In case you’re wondering when you can start reading in a language you’re studying, I’d say the answer is to just give it a go and find out.
When I was starting out with Japanese I made a list of manga I’d like to give a go eventually (I’m not hugely into manga, but the visuals make them easier for a beginner than books). There were also a bunch of Japanese games I’d eventually like to play in their original language.
So, what I did was find samples of these and simply try them out every once in a while.
For books and comics, you can often read the first few pages on amazon, and for Japanese specifically, you can search for 立ち読み or 試し読み. For games you can likely find a let’s play video and see for yourself what the level of the language is like.
In the beginning it was mostly just gibberish to me, but every time I came back, I could understand a little bit more, until I could eventually understand enough to at least know what was going on. This process is actually pretty rewarding in itself!
Same thing with novels. Complete gibberish the first time I looked at even a supposedly simple book, but a few months later I could suddenly understand what’s going on!
This advice holds in general. If you’re wondering when you can start doing something in your target language (watching movies, speaking, whatever), I’d say the easiest method to find out is to just try. If you fail then try again later!
Adventures in Language Self-Study 