Kanji 二番

After briefly discussing why studying Kanji (漢字) is not as bad as it seems, let me bring you back to reality with 3 typical problems you will more than likely encounter on your journey to literacy.

1. The 'I have no f&#%@* clue' problem

As kanji gets more complicated, it can become impossible to read. When you come across these indecipherable kanji, you are basically screwed. You can guess how they might sound based on the radicals, but you can never really be sure. Congratulations, you are an adult who can’t read

鬱 - I think this means 'retardedly complicated'...

2. The 'Dog+Small+Room = Dog House' problem

Problem number 1 was a worst case scenario. There are some instances where you come across compounds you have never seen before yet you might know exactly what the word means because you know the 2 or more Kanji the compound is comprised of. If you know the building blocks well enough you can guess the meaning and pronunciation. Like the example above, Inugoya (犬小屋 ) is made up of the Kanji for Dog, Small, and Room.
Or the first time I saw 住所 on a form. The first Kanji comes from 住む, to live. The second, 所, is tokoro, place. So a reasonable person would guess this is the place you live.
On the more difficult side, for Fire Alarm you have 火災報知器. From left to right the Kanji are Fire, Disaster, Report, Know, Device. Kind of sounds retarded when you put it in those terms.
This problem is kind of like knowing what a necrophiliac is and then having to guess what necrosis means. You know the elements, so you can make an educated guess. This is a unique problem because even though you know what the word means, you still can't say it.

3. The 'What’s the Kanji for 'I should know this?' problem

For most people, you learn to speak at a rate exponentially better than you learn to read, so much of Kanji studying is learning how to write words you already know. Similar to the situation above, sometimes you can almost guess what the compound will be before you even learn them. I think there is/was a game show in Japan based on a similar concept, where they give you the name of some difficult Kanji and you have to guess what the character is made up of based on the meaning. I'll post that if I ever find it.
For example, after learning what suugaku (数学) and kougaku (工学) mean, mathematics and engineering respectively, I could only assume that literature was bungaku (文学). You can pretty much put 学 after anything to make it the study of that thing.

Whats the kanji for water gate? Whats that? Water (水) and gate (門)? 水門...why didn't I think of that?