Kanji isn't hard. Everything else is.
I don't want to call this a misconception. I wouldn't say that Kanji isn't "easy". I mean, there are Japanese who struggle with them. After learning them for over a decade in school.
So, where do I get off saying that they aren't hard?
Comparatively.
The writing systems are the least of your concerns. Hiragana and Katakana can be learned in days. Kanji can be sufficiently dealt with in a few months. Vocab and grammar can take years.
But, it isn't just that vocab and grammar take years.
On a social media platform I'm on with other language learners, a student who had recently completed a Kanji deck based on Heisig's RTK approach noted that after diving into their second vocab deck they were struggling to remember any of them.
And, as I thought about, I had similar problems. I slogged through, but eventually finished the Kanji deck. I ripped through a deck with the top 1k vocab words. Started on the top 2k and hit a wall for a while.
Vocab is so much more meaningful and relevant than Kanji. Yet, I decimated 2k Kanji and was struggling to master that same amount in vocab. And, most of those vocab consisted of those same 2k Kanji. So, why the hell would I feel like assimilating the same volume of vocab is more difficult?
Simple. Because Kanji is hard, and everyone knows it.
Basically, Kanji is this giant multi-headed hydra we must all defeat. It is scary. It is intimidating. It is a very reasonable barrier to learning Japanese. But, anyone who wants to teach Japanese, either as a passion or to earn money KNOWS this. And thus were born systems like WaniKani, and Heisig's RTK and an army of offshoots. Those systems are good. VERY GOOD. Perhaps even TOO good.
When I finally sucked it up and started learning Kanji with a Heisig's like approach, the deck was ordered. I basically learned primitives (smaller Kanji that larger ones are based upon first). I learned these with complex stories. And each new Kanji was either a new primitive, a new Kanji composed of prior Kanji or primitives or just a new freak Kanji which was a one off to remember. Every Anki flash card also had multiple pre-existing stories to help remember the Kanji, and promoted me to make my own as well. And, there were numerous other tips and tricks.
You know what I had when I hit vocab? A deck with 2 cards for each vocab point. One with just the word along with the reading and meaning on the other side, and another with an arbitrary sentence containing the word. Both had audio clips as well. THAT. IS. ALL.
Yes, vocab is inherently more useful and contextual than a Kanji by it's lonesome. But, those Kanji cards have a lot more context coming along for the ride. Almost every new card builds upon cards you already learned in a meaningful way. The multiple Kanji stories reinforce the meanings of both the old related cards and the new card to cement them in your memory. And, if you're in there reading the predefined stories already, it is super easy to choose one you think will stick, or come up with your own.
Vocab has none of that. Especially since most decks are trying to be useful, they don't build upon themselves in the same way. Oh, and 2k Kanji? Vocab is several times bigger.
Basically, I think if you took 2 decks. Each with 2k cards. One with Kanji and one with vocab and both with the same amount of context and randomized them, the vocab deck would be easier than the Kanji deck. But the real world isn't like that.
My vocab at the moment in Japanese is probably around 6k words. It may be a little less, or a lot more. I'm only getting to the point where that knowledge is really synergistic on a somewhat regular basis now. I'd have intermittent flashes of it maybe back around the 4k mark. And, what is actually causing the progress is actually all of the fluff methods like Heisig's teach you to skip, like learning the various readings and how they are used.
Now, I totally agree with the RTK method and focusing on meaning over things like reading. I'm at this point after just 2 years of fairly casual learning. Versus over a decade for native learners.
And this only reinforces my point. I'm getting better at the language largely because my Kanji foundation is increasing. Without actually being immersed in the culture, it turns out Kanji is probably amongst the most useful tools in your arsenal. If I had stretched my Kanji learning out to, say, 1 year instead of 3 months, slowed down the pace, mixed in the most common reading or 2 and some sample words, I might actually be further along in my vocab. Because, ultimately, at this stage in my learning, vocab is actually more about tying the words back to the Kanji, how the Kanji sound, and what they "mean".
For instance, 症状 was absolutely meaningless to me as しょうじょう (shoujou). My vocab is 6k+ frickin' words. I'm in my mid thirties learning a new language. I don't actually live in Japan. I'm NEVER going to brute force that into my head as "symptoms". That isn't even a word I used all that commonly in English. BUT. 状態 and 現状 and 状況 all contain that second Kanji with the EXACT same reading. And, they all deal with the status of things. And that first Kanji, is the same as in 炎症 and 花粉症 which are inflammation and hay-fever... so both medical related things.
It turns out, it is a LOT easier to tie vocab words back to their Kanji via the readings and work out the meaning from there than it is to try and force the word right into your head.
I'm not saying that if I knew those Kanji had those readings and their respective meanings that I would see that word for the first time and be able to determine it was "symptoms". In fact, I probably would have guessed it as "the state of an illness" or some such thing. But, between the reading which I can associate with other words with the same Kanji and readings, and the meanings of the Kanji I'm basically using the using the Kanji map that data out in much the same way that the Kanji was taught to me in the first place.
In short, while Kanji is not trivial, it is small in the grand scheme of things. And there are many who have gone before and come up with clever tricks to help. And chances are, one of those clever tricks will work for you as well. But, vocab is only useful in context, so it doesn't benefit from the structured approaches that work with Kanji.
And, if I ever come across 狭心症 or say 病状 I'll likely recall 症状 and it's meaning. So, even though I don't have much need to ever use the word "symptoms" I can find reasons to recall it in my learning to help me figure out how to say and perhaps even discern the meanings of words like "heart attack" and "pathology" respectively.
It is Kanji which enables me to make those connections. And, learning that Kanji took just three months. Well over a year after I'm still acquiring vocab, and I'm probably still not even conversational in Japanese.
