I third this. For Chinese, the initial slog is unavoidable - you need to battle your way through thousands of rote strokes to build your foundational vocabulary

I third this. For Chinese, the initial slog is unavoidable - you need to battle your way through thousands of rote strokes to build your foundational vocabulary. Once you have a handle on it, though, it's like jet fuel for learning. You can synthesize things literally five times faster.