# 2000 kanji in 6 months (learning how to write) **URL:** \ **Category:** Japanese Language\ **Created:** [February 18, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228 "2019-02-18T18:41:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![heisamaniac](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/heisamaniac/32/184098_2.png) [@heisamaniac](https://community.wanikani.com/u/heisamaniac)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/1 "2019-02-18T18:41:26Z")
![IMG_1057](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/0/b/0b951afcd8e6c1f63b48067fc233a0fb42dfc79b.jpeg) **Spoiler: Learning how to write was so much easier after knowing how to read** Last summer I had a conversation with a Japanese woman in a hotel lobby. While on the topic of kanji, she asked me: _- Are you able to write the kanji that you can read?"_ _- Oh.. no, I’m currently only focusing on learning how to read. Besides, Japanese people have told me that writing by hand is very rare nowadays and if you’re able to write using a keyboard, that’s all you’ll need."_ _- Well, I think that you should learn how to write someday because it is still good to know…"_ I remember thinking to myself “yeah right, maybe when I’m fluent and bored with other aspects of Japanese I’ll consider it”. But somehow, this small comment that she made stuck with me and shortly afterwards I embarked on my journey towards being able to handwrite 2000 kanji. Why 2000? Cause that’s the lovely round number that’s being thrown around everywhere. I sat down and literally spent two full days creating an anki deck that would make the process as smooth and pain free as possible. I managed to accomplish my goal in **6 months** by adding **10 new kanji** to my review pile **everyday** (〜45min studying a day). **!DISCLAIMER!** I already knew how to read 2000+ kanji before starting and my vocab knowledge was around 10k words. I found it to be a much more pleasant experience learning how to write after actually being familiar with what I wanted to put down on paper. > **THE DECK** > > I came up with a method that I had yet to encounter and decided to give it a shot. Maybe a deck like this exists somewhere already but I haven’t come across one so far. Feel free to make your own. > > - I grabbed 3 vocab words (from wanikani) for each kanji > - Replaced the requested kanji with its kana version > - Kanji and stroke order diagram on the back > > ![12](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/a/f/afd09e353a853b50f7989feb22177126ddaa5aea.png) > > This forces you to recall on your own while quickly giving you clear clues regarding which kanji is being asked for + there’s no English translations involved. You’re doing it all in Japanese. > > You can also go full kana in the front and highlight the requested kanji if you want. **ぜっ** たい instead of ぜっ対 when asking for 絶. > > My deck currently consists of all the kanji taught by WaniKani while also including others that I have encountered in the wild accumulating a total of 2239 kanji. I am not sure if I will post the deck for public use since it is deeply tied to WaniKani’s way of ordering kanji and there might be copyright laws concerning the matter. > **THE ROUTINE** > > - I get up 1 hour earlier every morning to do my writing practice. I found that practising in the evening was less effective since my accuracy would drop if I had a tough day and came home exhausted. > - I write in a notebook with square pattern in order to easily balance the kanji > - I usually only write down the words on the front of the card once and then move on to the next card. > - If feel that I can’t write the kanji comfortably, I write the words once more. > - Around 45min every day > > ![IMG_6317](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/4/3/43874de4747471fdc56c290a8a35d2062148e3a2.jpeg) > **PROS AND CONS** > > ## Pros > > - You get much better at distinguishing between similar looking kanji 緑 縁 > - You can write letters, take physical notes, fill out forms, etc > - Look up words in dictionaries using stroke order, writing them down, etc > - It becomes easier to read handwritten Japanese > > ## Cons > > - Rather time consuming > - Not incredibly necessary skill to learn (can get by with kana + using phone dictionary) > - Frustrating at times > - Low sense of reward as you go I must say that after learning 1500 commonly used kanji, learning the rest of the 500 felt like a chore and a waste of time. The kanji became more obscure and even my Japanese friend saw what I was practising and said: _“Wow, there are so many kanji here that I can’t even write… 頑張って”_ We all know that even Japanese people have trouble remembering how to write all the kanji they were taught in school and I’m also fine with forgetting a lot of them. But at least when I google a kanji that I’ve forgotten, I’ll be able to remember it with just a quick glance. I am extremely proud of myself due to the fact that I managed to go through with the daunting task of writing kanji and I can finally remove it from my list of future things to deal with. If you are wondering whether you should be practising handwriting or not I say give it some time and don’t rush it. You can start once you are able to read and that’s ok. I attempted to learn handwriting alongside reading and it was just far to slow and painful for me. new character, new meaning, new kun- and onyomi, learning a stroke order + the vocab 🤯 **Learning how to write was so much easier after knowing how to read** ---
