So for 2-3 years I have been using flash cards to get to 1000 kanji and then switch for full immersion and extrapolate meaning with some dictionary. I only know around 150 kanji.

This method already worked for english and russian but without flash cards part. I learned first 1000 words + grammar in school by osmosis thorough textbooks.

My routine is 30 min a day for two weeks and then 2 week break due to boredom or some other factor. It makes my backlog huge and discouraging and my retention seems terrible (60-70%)

For the past 6 month I didn’t make any new flashcards to remember. only reviews of old ones.

Do y’all have some better method to get to 1000 kanji inefficiently? Because it seems efficient method doesn’t work for me.

  • cobysevEnglish
    2•2 months ago

    A friend mentioned to me that Japanese children have to take a school test at a certain age to prove their kanji proficiency.

    I lived in Japan for a few years in the early 2000s. According to my Japanese coworkers, school children are given 100-200 Kanji to memorize by the end of the school year, where they’ll be tested on them. This goes on every year, from their equivalent of K-12th grades. By the time they’re ready for college, they should know enough Kanji to be proficient in reading/writing.

    Supposedly, the average Japanese person knows between 2,000 and 5,000 Kanji off the top of their head, so either my coworkers low-balled the number, or Japanese people continue learning Kanji through college and into adulthood.