The [almost] impossible task of 漢字 (kanji)!!!

Hello friends!

I am super stoked and motivated to learn 漢字 (kanji = Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) lately and have been taking advantage of my new found energy to learn the beautiful and complex language of Japanese. I will go over my new experiences with kanji and some of the basic, general ideas behind it provided by Wikipedia! ^^

My energy for learning kanji came to me on Thursday evening and continued onto Friday, so I had to take advantage of it! I had only one class that day, so I taught that and then tried to figure out how to tackle the almost impossible task of kanji. I thought I had it down, but trying to teach yourself was going to be a little bit harder than I had thought. I have a natural affinity and attraction to languages, so I am very motivated to learn!

常用漢字 (joyo kanji) is a list of 1,945 kanji set by the government that includes the 教育漢字 (Kyōiku kanji or the educational kanji, it is a list of 1,006 kanji taught in elementary school) plus 939 kanji taught in JHS and SHS. It is considered the general list for everyday use! There are more and more lists out there and if you want to read about it, please visit the link to Kanji provided by Wikipedia.

After conferring with the Japanese teacher and other friends who have studied kanji, I thought I would be able to tackle it and used the list of 部首 (Bushu or radicals) for my starting point. I was quickly shot down by my Japanese teacher saying that even Japanese people did not know all 214 部首 and it would be pointless to learn them. Also, my friend Dave F. who is probably the most expert person I know in learning Chinese and Japanese said that to learn 部首 is only if you want to become a kanji professor. I agree and disagree at the same time. I think 部首 are important because if you can recognize the radicals in the kanji you might not understand, you might be able to deduce the meaning through the context of the radicals. But what do I know right? I remember when I took my brief forray into learning Chinese that Jin laoshi told us that most Chinese people know all the radicals and it made it easier to learn new characters. Granted that Chinese has over 20,000 characters (a small estimation, probably off by a lot) and most people learn Chinese all their lives, I was still kind of iffy. I decided that learning the radicals would be kind of pointless in my stage of development and if I wanted to later, I could learn them as well! They are included in the 1,945 kanji required to pass the JPLT 1 anyway, so I thought I will get to them eventually! >_<

JPLT Level 3

1. ~300 kanji which is the equivalent to approximately 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade in elementary school.
   
2. ~1,500 vocabulary based on the kanji, hiragana and katakana.
   
3. ~300 hours of studying.
   
4. Passing grade is 60%. The test is out of 400 points. So I need 240 to pass with a 60%.
   
5. The test is comprised of three sections: Kanji and vocab, listening comprehension and reading.
   

I want to learn the first 80 kanji or the 1st grade elementary kanji by the end of this year and then trek on from there! Wish me luck!