Comment by amatecha

It's surprisingly straightforward to learn the characters! I was intimidated at first but realized it's super-accessible, just a matter of spending 5-10min every day (or so) for some weeks. I mean, you could really crunch it in a few days or so but.. might be difficult. What I'm finding an actual challenge now is copying, especially at any decent speed, haha.. For anyone interested, I can definitely recommend https://lcwo.net/ for learning the characters. I'm still pretty noob but my advice is to learn character speed 25wpm, effective speed 5wpm. Learning at a high character speed helps ensure you are truly hearing the "shape" of the character's sound, as opposed to counting the dits and dahs. It's a seriously badass sense of achievement the first time you realize you "understood" a character instantly, without thinking about it. :)