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There are many different numbers thrown around when it comes to discussing the number of Kanji characters a Japanese language learner should be familiar with in order to obtain fluency. During the first six years of school, Japanese students are taught a whopping 1006 different Kanji characters called the 「教育漢字」or “Kyouiku Kanji”. Many learners choose to follow this learning schedule, where each year has its own dedicated number of Kanji characters, slowly increasing more and more every year. Source

After graduating from elementary school Kanji, we can then move on to the 1130 Kanji characters Japanese students learn in middle and high school. Combining all of these Kanji characters will give you the 「常用漢字」or “Jouyou Kanji”. These 2136 Kanji characters are determined by the Japanese government as the “daily life Kanji”, and are needed for daily life in Japan. Source

JapanBFF also cites needing to know about 1200 Kanji characters to be able to confidently read the newspaper, but as many as 2000 to be fluent. Source

But, for those of us who study Japanese while living abroad, is this timeline worth following? Not just Kanji, Japanese language learners also need to learn Hiragana and Katakana, vocabulary, listening skills, speaking skills… The list goes on and on. While sure, some of these things can be studied in tandem—learning Kanji compound words increases your vocabulary, for example—learners need to be constantly working on improving everything. For a lot of us, this isn’t exactly an easy feat. 

What do I focus on?

If you’re an avid reader like me, you probably have a rather impressive vocabulary. But, if you’re like me, you may not be able to accurately use all of your vocabulary. Spending all of your time working on reading may allow your writing abilities to deteriorate. Personally, I’m really only confident about my reading skills. Even when reading stories out loud, I worry about the quality of my accent. Having no Japanese people around me to mimic, I can only do my best.

Furthermore, learners best retain the language they most often see. As I’m a big fan of fantasy series, my vocabulary quickly grew to be very impressive, in my opinion. I could understand complex Kanji compound words at an early time in my studies—words like 消極的、柔和、消化器官 came to me, and stuck with me, rather easily. Because I was only exposed to series that discussed fantastical topics though, I had difficulties understanding more commonly used words—I couldn’t understand words like 歯磨き、飛び降りる、or シャワー浴びる. 

How strange I must have seemed, being able to understand a passage about a man getting stabbed through his digestive organs, but not being able to understand a passage about a girl brushing her teeth before bed. When I realized I didn’t know these simple words I tried to study them, but because I wasn’t exposed to them as much as other vocabulary, many just didn’t stick. Sure maybe if I lived in Japan with a Japanese family during this time in my life I would have likely had these common phrases down pat, but that wasn’t my situation. 

I found the more I tried to focus on memorizing the words that I felt I should know but didn’t, the more I forgot all of the more difficult words that came to me so easily. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t win. For a long time this caused a lot of frustration for me, and I spent the majority of my free time studying Kanji and vocabulary. Eventually I had to slow down—as a University student, I couldn’t exactly devote all of my time to studying Japanese. So, I ended up going back to my original study method of reading whatever interested me. While this meant that I would probably not learn a good amount of commonly used phrases for a while, or maybe ever,  it did allow me to pick up a decent amount of vocabulary without much difficulty. Because I was interested in what I was reading, it was a lot easier for me to retain many of the new Kanji characters and phrases that I came across. If a particularly difficult Kanji character or compound word gave me grief—looking at you, 五月蝿い—I would come to memorize it out of sheer spite. Eventually, as time went on, I would slowly also come to obtain many of those commonly used phrases that I originally had such difficulty with. 

Even now, many years into my Japanese learning journey, I have probably forgotten more than I currently understand. I don’t dwell on this all that much, as I’m much too busy reading and learning new words. Even if I encounter a word that I’ve forgotten once or twice, it takes a lot less time to learn it the second or third time around. Rather than treating it as an entirely new addition to my lexicon, I just treat it as a bit of needed review. It’s okay if I forget it again, as the next time I’ll surely pick it up even faster.

The moral of this post, what I most want to express is this: don’t feel discouraged if you feel as though you’ve forgotten much of what you’ve studied. You probably understand a lot more than you realize, and your efforts are never in vain! The more you memorize Kanji characters, the easier it becomes. So, even if you’ve forgotten one specific character, your efforts are still making your learning journey that much easier.