Yes, and could you tell us how many symbols your friend has learned?
I’ve gotten the impression that mastering even 2,000 kanji is a major achievement and take 5-10 years.
I can not, but during our exercises I had made a few characters, and even the slightest shifting of the wrist, a serif where there is none, can change the character or make it complete junk.
Even in writing Katakana I found that every stroke of the pen is important.