My efficient kanji study methods

Let me get one thing down first: not knowing kanji means that you cannot read Japanese. The state of not being able to read is called illiteracy, and it's not for you! Some people like to point out that 1,000 characters are the 90% most frequent, and 2,000 characters constitutes 98% of the kanji used. So then a seemingly valid, and common, argument would go something like "I don't need to be able to read specialized texts - or even the newspapers - manga/technical specs/email/whatever is enough for me, so being able to read 80/90/95/98% of the kanji is all I need".

But the problem is that if you have 10 characters in a text in front of you, and you can read 9 of those, that does not equal that you can read 90% of the text. If the one character that you cannot read is central to the meaning of the text, then your understanding of the text is zero. 0%. That's why it's essential to learn at least 2,000 kanji characters in order to be/become proficient in Japanese. In reality, the number is probably closer to 3,000 characters.

Kanji, to the Japanese, is just the character set you use to write Japanese. Japanese is a natural language and thus it's primarily spoken. Kanji might not be the most efficient way of transcribing spoken word into writing, but it is nevertheless how it's done in Japanese. And efficiency aside - it's a very charismatic method!

Now, there are people who want you to believe stories such as: Japanese is very easy for Chinese people to learn because they already "know" the characters, so the best way to learn kanji must be to first remember their shapes and compositions and associate them to some keyword. Then you'll be on a par with the Chinese and can start learning the Japanese readings and the words they're used in. In my opinion, kanji are the characters used to write words, and thus it is essential to learn their phonetic values as well as practical usages in writing vocabulary words. Concepts such as "meanings" or "keywords" for kanji are construed, and not very useful for learning.

I do believe kanji have meanings though, and I'd like to recommend a good book for learning them. It's the book called A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters by Kenneth G. Henshall, which contrary to its name is actually a etymological kanji dictionary outlining the evolution of all of the joyo kanji characters. This is not a book that has some special kind of super method for magically memorizing the characters quickly, but it is a reliable and highly useful lexicon that I have continuously found great value in over my many years of Japanese studies.

So as mentioned above, I think it's best to focus on pronunciation - i.e. mapping the graphical form of a character to its pronunciation. Ok, unfortunately - due to the complexity of kanji - I guess we have to make that pronunciations. But I think it's best to focus on one main pronunciation. Usually that's an on pronunciation, but it can sometimes be a kun one as well for some characters. The important thing is that you choose one as the main one, but also try to remember the other ones as well.

Make sure you read a lot of kanji. This seems easy when you say it, but it is also easy to do, if you just do it. First of all get some books. Any book with kanji in it is pretty fine actually. A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters is a good book with lots of kanji in it. Get a Japanese dictionary, and flip through it as much as possible. Before going to sleep, during lunch, on the train, when there's nothing fun on the tv, basically just spend some time with your books that contain kanji, any chance you have.

If your Japanese skill is good enough to read (even haltingly) real Japanese literature, then that's so much better, because I for one prefer reading real books over "textbooks" etc. Anyway, as long as it contains real Japanese (i.e. hardcore kanji). The Japanese Wikipedia is also a superb source of reading material. It is very hardcore both when it comes to kanji and formal grammar/vocabulary (relevant for JLPT1!), and since cross-referencing is central to the idea of a wiki, you can just keep reading and looking up concepts that you don't understand.