That's certainly a complexity I didn't mention haha, but yeah, Kanji (along with most vocab) have Chinese and Japanese pronouciations, and it gets even more complicated trying to figure out which ones are appropriate for conversation. Man it's been a few years since I've thought much about Japanese, this thread is bringing back the nightmare a bit haha

Well, the most effective way to me seems to be by learning by the word, instead of by the Kanji.

Sounds challenging for sure.  I would never attempt such a feat but applaud anyone that can undertake such a task.  I'm sure it is easier if you are a native but still seems a lot harder than English.  I could learn a few simple words probably but that is about it.  Pretty much I'm happy that the few Spanish phrases that I retained were important questions like where is the bathroom, I'm thirsty/hungry, etc...  One language that I would never attempt to learn would be Vietnamese.  Such an ugly sounding language (my girl is from Vietnam).

One thing I like about Japanese is that it always sounds like they are pissed off.  Kind of like German.

Another thing is, characters are composed of seperate radicals. Instead of trying to treat the character as one whole component, it's easier to learn the radicals so that you can treat is as multiple components put together.

Have to take a bunch of mushrooms and then the shapes will just merge in brain hopefully forming some kind of coherent thought.

I learned Japanese for a few years in college, with up to 4 hours of class a week (using the Minna no Nihongo books). I managed to get to an acceptable level (able to have daily conversations) and even had a short internship in Japan. Basic understanding is pretty easy with standard methods like books or even apps. But like others said, the hardest thing is to go to the next level, when you have to learn a lot of kanjis and the pretty numerous and complex variations in almost everything, in order to really understand real life content. I never went to this level, and then I stopped learning at the end of college. Japanese IMO isn't like English, you will lose what you know very fast if you don't use it regularly. It's a lot easier to use English than Japanese, so I lost a lot of what I knew back then. I understand more easily how Japanese people talk because of animes, games and movies, but I don't remember the kanjis and the vocabulary (so I understand the point of the sentences but not the subject ^^).

Anyway, I'm supposed to go to Tokyo in a couple of weeks (waiting for my visa documents right now) in order to study Japanese and work there for 2 years, because it is ultimately the only way to really learn the language. 20 hours of school a week and work with Japanese coworkers are surely needed in order to speak and understand almost fluently, especially because of kanjis that you will remember only by using/seeing it all the time. I even remember a Japanese engineer during my internship who admitted that he was really bad with kanjis, it can be hard for Japanese people too.

Japanesepod101.com

I'd signed up for the site back in 2007, when you could download everything for free. Now, you need premium memberships to access and download everything. Free members can only download fresh new content, not the archived lessons.

Recommended. There's also deals throughout the year too. The best being around christmas.

They read reveresed. Just like if you used a car in the US, to UK. You'd get use to it. They can also read from up to down. We can do that too.

it

just

takes

practice.

Each symbol does mean various leters, words etc. Digimon's character names can be a useful tool, in learning how they use Katakana, to spell out english worlds. These symbols always mean mon モ(mo)ン(n). ア(a)グ(gu)モ(mo)ン(n). The other types. Hiragana etc. Are harder. But, function in a simliar way. With a ton of rules. Depending how you write something out. They also say and spell things out phonetically. And use different voul sounds, for letters. V usually sounds like a b. This would be Angemon アンワン. If it was spelled as it's said. But, this is incorrect. They spell things out phonetically. It would be エンジエモン (Enjeimon). That affects things too. English is a cake walk. Compared to Japanese. But, it's not impossible to understand it.

Usehttp://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete and study until you are proficient in Kana. After that dive straight into Kanji and vocab. Use spaced repetition flash cards like Anki or if you have some money to spend you can use www.wanikani.com. It's $100 for a year but they're well worth it.
To get better at Kana and Kanji read everything Japanese you come across.

But be prepared, it is not easy nor fast. If someone claims that he's lying. It takes a lot of effort and dedication.

I don't understand why people say that JKanji is the hardest part, it's just simple memorization. The actual hard part is listening comprehension. Reading a text is easy, listenting to the same text without Kanji helping you is much much harder.

It's on my to do list as language number 5.