Japanese Students/Fluents, Give me Your Advice!

Originally Posted by Minion

The same is true for words, though. There are words that look the same and have different meaning, there is context to be considered in English, and I can say for certain that there are way more exceptions to the "rules" of English than there are to the rules of Japanese.

I recall reading that there is a fundamental difference in learning an Asian language vs. learning a Western one, primarily how learning to read and write an Asian language involves much more of the right hemisphere of the brain, than a european language does. I don't have a source, though. Assuming that it's true, it hints at a valid scientific reason why some Westerners might have difficulties with Kanji, while tackling the remaining elements of learning (grammar, pronunciation, listening comprehension) with relative ease.

Given that several people who have studied kanji in this thread, have already given testimony of how they've perceived it to be different, and in some ways more difficult than learning a Western language, and given that you don't like to let an argument drop, you might want to give learning them a try, even if your incentive is to prove everyone else wrong.

Set a goal to learn the 2 most common readings for the first 5 grades of Kanji. (Japanese schoolchildren learn a certain set of kanji in each grade.) Give yourself a couple months to do it, and then let us know the results.

Jam it back in, in the dark.