how long did it take you to learn kanji?

[bigkid44]

I am studying kanji now and want to be able to read everything on a menu, all signs in a city, and read newspapers. How long did it take you to get to that level?

[RadioKid]

Your question is too vague for foreign people to answer. What is the goal of "learning Kanji" ?

Chinese people have 50,000 kanjis (I neither mean "use" nor "know" by "have").

Usual Japanese people would read and understand 3,000 to 5,000 kanjis. Average native Japanese would be able to write 2,000 kanjis.
Japanese High School boys/girls would use 1,500 kanjis.
Japanese children would learn 800 kanjis by age of 12.

Once I asked foreign people in these kind of forum site how many kanjis they learned. I had got various answers and understand below.

1) It is tough to learn first 200 kanjis.
2) After learned 200 kanjis, learning speed will be accelerated.
3) With 800 kanjis learned, you will understand 80% of kanjis used in Japanese daily life.

Therefore, I recommend you to ask "how long does it take to learn first 800 kanjis?".

[Sangetsu]

I have been living in Japan for about 6 years now, and though I can understand menus and street signs, reading a newspaper is difficult. I can get the gist of the story, but miss a bit. Granted, I don't study Japanese all that much, which is something I should take more seriously.

[bigkid44]

Originally Posted by RadioKid

Your question is too vague for foreign people to answer. What is the goal of "learning Kanji" ?

dear RadioKid,

I specified what I meant by "learning Kanji" in the body of my message. Perhaps you only saw the poll question and did not see the message; in that case, I could understand why you would say the question was vague. Thank you for the suggestion to ask how long it takes to learn the first 800.

[bigkid44]

Originally Posted by Sangetsu

I have been living in Japan for about 6 years now, and though I can understand menus and street signs, reading a newspaper is difficult. I can get the gist of the story, but miss a bit. Granted, I don't study Japanese all that much, which is something I should take more seriously.

Thank you for the reply. It's interesting to know that even 6 years of total immersion isn't necessarily enough.

[Wednesday]

Me and my student colleague had Chinese lessons. This is another issue but might interest you. I avoided to exercise hanzi (=kanji) writing and reading. My colleague was very interested and curious. She learned in every occasion. However, at the end, we both remained almost on the same level. She knew how to write more hanzi but our vocabulary and reading partly too were almost the same.

It depends on whether you are a visual learner and disciplined person how long you have to study the basics. For westerners I guess, it's still a big hurdle that needs 8 to 10 years. As RadioKid said, there estimations about the number of characters Japanese people use daily. In a normal Japanese class, I guess, you might learn about 400 to 500 characters. This is a lot.