Tips for learning Kanji

Dont be at yourself

Right, I've less than two weeks to learn close to 400 Kanji (Grades 1, 2 and half of 3)

I'm just writing them out over and over, and while the stroke order does sink in, it can be difficult to remember the various readings. Has anyone found a good way of commiting all this to memory? Any useful tips for relating the reading to the kanji itself?

Thanks in advance.

Lantis

Mnemonics are the way to go.

Look at the reading, think of the most insane thing you can to link the kanji with the meaning/reading and fix that in your mind. The more insane, the more likely it'll stick.

ApeXaviour

I agree, ask any memory master. The more utterly ridiculus the link, image, mneumonic the better it will implant itself on your memory and the better recall you will have.
Our brains have a tendancy to forget the mundane.

simu

I draw them over and over and usually they stick in my head afterwards.

Raphael

There are 2 kinds of kanji that are easy to learn, in my experience. The ones that make sense, like gate, or person

And the ones that are an example of total logical disconnect, like cat, which is made up of the particles "dog", "grass" and "field" 6.9