Hello , I was wondering how much Kanji is necessary for learning Japanese and if it’s necessary for writing or anything in particular?
Also is there a script I should focus the most on or that is the most prevalent in the language? Ex:Kana/Kanji/Katakana.
I already know Korean at an advance level but there’s only one script in Korean.
Thanks.
4 comments
This is a very common question. Answers to your questions in order- most people do 2000 beginner Kanji, but with language you are constantly learning. You’re probably still learning new words in your native language. Yes, Kanji is necessary for writing and reading Japanese. You should learn both Katakana (used for loan words), Hiragana (japanese words), and start learning some Kanji to work your way up to the 2000. Hiragana and Katakana are easy, and should be your first step in learning japanese. You can likely complete it with a month or so of study.
You need all 3. The general guide is to learn hiragana, then katakana, then kanji (though unless something like Heisig’s method works well for you, as part of building out your vocabulary instead of focusing heavily on individual characters). The nominal target for literacy is the jouyou kanji list (2136 characters).
This is asked fairly frequently on this sub.
>I was wondering how much Kanji is necessary for learning Japanese and if it’s necessary for writing or anything in particular?
How much you need to know depends what level of Japanese you want to reach. Usually a bit over 2000 will cover most of it, but sometimes you need more or less. You will still be able to read some Japanese wil far less than 2000, so you don’t have to first learn 2000 kanji, then start reading and doing other learning.
>Also is there a script I should focus the most on or that is the most prevalent in the language? Ex:Kana/Kanji/Katakana.
So just to clarify. Katakana is one of the Kana. The other is Hiragana.
You should learn all. Katakana is used slightly less, mostly for foreign words, emphasis, pronunciation, but it’s fairly easy to learn. Hiragana and Kanji are used together.
You can learn hiragana and katakana to start, and then learn kanji as you go – there’s no need to try and learn a bunch before you begin studying grammar and vocabulary etc. as most beginner textbooks will introduce kanji gradually as part of the course.