but if something does have furigana then you can really just jump right in.

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Many manga come with full furigana, so technically you donā€™t need any kanji knowledge at all. Grammar and vocabulary are important, though, and maybe some knowledge about common casual-language contractions (thereā€™s an excellent thread in here).

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At my level, I can read just fine. But since WK only covers a small fraction of vocab, I end up relying on Jisho, either to ē¢ŗčŖ my guess (mostly the case), or if havenā€™t come across the kanji at all. (The furigana makes it easy too)
I did kind of give up reading when I tried to start manga around level 15 because I was relying on jisho way too much. Kind of annoying.
P.S, since I go through japanese articles, PPTs and reports on a daily basis, it gets easier.

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I think i was around lvl 20 when i developed at least a little bit of a flow when attempting to read manga (Yotsubato, One Punch Man).

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Havenā€™t tried manga, but I started reading visual novels at around level 20. Even if I would still expect to encounter around 2000+ different kanji in a particular text/work, with how easy it is to hook text up and look up meaning + reading, I donā€™t think you should know all kanji before starting to read ( in fact, I think itā€™s very beneficial to start reading to internalize new and studied kanji, along with vocabulary ). Stuff from Key (Clannad, Little Busters, Summer Pockets) has generally straight forward grammar with lots of common words.

Iā€™ve read that some people recommend knowing the 500 most common kanji before starting to read since youā€™re going to encounter those the most ( also with around 500 you can expect to know about 2k words as well ).

You could also try graded reading first, then switch over to manga. Also hereā€™s a few links to some websites that rank manga/anime/vns/lns based on difficulty.

Donā€™t get discouraged by difficulty however, itā€™s better to read something with a grade of 4/5 that you enjoy, rather than something boring with 1. But on the other hand, donā€™t go into very difficult works expecting to have fun having to look up every other word. Always make sure you prioritize motivation :slight_smile: ( difficulty is also subjective so keep that in mind as well )

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Wow! Thank you so much, everybody! Really helpful insights! Guess I just have to brave through and move ahead!
Cheers!

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I found success around 29~30ish :kissing:

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