**Author:** ![Kumirei](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/kumirei/32/480522_2.png) [@Kumirei](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Kumirei)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/2 "2019-02-18T18:52:20Z")
Bookmarking this. It’s really fun to learn to write, I think, but I agree that doing it afterwards makes much more sense. I’ll use this deck after I finish wk. ---
**Author:** ![plantron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/plantron/32/783203_2.png) [@plantron](https://community.wanikani.com/u/plantron)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/3 "2019-02-18T18:54:32Z")
> [@heisamaniac](#): > > _“Wow, there are so many kanji here that I can’t even write… 頑張って”_ A lot of times a (dedicated) learner of a foreign language knows more about the language than a native speaker. We still make mistakes when speaking/writing but we know more about terms such as transitive/intransitive verbs, past/present participle, volitional form, etc. just to mention examples from European languages. And in the case of Japanese I guess being able to pass JLPT 1 or Kanken 1, being able to handwrite all Joyo kanji, etc. ---
**Author:** ![NathaLire](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nathalire/32/287662_2.png) [@NathaLire](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NathaLire)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/4 "2019-02-18T18:59:10Z")
> [@heisamaniac](#): > > I get up 1 hour earlier every morning to do my writing practice. I found that practising in the evening was less effective since my accuracy would drop if I had a tough day and came home exhausted. I love everything about this post but this is my favorite part. I often sleep in and I feel like I’m wasting a lot of time. After finishing wanikani (will take some time still) I want to try this too. Thank you for this! ---
**Author:** ![irrelephant](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/irrelephant/32/69530_2.png) [@irrelephant](https://community.wanikani.com/u/irrelephant)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/5 "2019-02-18T19:01:47Z")
> [@heisamaniac](#): > > I am not sure if I will post the deck for public use since it is deeply tied to WaniKani’s way of ordering kanji and there might be copyright laws concerning the matter. I could swear I read somewhere here that they don’t mind WaniKani based decks but maybe that was just wishful thinking. ---
**Author:** ![plantron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/plantron/32/783203_2.png) [@plantron](https://community.wanikani.com/u/plantron)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/6 "2019-02-18T19:11:39Z")
> [@NathaLire](#): > > I often sleep in and I feel like I’m wasting a lot of time. I often sleep in and that’s the best part of my day 😭 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/a/c/ac249f4a90a9cdd7427ba5a0dedbe9a56b32fad8.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![NathaLire](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nathalire/32/287662_2.png) [@NathaLire](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NathaLire)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/7 "2019-02-18T19:14:35Z")
I know😭 I can’t believe how light this picture is at 6am ---
**Author:** ![abdullahalt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/abdullahalt/32/195998_2.png) [@abdullahalt](https://community.wanikani.com/u/abdullahalt)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/8 "2019-02-18T19:15:41Z")
You can just change the order and no one can say it’s taken from Wanikani, they can’t have copyrights on Vocabulary or kanji so the order is all there is ---
**Author:** ![Tjorven](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/tjorven/32/174674_2.png) [@Tjorven](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Tjorven)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/9 "2019-02-18T19:27:59Z")
Omg, for me beeing able to write kanji is SO EXTREMELY USEFUL! I just started with the intermediate book club (Kino no tabi) and I have to look up a whole bunch of vocabs. Often I just have some kanji without furigana, so I handwrite them with my Japanese handwriting keyboard at my phone into [Jisho.org](http://Jisho.org). I don’t even have to look up from the book, I just do some strokes in the right order and BAM! the right kanji appear on my phone. Of course you can guess the stroke orders of unknown kanji, when you wrote similar kanji… Btw: I combine learning to write kanji with the English-Japanese translation (aka KaniWani). Works really good, but of course it’s also very time consuming. ~T 🦁 ---
