日本語

Hi there,

It’s actually not that hard for native Japanese kids to learn how to write.

It’s a requirement for kids to know both ‘alphabets’ at least by first grade, because that is when they begin learning Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana aren’t too different, so it’s not hard at all to know them. Maybe it’s different for a non-native speaker, because if you’re Japanese, you’re already fluent at speaking in first grade- the only problem is the lack of vocabulary. So for native kids, since they already know how to speak, all they need to do is to put what they say onto paper.

It’s not like they learn all kanji at once. In fact, just like in English, there are new kanji added to the dictionary all the time. Most adults only know up to high school level kanji, because with the growing technology, they don’t need to write anymore- all they need to do is recognise the characters.

In first grade, students learn very basic kanji that only require a few strokes. Over the years in school, they get harder and harder. But when you use kanji every day, you kind of get the hang of reading and recognizing them even when you don’t really know how to write. And learning how to write is merely memorisation of the strokes.

If you’re worried about writing, then all you need to do is practise.
If it’s reading, then just slowly work your way up.
I think you have trouble learning Japanese because all the languages you know uses English-alphabet-like letters. Chinese, Japanese, etc are a completely different system, so you’re probably just not used to it. It takes many years in school for Japanese students to learn kanji. Just take your time.