Dtjytyk

Context:

I am currently on a quest to learn how to hand write the 2000 most commonly used Kanji. This requires lots of memorization, so efficiency is important.

I have come across Kanji that have strokes with little "extra tails", created from a slightly extra-long stroke. I found that they are often referred to as はね. Or in English, they can be called "jumps". For example:

When splitting this kanji into three separate parts:

• the left part has two jumps on the bottom, with the left tail being slightly longer


• the upper right part has no jumps


• the lower right part has two jumps on the bottom, of equal length.

Question:

How important are the jumps?

When handwriting Kanji, does it matter if these jumps are of the correct length? Would the Kanji still be understandable without correct jumps? Would natives find it annoying, for example, if I didn't include the jumps at all?

I am asking because the less little things I have to memorize, the faster I can learn the Kanji.

These "jumps" that you brought up are not part of the kanji, they are part of the typeface.

(More specifically, they may be treated like serifs - or little decorations at the edge of certain lines)
(see drooze's and Sweeper's answers)

When you are learning kanji, you should definitely not be copying or referencing printed characters. You should learn from hand-written characters. The basics of how to write kanji are not taught or learned from printed or typeface forms.

The best online reference I know of for hand-written Japanese characters is https://kakijun.jp/

• 唱　→　https://kakijun.jp/page/1118200.html
  

Notice how in some fonts, the letter "A" has little things that stick out, too:

But you wouldn't write those little tails in handwriting, would you?

Same thing with 唱. I don't think I've met anyone who writes them with the "jumps". This is how I'd write 唱:

Not to take away from the general idea of the other answers, but those protrusions on the bottom end of「唱」are not serifs.

Noto sans CJK, a sans-serif font - sans-serif means without serifs.

These protrusions have been present since one-pixel wide bitmap fonts - I presume their purpose is to enhance legibility.

The font displayed in the question is classed as an East Asian Gothic typeface. In general, Ming typeface and its derivatives like Gothic typeface are unsuitable for handwriting imitation. Please see Is there an "official" font or other writing standard that should be used when teaching kanji? and make use of handwriting previews if you want to copy a style resembling handwriting.

Since nobody has mentioned how you should actually write 唱, let me add a picture from a "textbook font" (教科書体) (see Is there an "official" font or other writing standard that should be used when teaching kanji?)

You can follow the shape, but when writing with a pen, the "serifs" or "jumps" are sometimes less visible and usually the middle "bar" in 日 does not touch the right vertical stroke. (To see what I mean in other characters, see for example this site.)

I couldn't find a picture of 唱, so here is what I mean:

(Sorry for the subpar handwriting and the cheap pen.)

Please keep in mind that kanji are traditionally practiced using a brush, rather than a pen or pencil. The tails are a result of correct brush usage, as each stroke may have it's open predefined nuance or flair.

See this article on calligraphy, or shodo:
https://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/language/japanese-shodo

It is very useful to be familiar with these basics, but it is unnecessarily time consuming to attempt to have perfect calligraphy form all the time. The simplified, cursive examples provided by others in this thread exemplify how the calligraphy techniques, when sped up, act as a type of shorthand used to save time.

I recommend jisho.org for their hand written stroke order animations:

https://jisho.org/search/家%20%23kanji

This has more to do with strokes and stroke order. Some fonts will show these, others not. Some will even show such 'tails' in the middle of a stroke.

Pay attention only if it helps you to get the kanji (especially strokes and stroke order) right.