**Author:** ![irrelephant](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/irrelephant/32/69530_2.png) [@irrelephant](https://community.wanikani.com/u/irrelephant)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 8:53pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/10 "2019-02-18T20:53:09Z")
> [@Tjorven](#): > > Of course you can guess the stroke orders of unknown kanji, when you wrote similar kanji… I use Midori and it just does the guessing for me perfectly. So yet another reason down why I don’t have to know how to write… But I still want to get back into practicing writing once I finished WaniKani and feel like there is finally some time left for other stuff. So this post is very inspiring. ---
**Author:** ![SoraR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/sorar/32/230893_2.png) [@SoraR](https://community.wanikani.com/u/SoraR)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/11 "2019-02-18T21:20:54Z")
> [@heisamaniac](#): > > I must say that after learning 1500 commonly used kanji, learning the rest of the 500 felt like a chore and a waste of time. Which ones are the 1500 commonly used Kanji? ---
**Author:** ![bacci\_j](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/bacci_j/32/251226_2.png) [@bacci\_j](https://community.wanikani.com/u/bacci_j)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/12 "2019-02-18T21:24:58Z")
What I’m doing is going through WaniKani and KameSame at the same time (and bunpro (・\_・;)) , and since I do all my lessons and reviews on my phone I just use Google keyboard’s handwriting input. This way it doesn’t feel so overwhelming since I’m only writing kanji as I guru them (and I’m also more familiar with them). On one hand it’s the most annoying part of my daily Japanese routine, but I do get more familiarized with these kanjis and it also helps me recall them instead of just recognizing them, so I’ll just deal with it. Anyways, congratulations on your achievement! And reaching level 60＼(^o^)／ ---
**Author:** ![Belthazar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/belthazar/32/4469_2.png) [@Belthazar](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Belthazar)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/13 "2019-02-18T21:25:23Z")
> **[Kanji orderd by frequency of use - Kanjicards.org](https://kanjicards.org/kanji-list-by-freq.html)** > > Free PDF Kanji cards for download. Sorted lists of Kanji acording to your preferences along with Information for writing your own Kanji cards. Tragically, the frequency list cited on WK Stats doesn’t seem to exist any more… ---
**Author:** ![Kumirei](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/kumirei/32/480522_2.png) [@Kumirei](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Kumirei)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/14 "2019-02-18T21:29:09Z")
Also NHK Easy News frequency source: [kanji data for NHK News Web Easy · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/adrian17/836b97ee5740b20e63edbe35251d6bc1) Other frequency sources: [topokanji/data/kanji-frequency at master · scriptin/topokanji · GitHub](https://github.com/scriptin/topokanji/tree/master/data/kanji-frequency) ---
**Author:** ![RoseWagsBlue](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/rosewagsblue/32/713093_2.png) [@RoseWagsBlue](https://community.wanikani.com/u/RoseWagsBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/15 "2019-02-18T21:43:42Z")
Congratulations on this! I know that many some people intend to get around to writing once they can read: it is nice to see that some people do! ---
**Author:** ![Shioshishio](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Shioshishio](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Shioshishio)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/16 "2019-02-18T22:34:38Z")
Maybe Alaska? During parts of the year it never turns dark ---
**Author:** ![Airdramon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/airdramon/32/290935_2.png) [@Airdramon](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Airdramon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/17 "2019-02-18T22:36:46Z")
Oh wow! Nice work, bookmarking this 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/18 "2019-02-18T22:39:28Z")