So, yeah. Kanji isn't as hard as you might fear.
So, where do I get off saying that they aren't hard?
Comparatively.
The writing systems are the least of your concerns. Hiragana and Katakana can be learned in days. Kanji can be sufficiently dealt with in a few months. Vocab and grammar can take years.
But, it isn't just that vocab and grammar take years.
On a social media platform I'm on with other language learners, a student who had recently completed a Kanji deck based on Heisig's RTK approach noted that after diving into their second vocab deck they were struggling to remember any of them.
And, as I thought about, I had similar problems. I slogged through, but eventually finished the Kanji deck. I ripped through a deck with the top 1k vocab words. Started on the top 2k and hit a wall for a while.
Vocab is so much more meaningful and relevant than Kanji. Yet, I decimated 2k Kanji and was struggling to master that same amount in vocab. And, most of those vocab consisted of those same 2k Kanji. So, why the hell would I feel like assimilating the same volume of vocab is more difficult?
Simple. Because Kanji is hard, and everyone knows it.
Basically, Kanji is this giant multi-headed hydra we must all defeat. It is scary. It is intimidating. It is a very reasonable barrier to learning Japanese. But, anyone who wants to teach Japanese, either as a passion or to earn money KNOWS this. And thus were born systems like WaniKani, and Heisig's RTK and an army of offshoots. Those systems are good. VERY GOOD. Perhaps even TOO good.
When I finally sucked it up and started learning Kanji with a Heisig's like approach, the deck was ordered. I basically learned primitives (smaller Kanji that larger ones are based upon first). I learned these with complex stories. And each new Kanji was either a new primitive, a new Kanji composed of prior Kanji or primitives or just a new freak Kanji which was a one off to remember. Every Anki flash card also had multiple pre-existing stories to help remember the Kanji, and promoted me to make my own as well. And, there were numerous other tips and tricks.
You know what I had when I hit vocab? A deck with 2 cards for each vocab point. One with just the word along with the reading and meaning on the other side, and another with an arbitrary sentence containing the word. Both had audio clips as well. THAT. IS. ALL.
Yes, vocab is inherently more useful and contextual than a Kanji by it's lonesome. But, those Kanji cards have a lot more context coming along for the ride. Almost every new card builds upon cards you already learned in a meaningful way. The multiple Kanji stories reinforce the meanings of both the old related cards and the new card to cement them in your memory. And, if you're in there reading the predefined stories already, it is super easy to choose one you think will stick, or come up with your own.
Vocab has none of that. Especially since most decks are trying to be useful, they don't build upon themselves in the same way. Oh, and 2k Kanji? Vocab is several times bigger.
Basically, I think if you took 2 decks. Each with 2k cards. One with Kanji and one with vocab and both with the same amount of context and randomized them, the vocab deck would be easier than the Kanji deck. But the real world isn't like that.
My vocab at the moment in Japanese is probably around 6k words. It may be a little less, or a lot more. I'm only getting to the point where that knowledge is really synergistic on a somewhat regular basis now. I'd have intermittent flashes of it maybe back around the 4k mark. And, what is actually causing the progress is actually all of the fluff methods like Heisig's teach you to skip, like learning the various readings and how they are used.
Now, I totally agree with the RTK method and focusing on meaning over things like reading. I'm at this point after just 2 years of fairly casual learning. Versus over a decade for native learners.
And this only reinforces my point. I'm getting better at the language largely because my Kanji foundation is increasing. Without actually being immersed in the culture, it turns out Kanji is probably amongst the most useful tools in your arsenal. If I had stretched my Kanji learning out to, say, 1 year instead of 3 months, slowed down the pace, mixed in the most common reading or 2 and some sample words, I might actually be further along in my vocab. Because, ultimately, at this stage in my learning, vocab is actually more about tying the words back to the Kanji, how the Kanji sound, and what they "mean".
For instance, 症状 was absolutely meaningless to me as しょうじょう (shoujou). My vocab is 6k+ frickin' words. I'm in my mid thirties learning a new language. I don't actually live in Japan. I'm NEVER going to brute force that into my head as "symptoms". That isn't even a word I used all that commonly in English. BUT. 状態 and 現状 and 状況 all contain that second Kanji with the EXACT same reading. And, they all deal with the status of things. And that first Kanji, is the same as in 炎症 and 花粉症 which are inflammation and hay-fever... so both medical related things.
It turns out, it is a LOT easier to tie vocab words back to their Kanji via the readings and work out the meaning from there than it is to try and force the word right into your head.
I'm not saying that if I knew those Kanji had those readings and their respective meanings that I would see that word for the first time and be able to determine it was "symptoms". In fact, I probably would have guessed it as "the state of an illness" or some such thing. But, between the reading which I can associate with other words with the same Kanji and readings, and the meanings of the Kanji I'm basically using the using the Kanji map that data out in much the same way that the Kanji was taught to me in the first place.
In short, while Kanji is not trivial, it is small in the grand scheme of things. And there are many who have gone before and come up with clever tricks to help. And chances are, one of those clever tricks will work for you as well. But, vocab is only useful in context, so it doesn't benefit from the structured approaches that work with Kanji.
And, if I ever come across 狭心症 or say 病状 I'll likely recall 症状 and it's meaning. So, even though I don't have much need to ever use the word "symptoms" I can find reasons to recall it in my learning to help me figure out how to say and perhaps even discern the meanings of words like "heart attack" and "pathology" respectively.
It is Kanji which enables me to make those connections. And, learning that Kanji took just three months. Well over a year after I'm still acquiring vocab, and I'm probably still not even conversational in Japanese.
So, yeah. Kanji isn't as hard as you might fear.
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