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Wikipedia level - cophnia61 - 2014-08-23
In an old thread I read Wikipedia is about N2 level in terms of grammar. Can someone confirm this?
Another thing: I like to read wikipedia both in my L1 and in english, what about you? I'm struggling to find some wikipedia articles with easy vocabulary. Someone has some wikipedia page to reccomend? Like things with everyday vocabulary, if they exist...
Wikipedia level - Kuzunoha13 - 2014-08-23
A lot of pages I browse in Wikipedia simply don't exist in English, or have noticeably less information, unfortunately. I'd imagine even simple articles (take "Dog", for instance) would eventually begin to incorporate scientific terms and words requiring knowledge from several different fields. Maybe if you looked up a famous singer or something, it wouldn't be as bad, though.
I'd recommend Yotsuba&, if you haven't been through it already.
Wikipedia level - gaiaslastlaugh - 2014-08-23
For the most part I think that's right. If you can read news, you can likely slog your way through a Wikipedia page.
It's less the grammar that will get you and more the vocabulary, though. Wikipedia writing tends to feel a little more formal, and sometimes favors kanji compounds over simpler, more common words. Once you start getting into historical articles, it gets even harder, as you'll run into a ton of personal names and place names that you can't easily sound out.
I found this article on 甲州弁 an easy (and brief) read: http://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%B2%E5%B7%9E%E5%BC%81. The article on スイカ割りis also a fun little easy read: http://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AB%E5%89%B2%E3%82%8A
By contrast, the entry on 新しい歴史教科書をつくる会 takes me a bit more effort: http://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E3%81%97%E3%81%84%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E6%95%99%E7%A7%91%E6%9B%B8%E3%82%92%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B%E4%BC%9A. But I guess that's to be expected.
If you find a subject that really interests you, I suggest starting with one of the pages and mining its vocabulary. I've started doing this by bringing articles into Midori, and creating Bookmark lists for the words in that article that I don't know. Once you start to learn the common words used for a particular subject (e.g., Buddhism), other articles in the same wheelhouse become easier to grok.