So, you’re ready to sign up for [Kanken](https://community.wanikani.com/t/anyone-tried-kanken/17115)? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Aikibujin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/aikibujin/32/2451_2.png) [@Aikibujin](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Aikibujin)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/19 "2019-02-18T23:05:28Z")
To anyone who does practice writing Kanji, do you think there is any benefit to maybe drawing the radicals a few times when you get new ones, or would that screw up stroke order too much? ---
**Author:** ![heisamaniac](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/heisamaniac/32/184098_2.png) [@heisamaniac](https://community.wanikani.com/u/heisamaniac)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228/20 "2019-02-18T23:59:04Z")
> [@NathaLire](#): > > I love everything about this post but this is my favorite part. I often sleep in and I feel like I’m wasting a lot of time. After finishing wanikani (will take some time still) I want to try this too. Thank you for this! I used to looooooove to sleep in as well but I realized that my Japanese ability is rather strong in the morning while my brain is fresh. Being able to fit in 2 hours of Japanese study before your day even started is not bad 😉 > [@irrelephant](#): > > I could swear I read somewhere here that they don’t mind WaniKani based decks but maybe that was just wishful thinking. I’m honestly really interested in what they would think of me releasing this deck to the public since there seems to be people interested in it. I just don’t want to do anything that would be frowned upon by the WaniKani team. > [@abdullahalt](#): > > You can just change the order and no one can say it’s taken from Wanikani, they can’t have copyrights on Vocabulary or kanji so the order is all there is …I guess, also, it does include a lot of non-wanikani items at this point… > [@irrelephant](#): > > I use Midori and it just does the guessing for me perfectly. So yet another reason down why I don’t have to know how to write… > > But I still want to get back into practicing writing once I finished WaniKani and feel like there is finally some time left for other stuff. So this post is very inspiring. I mean yeah, I don’t really see any big reason to learn handwriting at all. It just feels right for me to somehow to be able to write the language that you studied for so long I guess 🤣 I totally feel you > [@SoraR](#): > > Which ones are the 1500 commonly used Kanji? I bet there are kanji frequency lists floating around on the internet but I guess I should’ve said kanji up until lvl 45-ish since that’s what I thought of when writing that. 1500 commonly used and not “1500 **most** commonly used” 😊 > [@bacci\_j](#): > > What I’m doing is going through WaniKani and KameSame at the same time (and bunpro > (・\_・;)) , and since I do all my lessons and reviews on my phone I just use Google keyboard’s handwriting input. > This way it doesn’t feel so overwhelming since I’m only writing kanji as I guru them (and I’m also more familiar with them). > On one hand it’s the most annoying part of my daily Japanese routine, but I do get more familiarized with these kanjis and it also helps me recall them instead of just recognizing them, so I’ll just deal with it. > Anyways, congratulations on your achievement! And reaching level 60＼(^o^)／ Sounds like a solid routine. I can say that since I didn’t write at all during my WaniKani journey and therefore my kanji knowledge was a bit shaky at times. Writing kanji has for sure made it a lot more solid than ever before! 🙌 > [@RoseWagsBlue](#): > > Congratulations on this! I know that many some people intend to get around to writing once they can read: it is nice to see that some people do! I thought it would be interesting to share my experience since I do not see a lot of people speaking of reaching 2000 or beyond when it comes to writing (except for some RTK people). > [@Leebo](#): > > So, you’re ready to sign up for [Kanken](https://community.wanikani.com/t/anyone-tried-kanken/17115)? 🙂 Oh nooo, If I do Kanken it’ll have to be at least Level 2 and I don’t have all the Joyo kanji down just yet 🤔 Did you take it? What was your experience if you did? I never realised how poor my okurigana knowledge was until I began handwriting… 🤭 > [@Aikibujin](#): > > To anyone who does practice writing Kanji, do you think there is any benefit to maybe drawing the radicals a few times when you get new ones, or would that screw up stroke order too much? I don’t know what you are referring to when asking if it would screw up stroke order or not? I never practised radicals separately but it became second nature after learning how to write about 500 kanji or so. You start to understand patterns and stroke order even becomes something that you don’t have to actively care about as much. [Next page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/2000-kanji-in-6-months-learning-how-to-write/35228.md?page=2)