rage rage rage! Kanji meanings, not readings!

[SywenArk]

みなさん　こんにちは

I am feeling like

I've bought the Kanji flashcards (JLPT level 3&4).
Looking for the JLPT 4 I know I have a lot of things to study. But with kanjis I am feeling so angry... because I already know the meanings of almost all (4th level) but da*n, I can't really remember all their readings. I'm getting crazy because of this.

Sometimes I watch a card knowing exactly the meaning of that kanji, and also knowing the meaning of the compounds below, but I can't really remember how to read them. Maybe I am not studying so hard as I always thought?

Then I check some websites which have reading quizzes and exercises, and I often discover some compounds I've never seen before, so that makes me VERY sad

That's GRRROOWWL!!! So angry & sad about that. Anyone is experiencing/has experienced the same?
Somehow I feel my mind is "closing" its doors (too many information maybe? Maybe I should do a scan system or a defrag to gain some freespace on my "hard-disk"? )

[elau1986]

Kanji

don't we all feel the same? lol

I never really had the problem of forgetting how to read the Kanji, but my problem was remembering how to write them.

Kanji is difficult, don't be put down by it, keep on studying, sooner you will be able to read all the level 3/4 Kanjis

good luck

[hatch_jp]

I never really had the problem of forgetting how to read the Kanji, but my problem was remembering how to write them.

Don't worry about it. Even native Japanese tend to forget to how to write Kanji these days because of computers.

[SeannaBirchwood]

hey, I know your exact dilema. Right now, I'm just focusing on the most used pronouciation of the JLPT 3/4 kanji, but I know soon I'll have to know all of the readings. . . I think a disk defragment would be an awesome idea!

[Psy]

If you're worried about compounds, learn the on'yomi and worry about the kun'yomi on a case-by-case basis. I'd wager 9 out of 10 compounds are read with on'yomi, and a majority of kanji only have one (the more common ones could occasionally have two or rarely more) on reading. A command of them opens up an absolute ton of difficult vocabulary for learning. Sometimes (as in Chinese) you can also guess the pronunciation of a character based on what radicals it uses, but it is (again, as in Chinese) pretty unreliable and shouldn't be used as more than a hint.

Anyway, don't worry about forgetting-- it's the human condition. Everyone forgets stuff, especially language that isn't used. With kanji, meaning tends to come before pronunciation, so you aren't experiencing anything unusual there either. Just remember that every time you forget something, the next time you learn it it will be easier and the connection in your brain will be stronger. Just keep at it and you'll learn, no question about it.

[QuackingShoe]

It's my opinion that kanji readings are most easily remembered when you study the words that use them rather than the kanji themselves. In some cases this is partly a matter of mindset. For instance, if you're memorizing those compounds, you ARE memorizing words, but when you say that you can look at the compounds and remember the meaning but not the pronunciation (IE the actual word), it indicates to me that you're 'learning for readings' instead of 'learning for words,' because it seems like you must be trying to think out each kanji reading in the compound instead of just knowing how to say the word.
When you're studying for readings, it's all very flash-cardy and.. just very SCHOOL-learning. Personally, I don't remember things very well that way.
In contrast, if you're studying for words, you're using your natural ability to acquire language. If you recognize 期末試験 as the word kimatsushiken (instead of as a group of kanji with sounds), then, because you know the WORD, you also know a lot of other things simply by extension. You know that it refers to a final exam. You know that it's actually two words compounded: 期末 and 試験. And you know one of the (and in three of their cases the only) on readings of 期、末、試、 and 験. And you've learned all of that effectively incidentally, just because you know the word, which took very little effort to learn - much less so than flashcarding the kanji for their readings. Whenever you see any of these kanji in the future, you can look back to this term and remember what one of their readings is.
So, I just suggest coming at things from a different angle in general.