Work and Kanji

Now that I'm off school, I'm either working, studying Japanese, or having fun. Today was work. Did some lessons and headed home.

One major difficulty when studying Japanese is learning the Kanji. Japan took many things from China but Kanji is something they should have left there. It's ridiculous. You must be able to read at least 2000 Kanji in order to read a newspaper. Many of my students will tell me about times when they would be making a presentation at work and forget how to write a specific Kanji. On TV, they have games shows that test people's knowledge of Kanji. When native Japanese have trouble writing in their own language, they have shows dedicated to testing people on their reading abilities, and games to help keep your Kanji level high; it might be a small sign that the system could use a change. I always tell my students that they are so lucky because they only have to learn 26 letters.