But in what order will you learn all the 99% (10k? 20k?) words? I don't see anyone claiming: 'learn this 777 characters, and then STOP LEARNING'. You learn t

But in what order will you learn all the 99% (10k? 20k?) words? I don't see anyone claiming: 'learn this 777 characters, and then STOP LEARNING'. You learn the most frequent first. Then you start reading. Much easier than when you only understand 10% of the words. So, you get to 90%. Then you read some text and you start to find new words from time to time. That's when you start using a dictionary. Heck, I'm an avid reader and I am still finding new words (or old words with new meanings) in my native language!