TO: Diane Grace Shimizu RE: Your Kanji Dream
It was a pleasure to meet you recently at my kanji-learning workshop. You told me you've been living in Japan for three years, ever since landing a job at a major international electronics company in Tokyo. Your grandparents, emigrants to California from Wakayama, are thrilled that one of their grandchildren is learning to speak and read their native language.
Over the past three years, you have become familiar with approximately 500 kanji in the Japanese classes your company offers its foreign employees. Your goal for the next couple of years is to be able to identify a grand total of 1,000 (kyoiku kanji), which will allow you to "graduate" from the highest-level class.