I’m casually learning how to read and write because I plan on going on a trip in about 2 years, loved the culture since I was in middle school but didnt have the drive to learn it while also learning Spanish (I should’ve learned as a kid but didn’t) and Norsk.
Long story short my handwriting has always been horrible even with the 26 letter alphabet, how important is perfect writing in this language and how long did it take you guys to get someone decent at it?
I do use my notebook to practice but the characters constantly feel off to me when I look back lol.
3 comments
[removed]
> how important is perfect writing in this language
Writing by hand can take an enormous amount of practice and it is not really essential in most cases due to mobile phones and computers being so ubiquitous.
It also seems like you are new enough to the language to not know (and, consequently) realize the herculean task that is learning *kanji* – the third and most important script in Japanese. There are aspects to this third script that make it quite a pain in the rear to learn. There are things to appreciate about it, sure, but make no mistake: *kanji* is **hard**.
Learning to write *kanji* by hand is a worthy goal and certainly admirable but it is absolutely not a necessity. Being able to recognize *kanji* is a smaller more manageable goal and it is definitely enough.
Only learning to write *hiragana* and *katakana* will not get you far no matter how beautifully you write.
> how long did it take you guys to get someone decent at it?
*Hiragana* and *katakana* took me a few months (3-4) to write really smoothly. I can write reasonably quickly and well. For *kanji*, well, let’s say it’s a work in progress. I can write some characters, recognize but not write others and not even recognize the rest. I’ve been learning on and off for almost 9 years. I have terrible memory for *kanji* but my handwriting has always been pretty good.
writing should be the last to learn, first and most important is understanding and listening to the language, then comes speaking it and reading it and last comes writing, which will be like nothing if you completed the other steps before. on a trip you wont need any writing at all, understanding, speaking and reading are important