I mean, think of it this way: it comes down to how often you come across words in any language including English (even in ENG: you may forget how to spell words correctly if you don’t use or encounter them often), kind of the same logic with Kanji: a Japanese person doesn’t know all Kanji in the same way English speakers doesn’t know every single word that exists in ENG.
There are over 5000 Kanji but only about half of that is used in Japanese or closer to 2136 while the remainder consist of ones only present within technical jargon (medicine, science, politics, etc.). or certain Kanji only has limited uses in some words (but mostly written in kana). That is also accounting for grammar being “straight forward” more than English or Euro languages.
The “real” hard part is numerous readings (depending whether it’s paired with kana or another kanji, reflected from kunyomi & onyomi plus nanori when applied in people’s names). What I hate about most online translators is that it often gets lost in translation (like words used in the wrong context but on their own it’s correct, however not right for the situation or topic at hand).
Yes I find them hard and also not a very good writing system. Especially in Japanese where you have four writing systems. Drawing pictograms means I have to learn a spoken word, a pictogram (or worse pictogram combination) and a meaning for both. I know that English isn’t always written as it is spoken but for the most part it is. Even if I only hear a word I can have a guess at how it’s written and from the writing I have an idea how it might be spoken.
That’s the neat thing about typing Japanese when the keyboard knows. You can literally sound it out and have it turn into the character as you finish a syllable (or whatever the proper term is for Japanese)
Partially. I recently wanted to type 𰻝𰻝面 but my keyboard didn’t suggest 𰻝 even when I tried biang or biang biang. The is that there are several characters with the same syllable and then I still have to know which character is the correct one. And even though there are so many the still sometimes have several meanings. For example in Chinese the character 面 means noodle or flour or side or face (maybe even more). And I still can only sometimes infer the sound from the character. If someone were to ask me I’d ditch Kanji in Japanese and only us Romaji. Unlike English the sounds are actually standardized and it would make writing more compatible with a lot of countries. I’d also accept Hiragana or Katakana. But only one of them. I’d also start a writing reform in English so that the spoken and the written English fit together better.
I can see that. I made my comment as a barely romaji familiar level. I just think it’s neat that the complex language/writing has translated to the global era and digital era so well.