This is the kind of sentiment I had when people ask me about 日本語 regarding: “do Japanese people memorize all 50000+ Kanji?” I’m like “NO” since they don’t know all characters as only a small percentage of that is taught & used, around 2136. Although, some people learn jargon catered to specific fields (science, medicine) leading to them knowing 3000+ Kanji.

The estimated count for the “number of words” in English is 1,000,000 but that’s not an exact answer. The thing is, how many words is a native English speaker expected to know & understand? How much vocab do they teach students at school (from spelling to grammar)? After learning the alphabet, what types of words are taught across schools in the Anglosphere to kids?

For perspective, kids in Japan only learn 80 Kanji in their first year (mainly common & easy ones: 犬、校、九、女、男、名、森、右 to list a few) but the number expands through their years. I mean, something “similar” exists in English with spelling being taught at schools (teachers give a list of words to memorize spelling followed by a spelling test later).

The vocab lists expand from elementary to high school with difficult words (there’s a difference in difficulty with trying to spell a word like “animal” to “conscientious”). It’s like how a Japanese kid knows how to handwrite 海外 but has a hard time on trying to understand 傭兵 (ようへい) since 傭 is a harder Kanji to write in comparison to 海.