Alright, 'll have to get the ball rolling on this one!

CHARACTERS: when I started learning Chinese I would often mix up characters. For instance, if I learnt the word "喜欢", I might see a sign saying "欢迎光临" and read "欢" as "xi3" instead of "huan1". This is due to focusing on the pronunciation of words rather than characters. This really hampered my reading, and to overcome this problem I started using 田字本 and practice characters by themselves. It's hard work and very time consuming, but it's helped me immensely. What about you guys? What problems have you encountered with characters, and how have you overcome them?