Tobira Gateway to Advanced Japanese Learning through Content and Multimedia assumes 297 kanji are already learned by its potential readers. Tobira presents many words using these kanji without furigana. Learning the statistically most common kanji on- and kun-readings through WaniKani makes Tobira more accessible.
The following table shows what percentage of these prerequisite kanji are covered at particular WaniKani levels:
Level 5: 40%
Level 10: 76%
Level 15: 92%
Level 20: 97%
Only nine prerequisite kanji are introduced by WaniKani after level 20: 職違質授痛貸婚汚遅. The other 277 required kanji are covered in the first 20 levels.
The following snippet, with furigana as provided in Tobira, is extracted from page 5 of the textbook：
日本には、４７の都道府県（一都、一道、二府、四十三県）があります。一都は東京都（首都 ）、一道は北海道、二府は大阪 府と京都府で、その他 は、静岡 県や広島 県のように全部、県です。静岡県はお茶や富士山 で有名で、広島県には戦争 の恐 ろしさと平和の大切さを伝える原爆 ドームがあります。
Working through level 20 on WaniKani will not give language students the ability to know all vocabulary in the above text. However, they will be able to make good guesses at how to read words such as 都道府県 and use online dictionaries like Jisho. Several words with furigana included by Tobira, such as 他, 大阪, 広島, and 戦争, should be known by WaniKani users at level 20. If Tobira is a gateway to advanced Japanese, then WaniKani is a great tool to develop vocabulary and reading skills needed to pass through that gateway.
The above percentage data was derived from output of a JavaScript program, wktobira.js, which maps Tobira prerequisite kanji to WaniKani levels and is an example of using the WaniKani Web API.
Quarantine and working from home because of COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for me to take up Japanese again. I studied Japanese for years in high school and college, but I was unable to consume media intended for a Japanese audience. I hope that I can practice reading Kanji with posts like these.
This is the first post in which I try to translate snippets of technology articles written in Japanese. I hope that I can provide translations for longer snippets as my Japanese language skills improve. The following snippet is from Let’s Manipulate the Raspberry Pi GPIO Ports Using C# by Ken Takae:
C#と言 えば、Windows環境 だけと思 われがちですが、.Net CoreをLinux環境にインストールすれば、C#で開発 したアプリケーションが動作 します。また、Raspberry Pi（ラズベリーパイ）でも、C#を使 ってIoT開発を行 うことができます。
My translation:
Although when speaking of C# one tends to think about only the Windows environment, if .Net Core is installed in the Linux environment, applications developed in C# operate [in the Linux environment]. Moreover, even with a Raspberry Pi, it is possible to use C# and carry out IoT development.
Notes:
～がち: a suffix to express an undesirable tendency in someone or something. Formed by Verb-masuがちだ or Nounがちだ.