I’ve been living in Japan for years and have N3 level proficiency, aiming to get N2 later this year, but it’s pretty obvious to me I am lacking when it comes to writing, I can read and speak fine but I just don’t have great memory for writing, so should I take some time to get better at it? I can write some kanji like address and basic stuff.
Also how one does study writing? Sorry for being too blunt, I am asking because mostly I type Kanji so almost never write it.
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Most people who ask these questions don’t live in japan…you have direct experience and the ability to ascertain whether or not writing would help you. Why do other people’s opinions matter?
If you already live in Japan and don’t feel a more urgent need to learn to write, then there’s (probably) not much of a point.
If you want to learn to write to round out your skills, then be aware of stroke order rules and check how they apply to kanji you already know. After a while of practicing, the rules will feel more intuitive to the point you’d know exactly how to write a new kanji just by looking at it.
In terms of actual practice methods, I personally choose to write a given kanji or full word only a handful of times **very** slowly and deliberately. I find this more practical and more productive than writing something mindlessly a hundred times because I have to keep the image of the word in my mind longer. This helps especially when learning new kanji. To give you a rough estimate of how slowly I go, here’s a [video](https://youtube.com/shorts/JDiNAHIXl1s?feature=share) of someone writing at a similar pace. Mind you, both I and the channel I linked to do so in the name of penmanship (think “calligraphy, except using regular pens and pencils”), so if that doesn’t matter to you, feel free to speed up to something more comfortable. Also, if aesthetics matter to you at all, look for [proper writing specimens](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%A5%B7%E6%9B%B8%E3%83%9A%E3%83%B3%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AE%E6%89%8B%E6%9C%AC&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjNra-Pu838AhU7MTQIHbglDo4Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=%E6%A5%B7%E6%9B%B8%E3%83%9A%E3%83%B3%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AE%E6%89%8B%E6%9C%AC&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQogQ6BAgjECdQ2g9Y2g9guBFoAHAAeACAAXmIAdsBkgEDMS4xmAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=C_vFY438PLvi0PEPuMu48Ag&bih=906&biw=320&client=ms-android-lge-rvo3&prmd=isvn) and avoid copying from fonts. If fonts are all you’ve got despite Google’s existence, at least opt for 教科書体 ones. Good 楷書 ones are often paid.
You’ll find you’ll need to do handwriting at some point eventually. Example off the top of my head; CVs. Most of the time, CV’s are handwritten on forms you can buy in the convenience store. I’ve had to fill out some forms like this even for part time jobs, and from what I’ve heard, this is partially so that *how* you write can inform them of your character, meaning that clean handwriting, attention to detail, and neat spacing, are skills that can have a tangible effect.
TL;DR: it’s probably worth doing.
I’ve been studying Japanese for 8 years and for the large majority of that time, never learnt how to write properly.
I moved here 6 months ago for a job and have now started to pay more attention to it just so I can be a more functioning working adult. There are definitely other things to work on that are more useful tho.
Sorry for the non-answer, but it mostly depends on you and your goals I guess. You could just dedicate 5 mins a day to practicing if you feel so inclined
That’s up to you and your Japanese language goals.
Writing takes a lot of time and effort. Plenty of people here use that time to work on reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, etc.
Writing will boost your fluency and help with administrative forms. In my language school, graduating students going to Japanese university or trade schools were expected to exceed N2 level (with similar writing and speaking skills which were not tested on the JLPT). At my office, everyone took handwritten notes so it was helpful to fit in, fast, and made it easier to review the notes of others.
I spent a lot of time learning to write and never was particularly good. But I liked studying the writing a lot and it help vocab to stick. I suppose writing a daily diary in pencil would be helpful but that is not my thing.
When in Japan, I never had the pressing need to handwrite anything other than Address/Age/Gender/Nationality for school or government forms. Almost all other written contact was done via LINE or Email.