This is something to humble all of us eager disciples of kanji on WK…ES students in Japan learn just over a thousand kanji by the end of grade 6. See the chart here for a breakdown by year [別表 学年別漢字配当表:文部科学省].
A few years ago, when I was teaching in Japan, I passed the seventh grade of Kanken (漢検) (equivalent to ES grade 4). I thought I was so clever, but also realised that I barely knew any kanji in the grand scale of kanji knowledge. I also felt like a bit of a fraud as I just had studied the relative kanji in order to pass the test. Anyway, after coming back to WK recently and reaching level 19 (just over 600 kanji), I have again reached the typical level of a fourth grade ES student lol …my point? I’ve still got such a long way to go… Good luck to everyone on the kanji journey.
Or to phrase it another way: to encourage all of us eager disciples of kanji on WK, it takes them six years to learn a thousand kanji. Here, we learn twice that, and you can do it in one year.
Sure, you were at the level of a fourth-grade student, but you also weren’t studying the language from birth.
We also don’t require them to have a means of supporting themselves financially while they’re learning all that. Although this home schooling thing is beginning change my mind on that point. lol
Yeah, I feel you. But at the same time I’m really grateful that I have the oppurtunity to learn the required 2000 kanji in such a short space of time, compared to Japanese school children. And, as a matter of fact, I don’t find the remaining journey dauntingly long. If anything what I don’t yet know excites and motivates me to keep going!