Kanji

I don't understand kanji at all. The symbols are easy enough to understand, but it seems that some of the pronunciations change in the sentence. The kanji change pronunciation but they have the same symbol.

for example:

"私立大学"

am I wrong or is the first kanji watashi?? I can understand it when said aloud but I can't read it so does it just take practice or something

This is something really painful when we try to begin learning kanji

In short, there are 2 types of reading when we think about kanji (kunyomi and onyomi).

We "generally" use kunyomi when a kanji is alone and onyomi when a kanji is together with another one

example: 雨 (あめ) -> this is a basic kanji when alone but it can change when we use together to another one. 

雨天 -> this means rainy weather. we have two kanjis. 雨(あめ) and 天(てん). but we dont pronounce this word あめてん. we pronounce うてん for 雨天.

this is harsh when we begin but we deal with it when we try to progress studying japanese.

Any comments welcome to a better explanation about this!

Thank you so much! that makes sense about the kunyomi and onyomi and I think it'll be easier now.