First of all, I'm not knowledeable of spoken mandarin. Also, I'm not knowledgeable of pinyin meanings in english. I'm clueless about all but about 10 chinese characters.
Yesterday I began a friendship with a chinese-english dictionary as I wish to translate a book.
I have found that one must first identify the radical in the character. Once the radical is identified one can find the whole character. Once the whole character is found, the pinyin is listed with it. The english translations are found along with the pinyin which is listed in alphabetical order.
So far I've figured out 12 new characters. This is a very slow process for me as in many cases I'm not even sure of what the radical is in the character. I'm hoping that with experience I'll better be able to identify radicals and perhaps remember the meanings of more characters.
The goal of course is to translate the book. The time frame is indefinite as it will likely take me years of sporadic effort.
Have I condemned myself to a hellish pursuit?