Hello. I’ve been learning japanese for the last 5 months. I’ve studied and (so-so) assimilated the half syllabus (grammar points + vocab + kanji) for JLPT 5 level.
I’m curious about when I could start reading some very easy manga (like Yotsuba&!) or story books or elementary school textbooks. A JLPT 5 level with a dictionary would be enough for that or I would wait until get, at least, a JLPT 4 level?
From your experience, when did you start reading manga since you started to learn Japanese?
Do you recommend any specific manga por beginners (besides Yotsuba&!)?
5 comments
You should check out the [Crystal Hunters manga]( https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/80075613 ) directly targeted at people at your level.
I have translated a [comic book taking place in a cyberpunk universe]( https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/102537606 ) into easy Japanese and got it proofread by a native speaker. I have added a [kanji guide]( https://drdru.github.io/return_to_parascythe/kanji_guide.html ) to ease the reading. There are only few pages now but I’d be keen to have your feedback about whether or not people at your level find it to be good reading material.
There is an other easy to read comic [here]( https://tapas.io/episode/2134872 ) that you might want to try.
The last two are at about the Yotsuba&! level so that would give you a good idea about how ready you are for it.
It’s not very clear cut for anything. But I think it’s best to start with things that are realistic. Fantasy will likely have many compound kanji. Anything from jump will have furigana making reading and looking up unknown words simple.
I was reading already from like JLPT N5/N4, some of the very easy ones like Yotsuba.
Read whenever you want. If it’s too hard, you can always put it off.
20 years ago I was an exchange student and lived in Japan at the time but I just picked up a manga that looked interesting to me (it was Detective Conan) and I sat there with a dictionary and looked up almost every word so I could figure out what was going on so it really depends on your dedication level and how much work you’re willing to put into reading it but you can do it at really beginner levels if you want to.